Disappointing classic Amiga games

[Ilwrath]

When Psygnosis came out with RedZone, I was really excited since I like bike racing games and Psygnosis always made such good stuff. I thought I couldn't go wrong. It was horrible though.

Yeah... Psygnosis had some great games... But they had some real stinkers, too.  I'd class RedZone as one of the latter.  Fortunatly, "No Second Prize" was so fun it had erased the memory of RedZone, until you just HAD to go and mention it here.  ;-)

I was disappointed when I got the Amiga version of Skyfox.  I had loved the C64 version so much.  Found out I didn't love the Amiga version nearly as much.  :-/

One strange surprise was Street Rods II.  I kinda liked the first one with all the car building and such.  The racing scenes certainly weren't good... But they were adequate.  Then came Street Rods II.  Better car building options.... But totally unplayable because of the "racing" (crawling slow) scenes.  1fps won't cut even slow-mo racing!  I threw it in the closet in disgust, and forgot about it for years.  Tried it for laughs a few years ago on an A1200/030, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked and actually played somewhat smoother.  (Though still maybe only 10-15fps)

[Ilwrath]

I didn't think the Amiga version of Street Fighter II was bad enough to rank here.  Now....  Dangerous Streets....  THAT was a seriously terrible game!  Why the heck would ANYONE think this game would help sell Amigas???  I think people would have paid more for the Magic Packs, had they left this title OUT!

Days of Thunder was indeed the worst commercial racing game on Amiga.  No doubt about it.  ;-)

The best racing, of course, is Stunt Track, with two linked Amigas.  Especially if they're lightly souped up to pick up a little extra frame rate.  (My 1200/030 was perfect for hosting the race, and a standard A1200 linked made for an exceptional combination.  Unfortunatly it seems to get unfriendly with 040 and 060 stuff, though.)

Though Indianapolis 500 deserves an honorable mention.  It's dated by modern standards, but it blazed the trail for a long line of incredible Papyrus racing titles, and still has better drive dynamics than half the modern budget titles.

As for Speedball II... I'll still defend it.  It's not quite as perfect as I remembered it, but man, it's still plenty playable, and fast, for the amount of things going on.  A good choice for a retro night.

Nuclear War and North & South are both excellent.  I'd also like to add a couple lesser known titles that have provided a few hours of amusment years later....  

Armageddon Man -- nothing like sending a letter of support to Libya in regards to their missle attack on Canada.  And the cat wagging it's tail as the display shows the bombs sailing across the continent...

Conflict! -- Who knew being an Israeli Premier could be so fun?  (Sour relations by creating an international incident)

[Ilwrath]

Did anyone play Loom? What the hell was that game about???

yeah...  Actually, I finished that game back ages ago.  It wasn't bad, as simple adventure games go.  It was just kind of a happy-feel-good kinda game.  (Not nearly as much fun as say, Legend of Kyrandia...  But I thought Loom didn't deserve as much bashing as it got.)

I only remember a few things about it now, though.  
1) Watch the Loom notes when something happens.  (Write down the colors)  That way you can play them back again, and cause that to happen elsewhere.  This is key.  And sometimes you only get one chance to write down the notes.

2) The songs (note patterns) are reversable.  In other words, if a 1-2-3 progression opens something, a 3-2-1 will close it.  If 2-1-3 sparks a fire, 3-1-2 will put a fire out... Or freeze something... or do some other opposite.  

3) The songs vary from game to game.  So if you start a new game, you'll likely get different loom songs from the previous game.  This also means you can't look up loom songs on-line, as they'll likely be wrong for your particular game.