10 Commodore Amiga Games That Were Scored Scandalously Low In Amiga Power

Hey whatsup guys OSG here with another video that questions the reviews that we all hung off when we were kids. In the last two videos I covered the mistakes made by Zzap64 for the commodore 64 and now it’s time to look at the Amiga. For me the magazine of choice was Amiga power so I have been looking through them for the last 2 weeks to see if there were any times that the reviewers scored the game’s low when really, they were ok to great games.
It was a little tougher than the ZZap64 videos because there was an abundance of overinflated and underscored games in that magazine but I’ve found 10 games that I would say were scored way to low in Amiga power.
Also, before we start I’d just like to give a huge thanks to Codetapper who has made this customisable amiga cractro for me
Ok so explanations over let’s take a look at 10 Amiga games that were scored way too low by Amiga Power
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Games in this video:-
Dreamweb AGA
Ambermoon
Beach Volley
Elvira 2: The Jaws of Cerberus
Rome AD92
Golden Axe
ATR: All Terrain Racing
European Champions
Alien Breed: Tower Assault
Benefactor

[@oldstylegaming]

So its been pointed out in the comments below that you can actually play European Champions in Side View. I didnt have the instructions and couldnt find the option to switch between views cos there is no option...you need to press V during gameplay...so I apologise for the mistake..... but now ive found that out Im even more annoyed at the review because the side view rocks

[@benmalone7408]

It's a great game. Was the only type of footie on Amiga that could match Tecmo World Cup from the Arcades back then.

[@therevstu]

Don't worry, Paul won't hold that embarrassing error against you as he's been dead for about 20 years now. Signed, The Office Dickhead.

[@oldstylegaming]

@@therevstu is he dead?

[@robbowker4100]

However, it is worth pointing out that AP gave Wembley International Soccer a high score just scant months earlier - and its virtually the same game as European Champions (typical Audiogenic, recycling the same game over and over)

[@therevstu]

@@oldstylegaming Yes.

[@rulebrittania2784]

Only discovered this channel a few weeks ago and i bloody love it. Cant get enough. Been powering through these vids. Im too young to have played any of these games at the time but some look fantastic

[@oldstylegaming]

Welcome aboard!

[@joseagripino8664]

Golden Axe Amiga was a rare good conversion for the system. I played it a lot.

[@pelimies1818]

The soundscape and overall atmosphere in Dreamweb is top notch. Very few games have such omnipotent feel of something really special. It grabs you. Biggest gaming magazine in Finland: PELIT gave it 91%, in Tapio Slaminen’s review. PELIT made 20 years later an look-back article about Dreamweb, which it well deserves.

[@timetorelaxfocus9642]

I like how you attempt to set the record straight on a lot of these Amiga classics. Thanks

[@fulgenzio1973]

In Italy, almost all of the games mentioned above were rated very highly by Italian magazines (TGM, K) except for Golden Axe, which actually looked pretty bad compared to the Megadrive version. Beach Volley was absolutely fantastic, one of the best sport games for Amiga. The editor who gave 24% to Dreamweb is crazy, drunk, incompetent or all three together.

[@oldstylegaming]

lol

[@JonasRosenven]

I'll give the review of the game that magazine gave it 15%. It was fantastic on the arcade machine. It was great on the Sega megadrive and it was a really, really good version on the amiga.

[@petrirantavalli859]

Most if not all favorable game reviews back in the day were payed promotions only magazine that made a point of not having them at the time was a Finnish gaming magazine Pelit (because of Finnish law of "good and proper journalistic behaviour" was applied to all printed media not just the news papers) hence why you sometimes have such a weird high praise reviews on absolute garbage games.

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

I wonder if the Reviewer who bashed on Beach Volley was a Prepubescent who was angry that the Volleyball Players were guys instead of hot gals...? :P

[@dlfrsilver]

beach volley was beautiful but with shit gameplay. Golden Axe amiga was much better than the megadrive version as well.

[@Shazbut-he3ne]

Amiga Power was very entertaining and the writers knew how to write, but I think they got a bit big headed or something. Sometimes they'd be incredibly unfair or seemingly ignorant of having considerable personal biases , despite taking pride in being a bastion of truth amongst gaming magazines. Hopefully that didn't cause too much of a negative impact on games companies or on the Amiga as a whole.

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

It did have a negative impact for me. I haven't read, let alone given a damn, about Game Reviewer Reviews in years. :P

[@rafaellima83]

Amiga magazines had a tendency to overrate games. With that said, lots of reviews from Amiga Power were full of incomplete/biased/wrong info. They really weren't as good as they thought they were.

[@skillet0666]

Oh my god, I LOVED Ambermoon (and Amberstar), that was one of my favorite RPG's on the Amiga! I remember one of the riddles keeping me up for weeks!

[@djrtg]

Not pulling the punches in this vid OSG. I like it! Great vid mate.👍

[@RetroHenni]

Thanks OSG. Totally agree with Elvira. Mood and gameplay tied my many hours to my Amiga back in those days!

[@Thunderpuddle]

This is such a good review/video of Amiga Power's POWER. This is one of the many reasons why I don't a) buy magazines and b) don't listen to reviews from people I don't respect or people I don't know, now. I knew of a person who wrote for Edge magazine back in the early 2000s, and told me that they didn't OWN a console!?! Just used to use the ones in the office.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Dreamweb is my favourite game of all time - by far :) totally agreed! that review was utterly criminal!

[@oldstylegaming]

I know...i cant for the life of me think why they would ever go that low

[@glenaitken9403]

Golden Axe is awesome! One of the very best conversions on the Miggy. Me and a pal completed the coin-op and this was every bit as good. Love it.

[@bighairydel]

another great video mate. keep the videos coming. look forward to all your videos!!!!

[@eskey691]

Man i loved so many of these games, tho i got most of the mags back in the day most of the time i got them for the demos and the art work oh and the hints and tips ofc. Plus i think a lot of the fun was going in blind with the lesser known games as most of the time they were never full price and most played a lot better than the full price mainstream stuff (imo ofc). Great stuff as always buddy and love that intro made me think of 80% of the games i had as a kid haha. Roll on the next one.

[@reagandow850]

My man OSG with yet another amazing video. Thanks for consistently putting out so many amazing videos my friend!!

[@oldstylegaming]

Thanks mate

[@fatbelly2438]

that music at the start brings back so many memorys

[@mattjames6349]

I love you forever for sticking up for A.T.R! I was amazed to read about the low reviews it got! and like you say 'can't see what's coming up next?' Huh?!!!! I've played loads of top down racers that are far harder for that! I like micro machines but I'd argue off the top of my head that was much more unforgiving at times!

[@steelpatriot3683]

Ha ha....this was great stuff as ever. And listening to you vent In these recent videos keeps making me chuckle. A couple of games in here I'm gonna grab and play as well so as always a worthwhile watch 👍

[@craigcharlesworth1538]

I think Amiga Power for most of its life had the right idea. It was reviewing games from the point of view of the consumer, imagining what the reviewer would have thought if they'd had to pay £30 of their own money rather than getting free review copies. Also their scores only appeared harsh because they used 50% as a baseline, not 70% like most mags, which makes sense but also makes their scores appear much lower. So yeah, they'd often score games lower than the competition but that's because 70% from AP was worth more than 80% in othere mags. That said, I think after some criticism and after getting a reputation for being unduly harsh they really doubled down and started marking games really harshly just out of principle, meaning by the end the mag was handing out single-digit review scores once or twice per issue. They did lean into their reputation for being hard to please a bit too much. But you can't argue with some of the results. They gave Rise of the Robots something like 5%, a completely justified score, when other mags who were either wowed by the graphics or just bribed with offers of exclusive reviews, were giving it 90%+. I think they were proved right on at least that one occasion.

[@TheHobbyLodge]

24 for Dreamweb what on earth were they talking about! I am glad you have gone back and corrected some of these terrible reviewers efforts!

[@joshoshea3194]

I Golden Axe on the Amiga. I think I might actually prefer it to the Megadrive version. You made me laugh quite a bit in this video. Good work mate :)

[@Shazbut-he3ne]

This is the kind of extremely niche video that fits right in my own particular niche. Can two niches combine? I don't know, but I'm determined to find out

[@etrimonblutwor8357]

Dreamweb was absolutely amazing - I played it on Amiga 1200 at least 20 times from start to finish, to soaked me in with its atmosphere! Great game!

[@mountainbearoutdoors]

Dream web was amazing! I only had the demo, i finally got round to watching someone longplay it the other day and the plot is mental!

[@bigstackD]

Great upload mate. These reviewers back in the day were absolute tossers🙄 and like you said should’ve been bloody fired👊🏻🇦🇺🍻🍻🍻

[@oldstylegaming]

Ive found out that bloke died... we all die though eventually. Thanks for watching my stuff mate :-)

[@AnthonyFlack]

AP reviewers gave their own opinions and were one of the few games magazines at the time that weren't on the take. Most of the others would hand out generous review scores to any publisher that bought a lot of advertising.

[@Blackadder75]

@@AnthonyFlack I agree that being independent is a good thing, but many of this magazines also had very young, inexperienced and sometimes rather stupid writers in their teams. We had the same kind of thing in my country

[@AnthonyFlack]

@@Blackadder75 - I mean to say most of the other games magazines were essentially corrupt. AP put the reviewers' names on every review and let them say what they really thought; you could judge for yourself who was stupid. At the end of the day, it's just one person's opinion. They also decided to rate games on a scale fro 0-100 instead of from 70-100 which annoyed a lot of people.

[@forevermansludo5005]

Shocking. Golden Axe is basically arcade perfect gameplay...

[@jackburton8352]

I wouldn't go that far mate.

[@glenaitken9403]

Easier than the coin-op but, yeah, I agree, such a great conversation, aside from being easier and missing a few screams it's pretty much spot on to the arcade.

[@kuro68000]

I have to agree about ATR not showing enough road. I know some people like memorising tracks, but I like to be able to react in racing games.

[@lallen1982]

Awesome stuff fella really enjoying your content glad we have some close friends 🥷👍🔥👾🕹🥳

[@oldstylegaming]

cheers mate :-)

[@lallen1982]

@@oldstylegaming anytime fella

[@oldstylegaming]

I need a fucking secretary to keep up on here mate, i wanted to write summit good back about the great community yous guys have and how much i love the retro 5 and what they stand for..... but like 5 million notifications coming in and i try to at least acknowledge all of them.... ffs

[@lallen1982]

@@oldstylegaming bruv thank you for your kind words 👍 I will msg you over the weekend I’ve been so busy with work and I have swap shop this Sunday I need to sort out 👍🔥🥳🥷🕹👾

[@mufc76]

Brilliant and honest reviews😂👍🏻

[@greedygreggor]

Totally agree. Thats really poor AP giving Golden Axe such a low score, I really enjoyed that arcade port and also Tower Assault, great games

[@ZenithfilmsUK]

DreamWeb is by far one of the best point and click games on the Amiga. I am super biased ofc as Blade Runner '92 is my all time favourite film, but I also go as far to say that DreamWeb is my all time fav point and click game ;)

[@oldstylegaming]

its a great game mate, very atmospheric and just captures your imagination from the start with unknown story that gets better and better as you work through the game

[@LemonTree9280]

I had a terrible migraine today so I needed some OSG in my life!

[@oldstylegaming]

My droning voice will probably make your migraines worse lol

[@LemonTree9280]

@@oldstylegaming 🤣

[@blatherskite3009]

8:23 That's exactly right. It never made sense to get a person who doesn't even like a genre to review a game in that genre. The person who reviews a game should be someone who's interested in playing the game, otherwise what's the point? But I guess some magazines (and websites) think the "comedy" value of a scathing review is more important than realistic reviews from people who actually reflect the game's potential customers. This isn't just something that's confined to the dark ages of games-mag reviews, though. I used to be a regular reader of Eurogamer, but fell out with that site for (among other things) getting someone to review "Earth Defense Force 2025" who stated up-front that they absolutely hated everything about the game. As I commented at the time (my comment's still there even if my account is long-closed): "What is the point in getting someone who actively dislikes a game in advance to write a 'review' of it? If they weren't being given a review copy, they wouldn't touch it with a bargepole - let alone spend their own money on it - so there's clearly no chance of them writing a fair review that's of any use to people who *are* interested in buying it. You might as well hire Ace Ventura to review one of those Cabela hunting games."

[@oldstylegaming]

Lol

[@ksauerrr]

I remeber back in the day as a kid I was thrilled to play Golden Axe on Amiga. It was such a great game for me. And then I read a review in some magazine (polish one) and it was rated about 30%. I am sure now, that they just read Amiga Power review and that is why they rated this game so low. Me and all of my friends loved this game.

[@oldstylegaming]

its almost a perfect arcade port really considering its on 1 button the gameplay is great

[@systemchris]

@@oldstylegaming it's a bit slow but a child me would have loved it

[@ksauerrr]

@@oldstylegaming It was awesome for me back then. I had no comparison to the arcade, cause I never seen it. My first encounter with Golden Axe was on Amiga and it was GREAT. Then I had the C64 version and it was so much worse (at this time I had C64 and I only could play Amiga games in a sort of establishment where you could rent time to play Amigas and NES)

[@JonasRosenven]

Meta Guyver I had an arcade machine in my apartment with all the old games on it. One of my friends told me that the old games were just not fun to play any more and I kind of agreed with him. Many of them are genuinely not fun for for me to play today despite my fond memories of them. That being said we played the absolute shit out of golden axe many many times when he visited me. Also games like double dragon and shooters like 1943. We played that stuff until our arms started burning from tapping the buttons and we couldn't play it any longer. We didn't quit playing because we died - we quit because our arms were hurting too much. Track and Field was probably the worst game to play. You would need a week in a spa to relax your arms after playing that game :)

[@UltimateGamerCC]

imagine Alien Assault being ranked so low, i havent even played it but one look at it screams class, whoever was whining about it being too hard must be related to the idiot who couldnt pass the Cuphead Tutorial level. :P

[@SUPERLITMARIO]

I love your videos…. You’re funny and so spot on😊

[@oldstylegaming]

Thanks mate :-)

[@SUPERLITMARIO]

@@oldstylegaming Thank you for the content

[@maxmirni2768]

great stuff - i gave amiga power the arse very early in the piece - glad i didn't have to put up with this tripe

[@ncf1]

Woah... Goldean Axe 35%? Elvira II 33%? Beach Volley 28%? Wow.. I'm glad I only bought a few issues of Amiga Power, those scores are just plain stupid. Well, you did them justice OSG with your perfectly accurate justifications. I mean, Elvira deserved 50% for the graphics ALONE! They were phenomenal at the time... and thats just the starting point. Oh well.. Thanks OSG for another great video!

[@oldstylegaming]

To be fair Amiga Power were pretty accurate 99% of the time

[@ncf1]

@@oldstylegaming must be as you said, if they had a grudge against someone, beware! Was probably the same with most of the mags I'd imagine.

[@rickybobbyracing9106]

You know what's class? These videos!

[@oldstylegaming]

Lol thanks mate

[@Liquidcadmus]

So many reviewers of that time were total sellouts or lazy morons that didn't even play the games they scored. I know it still happens today, but back in the day you depended on those reviews to know if a game was worth your money or not. nowadays you can see gameplay and get as many opinions as you like on the internet. we didn't have that luxury back then.

[@MEGAMIGA]

I agree with ABTA's low note, the game is technically great but stupidly difficult! Has anyone ever been beyond the first indoor level??! On the other hand, the low note given to Golden Axe is ridiculous! It is one of the best arcade conversions on the machine!

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

I played & loved Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis... so i'm damn impressed at the Coding Abilities of those who were able to make such a game work on such a lower Specs system...

[@MEGAMIGA]

@@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning The Amiga? A lower spec system?! It could make wonders when properly programmed with its own games and not lame ST ports

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

@@MEGAMIGA Don't forget to think of Controller Buttons amount availability in the Specification Info. ;)

[@MEGAMIGA]

@@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning Having only one button works here. Granted you need to use the keyboard to activate the special magic but still

[@JoshuaGanoTyraxLightning]

@@MEGAMIGA What about being able to choose when to Attack & when to Jump?

[@mrgonk871]

I owned an Amiga and a megadrive back in the early nineties and golden axe on the Amiga was my favourite version. I played it more than the megadrive version. I always bought Amiga power every month and remember some of their reviews scoring very low compared to other magazines. I also bought other mags depending what was on the cover disks along with C&VG, megatech, mean machines and Sinclair user. I really do miss magazines nowadays.

[@MortenSlottHansen]

Dreamweb is above 90 in my book - absolutely a gem!

[@adroharv9213]

yeah spot on. I remember playing and finishing Dreamweb and being completely enthralled. I wonder if these guys are still around. Mind you game journalists these days you have to question a lot of the time. But yeah as much as I did tend to look to Amiga Power as a more accurate indicator that something wasn't as good as what oher mags made out, they clearly still talked a load of rubbish when targeting certain games negatively like this

[@Lucasrainford]

Cool intro! I bought shitloads of mags back in the day but not Amiga Power for some reason? I was never keen on one man reviews, I much prefered the multiple opinion format like Zzap!64 (Zzap reviewed Amiga games later, it became Zzap!64/Amiga, you should check some Amiga reviews out maybe?) Benefactor was great! wtf they talking about? As for the Team17 reviews, take em with a pinch of salt coz as you pointed out about the bad blood between both parties. Massive differences in your scores and theirs, like you said it's bog roll material! Great vid m8 :)

[@DEVILTAZ35]

It's kind of weird with the Amiga mini how easy it is to try out thousands of games however in reality most of them are only really good for a quick trip down memory lane. Cannon Fodder will always rock though :)

[@satan3959]

Dungeon Master as well. Especially if you're into RPGs

[@MathieuBurgerhout]

I like this format! Elfmania comes to mind.

[@jackburton8352]

Great graphics shit gameplay

[@ripxkid]

Lol i do remember some crazy reviewer in my local computer magazine who gave 9/10 to Kang Fu ....and yes, he was dead serious... :D

[@flashg643]

I gasped when i saw Dreamweb on the list lol! (Because its awesome)

[@luxdico]

beach volley would still be a great game today !

[@rtid7538]

The Dreamweb and Golden Axe review deserve a visit from the police for the respective reviewers - even 25-30 years later!

[@CasperLD]

35% for Golden axe is scandalous. Loved the Amiga version.

[@johnhigginbotham8291]

You're so right about Beach Volley!!!!! With mates, it'd be a solid 90%!!!!!!

[@rafaellima83]

I always find interesting how no one seems to notice that European Champions is an update to Emlyn Hughes Soccer. Same developer, same publisher, lots of features are the same.

[@satan3959]

Actually, they had different publishers, but the same developer. Audiogenic developed both games, but Audiogenic published Emlyn Hughes themselves. European Champions was published by Ocean

[@rafaellima83]

​@@satan3959 Yes, you are indeed correct sir. All those games were made by the same guy: Graham Blighe . He coded Emlyn Hughes, European Champions (which was released under a dozen different names depending upon the country of release) and Wembley International Soccer. Each one is a sequel from the previous game. With Wembley, Audiogenic went back to publish the game.

[@lewisarthur9797]

I loved Dream web I’ve been trying to remember the name of it for ages

[@nearvanaman]

I remember they gave the original Championship Manager 30-something when it was mostly scoring 80+ in other mags.

[@Retro_B8]

Benefactor looks class, I’ve never played it, loved golden axe as well but dreamweb is just unbelievable, what were they thinking 🥴

[@oldstylegaming]

Youve never played Benefactor? its class mate check it out

[@Retro_B8]

@@oldstylegaming 100% mate!

[@its_llew]

Dreamweb is one of the greatest Amiga games ever! Reviewer was clearly high on the Charlie.

[@Fox8ball.]

Yo OSG my man I hope you are well mate

[@oldstylegaming]

Im alive and kicking so thats good enough for me :-)

[@Fox8ball.]

@@oldstylegaming hehe fun video too mate

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

I looked into the A. P Benefactor review, the reviewer does point out the long levels have no checkpoints and insta deaths are common, that's a bad combination level design to be fair.

[@oldstylegaming]

Benefactor is a puzzle game mate...the puzzles arent even hard tbh and like every puzzle game ive ever played

[@mikeh8949]

Lotus 2 theme . Niceeee. Great memories

[@oldstylegaming]

Classic

[@stephenhall2980]

Golden axe on the Amiga is pretty good. It's more colourful than the megadrive version,the music is better and it has the cut scenes. It doesn't run at 60 fps and lacks Arcade feel of the megadrive though.

[@deathybrs]

Beach Volley was fan-TAS-tic!

[@mipmapp5207]

I remember an article where they also explained their scale was different to other mags, such as The One or Amiga Format. My memory is sketchy so feel free to correct me, but I remember it suggesting that other mags gave scores in the 70s when the game was average, leaving the lower half of the 100 scale for the truly execrable stuff. It said that a 70 on the Amiga Power scale was for the “good” stuff while their “average” was in the 50s. This meant that the true gems got upwards of 80. This isn’t to suggest that they weren’t a bunch of pretentious wankers though. While I thought there was some good points they raised about design choices, such as racing games using “up” for throttle instead of the fire button, or platformers with “leaps of faith”, they were a bunch of knobs with their daft humour, in-jokes and needless “Ed” jokes. Edit: Dreamweb was amazing in atmosphere and detailed environments. I remember the box having that “Diary of a Mad(?) Man” and was enthralled with the game generally. The detail in the environments tapered off toward the end but it was an enjoyable time

[@fabiosemino2214]

Rome AD92 has the same engine of Robin hood? I've worn a mouse over that game, I've got to try it! There were others?

[@mrk45]

Regarding Team 17 - I remember on the flip side how AP always gave Sensible Software games incredibly high scores, right up until Cannon Fodder, where the reviewer literally said there was absolutely nothing bad about the game. Interestingly, not long after, one of its journalists, Stuart Campbell, landed himself a job with the company. I suspect it was Campbell who reviewed Cannon Fodder, but I can't remember for sure. Not that Sensible Software didn't make great games. It just makes you think.

[@Torquemadia]

They slated Canon Fodder 2 though. And Canon Fodder was awesome.

[@smalon75]

Stuart Campbell really irritated me with a lot of his reviews and comments. It came across as him just trying to be edgy all the time. He hated the Kick Off games and vowed to have them removed from the Amiga Power Top 100 games list, which he did. Then whenever they were voted into the Readers Top 100 games list he would always have a snarky comment to make about it. A lot of the best Amiga games like the Lotus, Turrican and Super Cars series he rated as either OK or quite good which even back then I found astounding. There was also a really good platform game whose name escapes me that I remember him really liking in the review but then he said he was going to knock 10 points of the score because he didn't like the way the main character was dressed.

[@Vindicator18]

Hey OSG, could you do 2 videos on the overrated and underrated games in Commodore Format magazine? It would be nice to see the difference in magazine review scores.

[@oldstylegaming]

Its been asked already so ill defo look into it....i think i have some CF mags

[@Vindicator18]

@@oldstylegaming I wish I hadn't thrown all my old issues out last year, I could have sent them to you!

[@manicpanic4486]

"the office dick-head" haha don't ever change OSG!

[@Andrew-el8xi]

I reckon the reviewer's must of taken back handers from other game makers having a chat in some posh London bar with massive mobile phones .. these games are all at least 70 percent !

[@danzydan2479]

I loved my A500. Memories.

[@iamapoorman]

I actually watched the Amiga Power top 300 games. And I came to the conclusion that they hated Team 17. could just be me. But the fact worms appeared as a honorable mention was absolute rubbish

[@andrewmaddocks9824]

I would be great to do the same but with Amiga format

[@oldstylegaming]

I may do in the future mate :-)

[@michaelhall6178]

My suggestions for over-rated games in Amiga Power: I don't remember that many (apart from those of the "they were lucky to get 20%" variety), but here are a few. Blade Warrior scored 77% in issue 5 - distinctive aesthetics, but the gameplay felt rather clunky. Midwinter 2, 80%, issue 6 - I really wanted to like this one, but it didn't have the immediacy (or the graphical performance) of the original. Nick Faldo's Golf, 88%, issue 22 - considerably more challenging than PGA Tour Golf, but that was mainly down to the non-intuitive and overly-complex game mechanic. Super League Manager, 89%, issue 48 - interesting take on traditional football management games; it kept me amused for a while, but definitely not worth 89%.

[@oldstylegaming]

I check them out mate thanks

[@desiv1170]

This really makes me wonder.... Were there any games I didn't buy or give a fair shake to because I had read a bad and unfair review? I can't remember specifically, but it's possible... I didn't have a lot of money to spend on games, so I was fairly choosey, and I did read the reviews... Sad to think I probably skipped at least a game or two for this...

[@oldstylegaming]

No one would have bought dreamweb if they went off this

[@chriswinspear7965]

I grew up with Amiga Format.

[@Zontar82]

Tower assault, benefactor, Elvira, those were stone cold classics, What were they smoking?

[@oldstylegaming]

god knows mate

[@mikeyandwho]

"the office dickhead" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 brilliant video mate

[@Okurka.]

That's the Skid Row cracktro for Lemmings.

[@oldstylegaming]

It is Skid Row yeah :-)

[@Codetapper]

Actually it's ripped from SWIV but it's the same intro! 😄

[@mamehaze]

I can kinda understand the Volleyball one as Volleyball wasn't a popular sport here to begin with, and it's quite a bare bones implementation. You're probably right that it was reviewed as single player, because the local two player option was the making of so many games, often turning something incredibly simple into a lot of fun as you could wind up your mates in person while playing such games (something sorely lacking in so many games today - online doesn't even offer 5% of the fun) Amiga Power as a whole I found to be a more honest magazine though, they actually treated 50% as average. A lot of games these days that deserve 40-50% end up with 8/10 scores elsewhere because apparently anything lower than that is considered an insult. 50% *is* 'average' and should be seen as that, most games should score around that. I think the Amiga Power logic was that if a game had more flaws than it had positives it had to score under 50%, as opposed to under 80% which means their scores tended to buck industry trends, but in my honest opinion, we should be pushing for more of that because when all your review scores are from 80% to 90% even for average games they becomes meaningless. A single negative / incredibly broken feature can ruin an otherwise great game, but so many reviews tend to ignore / paper over that. The Benefactor review though, yeah, that was harsh, but maybe it's just a game we appreciate more these days as it's something more subtle rather than in your face, although I thought even back then we were beginning to understand that on the Amiga, hence games like Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder with their dinky graphics getting such high scores. (Cannon Fodder 2 was massively overrated though, that one was just as bad as the modern sequels, the level design and attention to detail compared to the first was atrocious)

[@JonasRosenven]

I think many of the games suffered from the single player experience but gained immensely from being played with friends. These days many of them are hard to enjoy for me. There are exceptions of course. I was never into football/soccer games but two of my friends played kickoff2 almost religiously back in the day. They both have almost no interest in games back from when we were 15 years old. For a birthday surprise I did set up an amiga with the Suzo Arcade stick they both used back then. It was quite fun to see them being just as competitive as they were back in the early nineties .

[@VentilatorGaming]

Reviews didn't matter that much during prime time on Amiga. Most, if not all of these were popular games.

[@elmariachi5133]

Benefactor scored good to great in German magazines, but I never played it, because the screenshots looked so boring.. The 2D 'Alien Breed' games really are a very subjective topic, I think. The reception heavily depends on the type of gamer you are. I didn't like any of these games (but I loved both Alien Breed 3D games!), because I'm a completionist. I absolutely hate leaving a level behind with living enemies in it! Leaving loot behind is even worse! And Alien Breed's whole promise was completely based on this! It required the player to rush through the levels as quick as possible, wasting no time on watching the nice graphics or exploring more of the environment than absolutely needed. OMG, I get enraged, just by remembering this, still today! xD Games like ATR (and Micro Machines): I didn't like them very much ever, because they all felt like a step back from the great and old Supercars, which featured a load of nice weapons you could fire at your opponents! Elvira - mistress of the boobs received good critics here, too. The game fascinated me as a kid, not only because of it's name giver. It really was kind of horror, but it first started to work as a game for me, when I was older and understood how to do the fighting. Ambermoon also was an hit in Germany. I played the game and loved it for it's 3D parts and anything else xD Overall it seems, that our Amiga and game magazines here had way better standards than in the UK or elsewhere .. of course there still where some very fishy ratings, especially in the 'good' direction, with games like 'The cathedral', 'Rise Of the Robots', or 'Jonathan' having been massively overrated in Amiga Joker, for example.

[@danyoutube7491]

I too preferred Breed 3D to the earlier 2D games (though they were quite fun for a while, and I loved the computer terminals where you could buy new weapons, keys etc.). I played a demo of ATR and thought it was fun, definitely not a bad game at all (and according to this video the reviewer thought it was bad for lack of track visibility, but he liked Micro Machines which gives you very little, and punishes you dearly for mistakes...) and had lovely graphics. I agree with you though about Supercars (2), I don't think it was ever bettered on the Amiga.

[@satan3959]

Never cared for the 2D games either apart from the visuals and the music, but I always felt the gameplay was lacking. Same for the first two Shadow of the Beast games, really.

[@elmariachi5133]

@@satan3959 The Beasts where well known as graphic demos xD

[@satan3959]

@@elmariachi5133 Except the third game. SOTB3 actuallty had decent gameplay

[@AdiSneakerFreak]

I actually loved Amiga Power in general, as it was the better written mag, however yes agree some if their reviews were diabolical

[@oldstylegaming]

luckily 99% of the time the reviews were spot on

[@perperikis5501]

Regardless of agree or disagree with your perspective for each game, these throwbacks are simply excellent. They bring back some long-forgotten gems and the feeling of a time where gaming was really fun. P.S. They gave 35% for Golden Axe ?? !!! 28% for Beach Volley ! Those games were huge hits among the gamers.

[@oldstylegaming]

Thanks mate

[@satan3959]

They only game 65% to Frontier: Elite II for fuck sake

[@Texy88]

_Amiga Power_ seemed to be particularly scathing to a lot of games.

[@Texy88]

The only problem I had with _Golden Axe_ on the Amiga was that it was too easy. I completed it within a week of buying it (luckily on budget).

[@Texy88]

@G*P Unfortunately it has been quite some time since I last played the Amiga version so I cannot remember for defo. It *may* be that that particular version only had one continue, or even none at all...

[@fandangobrandango7864]

You could change the view whilst in play in European Champions by pressing the 'v' key. Definitely wasn't only in replay.

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah read the pinned comment i have explained my mistake in there...but the side view only makes this crappy score even more laughable as the game is great

[@whosle]

Dreamweb needs a remaster or a sequel or just need to be longer.

[@quint3570]

I loved Golden axe on the amiga

[@oldstylegaming]

I know mate its a classic :-)

[@mehere3013]

back i the day a magazine could make or break a game

[@perihelion7445]

I did buy Amiga Power issues in the day and I still have them but damn they were pretentious and their screen grabs were shockingly bad.

[@auritone]

Never looked to Amiga Power for reviews. They were often utterly useless.

[@ag0ny]

Fuck! Tower Assault was the *BEST* Alien Breed.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Hated reviews in any magazine where reviewer states something like. "... I was never a fan of this in the arcades/on the.." You just know they've going to go in with the wrong mindset from the start and the editorial staff should never of given it to them to start with

[@oldstylegaming]

true that...like if they dont like it choose someone else to do the review

[@infesticon]

Amiga power would rate Team 17 games they liked well, I remember all the versions of body blows doing well.

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah well body blows is going to be in the overrated Amiga Power video lol

[@infesticon]

@@oldstylegaming Yea non aga galatic got about the right score of 79 percent or so, Og bodyblows was pretty underwelming after the really good and responsive demo, I don;'t know what happen between the demo and the full version.

[@diegodamo813]

European Champions is not a bad game at all, it just paid the price to have Kick Off 2 and, above all, the SWOS series as competitors.

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah your right. It is very playable though

[@philipkoekemoer4705]

Ambermoon is brilliant

[@meh78336]

I'll be honest, I would have rated Amiga Golden Axe that low at the time as I found the game to look and play rough when I tried it over my mates house, but in its defense, I also had the massively superior megadrive version which made it look and play far worse. That said, I expected more out of the amiga and it certainly is capable of far better, probably a lot more similar to the MD version than this version.

[@plasmaastronaut]

AP gave rick dangerous 1 & 2 extremely low scores. those games were both great