20 Commodore 64 Games That Were Unfairly Scored Low In Zzap!64

Hey whatsup guys OSG here with a new style of video for me. Today ill be taking a look at 20 commodore 64 games that got really low scores in Zzap64 even though they are great games.
For anyone who doesn’t know what Zzap64 was it was the main C64 magazine over here in the UK and it’s a magazine that a lot of us back then would read and buy or not buy games on the strength of the reviews.
That’s why this video is so interesting to me as I would really like to know what some of these reviewers were thinking at the time as all of the games on this list scored below 50% (one of them scored 30% and its one of the best shoot em ups on the system)
So I’ll be showing each game and the review from Zzap then picking holes in the reasoning behind such a low score
Ok that’s the explanations over, let’s take a look at 20 games that were unfairly scored low by Zzap64
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Games in this video :-
Commando
Doriath
Test Drive
Solo Flight
Stringer
Championship Wrestling
Badlands
Sabre Wulf
Airborne Ranger
Soldier One
Mugsy's Revenge
Terramex
Catalypse
Snow Strike
Ninja
Adventure Construction Set
Jet Set Willy II
Doughboy
Moon Shuttle
Rogue
Research webpages used
Zzap Bible
www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/zzapb...
Lemon 64
www.lemon64.com/

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

The Ninja score was absurd, loved that on the Atari 800Xl and just as much on the C64

[@amerigocosta7452]

The Italian edition of Zzap! gave Catalypse a much higher and fairer score (about 90% if I remember correctly). At the time it was thought in Italy (where the game was developed) that the UK Zzap! had bashed the game because it was too similar to Armalyte (and considering that Thalamus was an offshoot of Newsfield Publications there were speculations about conflict of interest). But to be honest, I think that the UK reviewers were simply fed up after years of metallic looking horizontal shooters on the C64. In facts, most of these low scores were motivated by perceived lack of innovation for these games, that they deemed would play just like "old arcades" or reiterate the same old themes. In retrospect, expectations about the evolution of 8 bit gaming back then were much different from what we think would be feasible today.

[@jumhed994]

It got a high score in Zzap's rival Commodore Format in the UK. I always wondered why.

[@user-hp7kt6kb3f]

It's a good game, but i always felt it was a rip off of Amalyte, had copied chunks of the codebase and graphic animation style.

[@harleykade3827]

Not gonna lie. That Catalypse part was gold and gave me a laugh with how brutal you were with the pair.

[@StuartVallantine]

Commodore Format gave 'Catalypse' 90% and an 'It's A Corker' accolade in CF20.

[@DayAntilles]

You should do a video about awful games with high Zzap! scores.

[@oldstylegaming]

already working on it ;-)

[@briancartwright3255]

They always seemed to over-rate puzzle games: Bombuzal and Quedex spring to mind.

[@SonicVisionStudios1]

@@briancartwright3255 I bought "Who Dares Wins 2" over "Commando" due to Zzaps review...and it's def a longer game and better value for money but I don't know if it quite deserved the love they poured on it?

[@briancartwright3255]

@@SonicVisionStudios1 Commando was fun but nothing brilliant. Worth the money for the Hubbard soundtrack though.

[@madspunky]

@@oldstylegaming Can't wait!!

[@richpickings2845]

You were brutal with those reviews of the reviewers...nice one!! I always liked Friday the 13th on C64, which scored low. I remember always playing it on a Friday, mum back from shopping with a Barrett Booty Bag and a can of Pepsi ready for my show down with Jason.

[@rodoherty1]

@OSG Please pick your favourite Zzap issue(s), review every game in it and let us re-live that issue while learning about the games that we might not have paid proper attention to at the time. I'd love to see a video like that!

[@oldstylegaming]

Great idea that mate

[@Cyko..]

Test Drive was really awesome back in the day. I'd tell my friends at school I drove a Lamborghini today, and some would come over my house and play it too and loved it. Epyx's Championship Wrestling was gold! The finishing moves were incredible. Airborne Ranger was probably the most popular and awesome game on the system! 39%??? Hell no.

[@robvegas9354]

Wow, that is crazy scores for Test Drive and Commando. We got Zapp and C&VG mags here to in Australia back in the day and yeah a lot of the reviews were all over the place. Great vid as always mate! Thank you OSG!!!

[@5HlNOBI]

I always see a few games in your videos that I want to try out thanks to your work. At least 2-3 here I want to give a go! ty OSG!

[@greenbert]

Thanks for this video. Solo Flight (2nd Edition) was reviewed way back in1986 (issue 15) when it scored a respectable 85%. 39% for the KIXX release of Airborne Ranger was undoubtable down to the Cassette version - not the Disk version originally reviewed - but I agree that it was criminally overlooked.

[@patsfan4life]

Badlands Racing was a well-done arcade port esp. for racing games on a system that was generally lacking in good racing games

[@professorpenne9962]

badlands is very impressive for the C64

[@reinhard3209]

Superb video once again, mate! I'm very glad to see that there's someone else except myself who also likes 'Ninja' and 'Soldier One'! Still play both of them regularly. 👍😉

[@busyjt]

I couldn’t afford to buy the magazines, I spent a lot of time reading in WH Smith while my mother was shopping. Great video as usual, brings back memories.

[@adroharv9213]

Excellent vid. Spot on opinions. I still play Solo flight and it's the only game even today that has you delivering mail for score. On top of that you can fly entirely in IFR conditions relying on Vor points to get you exactly where you need to touch down out of cloud. Amazing sim even now and it's nice to see it positively spoke of here. Well done on a great channel

[@ncf1]

Awesome video and topic!! I tell you what OSG, you should be one of the reviewers in the new Zzap! editions they have these days. : )

[@oldstylegaming]

Hey i would do that. OSG honest reviews lol

[@ncf1]

@@oldstylegaming Perfect!!

[@remistuczynski2768]

I love Jet Set Willy!!! Good video mate, I can't believe some of those scores!

[@mikestunt77]

Here in Italy we had our own version of zzap, some of the reviews were simply translated from the eneglish one but most of them were made by italians, they often miscored games and there were plenty of grammatical mistakes but I loved it anyways. Catalypse was an italian game and was reviewd fair by the italian zzap and If I remember well they complained about the unfair english score. I also had the chance to tak to the guys who created that game, very nice and friendly people.

[@oldstylegaming]

Its a class game

[@lucabusato3678]

nel link tutte le recensioni dello zzap italiano

[@reagandow850]

This was a really cool idea. Great stuff as always OSG.

[@drdrumbeat3010]

I remember Doughboy, as a kid and enjoying it greatly. This was before I had access to magazine reviews or anything else.

[@virtuafighter3]

Good video and well thought out counter-reviews here.

[@witchfinder1976]

Great video and when I saw the title, I immediately thought of all the budget games Zzap gave unfairly low scores for, Ninja being one of them. Others I can think of are: - Street Surfer, a competent racing/skating game with a novel eco-freindly theme and a great soundtrack. They gave it 29% 🤷 - Bomb Fusion, a fun arcade platformer with another cracking soundtrack, which they gave 32% - 3D Pinball, one of the best pinball sims on the system. 41% from Zzap! - Night Racer, a pretty decent driving game, which got 36% - U.F.O. - not the best shooter by any means but better than the 19% it was given. Basicially I think Zzap just didn't take budget games seriously and were somewhat to blame for the notion that all Mastertronic games were crap, when in fact around 50% of them were very playable. Looking forward to the most overrated games video as there are many that fit the bill.

[@samcushing3790]

Back in the days when we had loads of magazines on the shelves and consequently certain publishers ‘persuaded’ magazine’s to post favourable reviews in return for high value advertising

[@jpcompton]

It doesn't even have to be as overt as that. There's plenty of disincentive to present budget/reissue items as the best-of-the-best (in part but not exclusively because, by their nature, budget titles generate less of the ad revenue which is the lifeblood of a print periodical!) and that's part of the reason you see scoring streamlined or sometimes simply dropped for budget/re-release games.

[@jumhed994]

Newsfield owned Thalamus. Not a conflict of interest at all..... (Except many of Thalamus games were great)

[@rozone5757]

Sounds like there was some back handers going on behind the scenes from the bigger game developers with reviews like that or the reviewer's were just numptys who didn't have a clue.. great upload!

[@oldstylegaming]

wait till you see the next video with the games they said were good, im about half way through sorting them but there are some real turkeys that scored over 80%

[@brettolsen615]

Wow some of these are quite a surprise, it’s almost like a must play list!

[@bigstackD]

Great upload matey 👊🏻😁🇦🇺🍻🍻🍻

[@buckeyechad1]

I enjoyed Adventure Construction Set quite a bit. Great vid.

[@oldstylegaming]

Making your adventure disk was a pain but once its done its really good

[@jpcompton]

It's an especially bad take because there's only passing mention (without naming it!) of Rivers of Light and the mini-adventures, which even if you don't make a single game provide considerable "value for money" and "lasting interest." Comments about the sluggishness and graphical meh-ness are tough to dispute, but in no way was that a "24%" product. It seemed that Zzap struggled to give unqualified praise to full-price, disk-only games even when they were genuinely good.

[@TheKeymaster316]

I had Airborne Ranger growing up and it’s one of my favorite C64 games!

[@andrewclark8630]

Such an insightful point about imagination. When I was a child my imagination could really do something with even these blocky graphics but it is not quite the same when you're older.

[@oldstylegaming]

yeah i feel like that...mostly about newer games that have no nostalgia factor for me, but games i played or games i saw and wanted to play back then now transport me back to when i was 12 again

[@Lucasrainford]

As you said m8, Zzap64 was like a gaming bible to us C64 owners back in the day, a game could potentially fail from a bad review from it. I loved the mag and bought it religiously, the coverart by Oliver Frey was awesome! I always thought their reviews were tough but fair, so suprised to see here how many times they fecked up here! I'm familar with a few of these, can't believe the low scores. Great vid m8, loved the Catalypse rant lol :)

[@oldstylegaming]

lol that review score always pisses me off when i play the game, i am like talking to myself when i play it with that exact rant lol

[@Lucasrainford]

@@oldstylegaming I missed it back in the day but have played it since and yeah! total piss take score :(

[@oldstylegaming]

@@Lucasrainford i honestly think its cos its hard as nails which it is at first until you learn the patterns

[@marceltiel7919]

Over here in the Netherlands I frequently used to grab hold of the Brittish C+VG magazine....was more into the multi-platform formula of that one....and remember drooling over the reviews and shorties on arcade games and consoles and computers that were far out of my reach back then, such as the pc-engine

[@teddym2808]

Good list, agreed. The badlands one was just hilarious. That commentary LOL.

[@kevinjones7870]

I also had Terramex on the C64. It was an awesome game, especially as it played slightly differently depending on which of the characters you chose to play as

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

Test Drive was a pain in the butt, there is no sugar coating that - especially if you had played a 16 bit version.

[@trelard]

Zzap!64 was something I looked forward to before moving on to Commodore Format later. Greats mags. I think I still own a full collection of the INPUT magazine from the 80's that taught you how to code in my mums attic.

[@reese76man]

Doriath! I was contemplating taking its loading screen and using it for a homemade t-shirt. Great game, too.

[@oldstylegaming]

It is mate

[@michaelhill6453]

I think this is my favourite video of yours. Nice research and good choices. I had no idea that Adventure Construction Set existed or that Rogue was available on the C64. ACS would have been my dream game. Zzap!64 was the bible back in the day but on reflection I agree, the reviewers didn't give the titles enough playtime to properly critique, possibly because they had too many to look at, but that's no excuse. I'm hoping the next video will be "rubbish games that Zzap!64 overrated"? :-) Hope so.

[@oldstylegaming]

Already started it mate ;-)

[@MrSketchydave69]

Loved Solo Flight. I used to play it for hours on end. Flying into Topeka hehe!

[@Edgel-in6bs]

Nice vid, but agree with the JSW2 score. It was basically the first game with the odd screen changed.

[@oldstylegaming]

Still doesnt deserve that score though mate and it is different... yeah slightly

[@Baggio_10_]

I remember the Americana budget games. There were some great games released on that label such as Going For Gold and the arcade port of Karate Champ. It would be good if you could revisit that label at some time 👍

[@Simon0]

Interesting video! I'd have liked jet set willy 2 as a kid but I can't remember if I played it. I'm pretty sure I played and enjoyed the original

[@delboy3k1]

Most of the poor scores were re-reviews to be fair and I trusted zzap from iss 1- 25 probably more than any other magazine. Mistakes however do happen. A review is an opinion mostly but we have to accept the reviewers could kill a game quickly so I did feel bad for certain games which surely were better then the reviewers were stating. I'm older now and like to make my own opinion but I do look back at the reviews fondly and remember they were capsuals in time and looking at them now is with a lot of hind sight. I.e. I cant quite remember how many side scrolling shootemup games came out in a specific year but if 50 came out I might of got tired and to be honest they mostly copied a graphic template on a winning formula :-). Great video and made me smile keep them up :-). My comments are my opinion only guys :-)

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah most of the time the reviews were a great source of info as we never had the internet to just go watch a video of the game etc. But as you say they are just peoples opinions and we as kids went off them for whether we bought a game or not. Im sure that some of these like airborne ranger for example there must have been something else behind the low score as that game is still brilliant to play now. As for re reviews if i was to re review something i would play they game (make my own opinion) then cross match it against the original review for inconsistencies and then flesh these out in the review. Thanks for watching mate and im sure no one will have an issue with you opinion either as we all have different ones ...but really we all here for one reason...we love the C64

[@jpcompton]

Agreed that dissecting budget re-release re-reviews is less compelling than trying to take on Bad Takes in full-length, fully-produced, full-price reviews. (Which I think Zzap in particular still lends itself well to!)

[@OperationPhantom]

Really good idea to revisit some of these suspect scores by our beloved Zzap! Nobody's perfect after all. Sometimes it seems the whole team were really intent on tearing a game down, so NOTHING about it, apparently, was any good. It was fun to hear how worked up you still could get after all these years! Especially liked how you stuck up for Ben Daglish, he always put in an effort to come up with a suitable tune and his music is often a highlight of ANY game, so 15% is just ridiculous. Personally I would have included Fist II for my list, as this is a pretty ambitious game for its time. Even a bit of a proto Metroidvania in a way. Admittedly the game is flawed and was badly bugged at time of release but it was very atmospheric (love the music, unlike Zzap! of course) and I certainly enjoyed it quite a bit, despite its flaws. It only received 39% from Zzap! but stands at 7.7 on Lemon. There is a bug-fixed version available now anyway. Now if only someone created a version that would save your progress when praying at the shrines... (and remove the "back-kick makes you invincible" bit)

[@oldstylegaming]

Fist 2 maybe in a video i am planning on bugged games that cant be completed

[@OperationPhantom]

@@oldstylegaming It now can be though! 😅 If that was a known thing when Zzap! reviewed it, they may have had a point. Then they also should have given Robocop 39% or lower... 🙄

[@paulmurphy5614]

Great video and an interesting topic! You should do a video on the Americana budget label from US Gold/Mastertronic. They released loads of classic games (often the first time in the UK), yet most - like Moon Shuttle - got really poor reviews from Zzap64. Games like Shamus (51%), Neutral Zone (9%), Conan (32%), Scrolls of Abadon (28%), Necromancer (40%). All of the reviews seem to focus on graphics and little time on gameplay, yet it's the gameplay that brings us back to them! How many people missed out on these games because of the poor reviews?

[@oldstylegaming]

Ill look into that idea mate. Yeah its a shame that people wrote reviews without thoroughly playing the games

[@Mayhemerz]

I’ve played the vast majority of the games shown and agree with pretty much all the original Zzap scores. Except the budget rereleases, Airbourne Ranger is worth the 72% the original release earned for example. Ninja is in the category of “its so bad it’s good” but that doesn’t preclude the score. I got bored by Catalypse probably for the same reasons it scored low. Weird now though it’s quite rare and worth hundreds.

[@RetroHenni]

Wheee, only 25% for Ninja? Zzap64 is indeed really hard with their scoring. Also Airborne Ranger. I used to love both games, especially AR where you have to plan your mission, drop your supplies before parachuting etc.

[@Mayhemerz]

To be honest, I have no idea where the poor score on budget came from. The original full price score (72%) was a lot closer to the mark.

[@DAZZYVANDAM]

I recently made a comparison video on Test Drive its hard to imagine any credible magazine giving such a low rating to such a amazing game, i thought the graphics sound and even the frame rate was really impressive considering the hardware it was running on, had loads of fun playing it a great version.

[@oldstylegaming]

Me too mate. Me and by best mate hammered that game and it felt so realistic back then and really still plays pretty good today

[@DAZZYVANDAM]

@@oldstylegaming I think it was the fact that you played from inside the car and could see the steering wheel as a kid that made you think ...Wow its like driving a real car😂😂 just good times

[@SuperPreacherX]

Really good video, again 🙂

[@jakek5417]

great idea for a video osg

[@20thcenturygamingc64]

Great video. I still have Sabre Wulf on tape, although it wasn’t as good as the speccy one, it should have been given a better score. On the other side, Bounder was overrated for me

[@Fox8ball.]

Yo OSG my man hope you are well buddy. excellent video mate 10/10 ♥️💪

[@oldstylegaming]

thanks mate

[@gumdeo]

Lemon is useful for correcting weird magazine scores.

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah Lemon 64 and Amiga are by far the best commodore sites around. proper reviews from people who actually played the games

[@rushmore3927]

LOL, I agree with Zapp that most of the 20 are not too good. I remember buying Commando for the C64 at Adam's World in Edgeware. The music is still cool.

[@keithbeesting]

Great video please do a video of games that were overrated by Zzap number one for me would be Ballblazer.

[@oldstylegaming]

I am definitely doing that video mate :-)

[@patsfan4life]

Agreed that game is overrated

[@andy6576]

Reviews are always personal opinions and should be treated as such, but when you're a kid with limited funds, Zzap64 was our bible. I always thought "Delta" was underrated. Yes, it scored in the 70s and yes, it was a memory test in which you had to pick up the right power-ups at the right time, but so was "Nemesis" and many other shmups of the time, so it's hardly a fair criticism. It's certainly the best of the three Stavros Fasoulas games, even though both "Sanxion" and "Quedex" scored higher.

[@ksauerrr]

They scored Commando so low?? Just for the iconic music alone it deserves the high praise. And Test Drive was fun too, although I never was really a fan of driving games. And Airborn Ranger??? I never got to play it back in the day, but played it recently on my C64 Maxi an it is great, almost like an Amiga game rather then C64.

[@RyanDanielG]

Love it, buddy! Thanks!

[@oldstylegaming]

Thanks mate

[@talideon]

10:45 - I have mixed feelings about Terramex. Maybe the C64 version was good but the 16-bit and Acorn 32-bt versions weren't. Much as I like Ben Daglish as a person, his music was very hit-and-miss, and the 16+-bit games Gremlin did were so much more slipshod.

[@jennisonb37]

Airborne Ranger was my favorite Amiga game for the longest time. I loved that game and agree it's in the top 30 (if not top 20) of all Amiga games.

[@jennisonb37]

I meant C64 :D

[@lastburning]

Rogue is a genre defining game. Very important historically.

[@ed_do]

Finally after many years I find the name of game, Terramax. Thank you very much. Katakis, the best shooter on C64.

[@pelimies1818]

Pretty unbelievable.. Thanks for the 5ideo!

[@voodoochile333]

Jesus. Loved zzap64. Thanks for the memories!

[@professorpenne9962]

in my country we did rely quite a bit on euro news, especially zap, for news about c64 games. having played everything on the list, none of the scores make any sense. I would have loved these games back in the day.

[@pedrotimoteo329]

I was expecting you to mention Pirates!, that 68% score was ridiculous for one of the best games of all time. But I guess you were looking for even lower scores (40s and lower)...

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah i based my searches on sub 50% but your right that is too low for pirates! .... oh it was scored even lower on the kixx label ...only 40% ...thats ridiculous

[@geoffreyjohnstone5465]

Love this video.....Didnt realise Commando was rated so low. I wasnt a fan of Test Drive myself but thats down to the style of the game. Catalypse just 30%???? Thats insane. Rogue is brilliant and I am happy playing it with ascii symbols. 10% suggests somebody either didnt understand the game or worse, didnt play it. How about a video of bad games that ZZap rated highly (80%+)??

[@oldstylegaming]

On with it now mate :-)

[@velouris76]

Great video again, you mention doing list of games scored far too high in ZZap 64…one that is for me top of that list is “The Eidolon”: awarded Gold Medal…and great graphics etc…but gameplay is utter tedium…

[@oldstylegaming]

Lol i like that game though haha ...not worth 97% though

[@velouris76]

@@oldstylegaming It was a game I desperately wanted to like, but just couldn’t sadly….great graphics though.

[@retrovertigoes]

Shocked by the score for 'Ninja', classic game.:O

[@oldstylegaming]

yeah, i bet at least one of the reviewers must have thought this is actually pretty good but then was swayed into the bad review by the others.

[@JeremyNasmith]

The reviewer said that Rogue was a Gauntlet clone? Haha. Rougue is the titular original for the entire genre of 'Roguelikes'! Now Gauntlet doesn't have procedurally generated levels, but if it did, it would be a Roguelike!

[@EdwardianTeaChest]

I didn't agree with the 36% they gave Night Racer by Mastertronic. It's not the best driving game on the C64, but it was certainly playable and deserved a much higher score.

[@oldstylegaming]

Yeah that actually could have been on here as its at least a 55% to 65% game that

[@theatheisthammer]

@old style gaming. The best thing about the British micro/games market is unlike the Americans a boy/girl could do a paper round or wash cars on a weekend and have enough money to go out and buy them for themselves filling you with a self achievement and pride, earning money and buying games that they earned and with the cheap price could amas a decent collection in a year

[@TheRetroManRandySavage]

Commando looks amazing. How could they hate on that.🤦‍♂️

[@batmandalorian5504]

Commando was incredible on C64 (and NES, too)

[@mariusmyhre7594]

Well, you could finish it in about five minutes...so there's that. I loved what was there, but you only got a taste of the whole arcade experience, which was kinda disappointing.

[@Mayhemerz]

The fact there’s only three levels of eight and it’s too easy? Play the Nostalgia version that is a proper conversion

[@ikeyasector]

Most of these games I played in the 80's. Never bought Zzap! because it wasn't available in my town (midwest USA). I'm surprised by their rating because most of these are on my personal top 20 list as well.

[@scottbreon9448]

You should do a video on games that Zzap gave too high a score to

[@thebaron9059]

Great video. Any plans to do a few Spectrum/CPC videos? Or maybe some direct comparisons?

[@oldstylegaming]

Maybe mate i think i could probs do this kind of video for any platform that had a magazine

[@thebaron9059]

@@oldstylegaming Great, I look forward to some Crash and Amtix antics then!

[@supersolenoid]

well, Zzap! UK were quite infamous at the time (in the rest of Europe) for their suspiciously high scores to half-assed games...

[@MexboroughBuildings]

Enjoyed that.

[@JeffreyvanderSchilden]

Didn't see that Test Drive thing go down the way it went down.. I personally love the test drive series on C64, but don't find it has aged well. Still.. Seeing the first edition of Test Drive go down that bad... what an eye opener... Not my perspective... That shit was the best back in the day! So amazing! Why would they burn it down.. Biased to arcade racers? weird!

[@wasabinator]

Totally agree about commando, the c64 version was brilliant

[@DukeJon1969]

I thought they were pretty hard on Rambo. Amazing music and presentation and although the game itself isn't great it's pretty decent

[@johnworsley7717]

I still play Airboure Ranger on my original C64 the original cassette to this day its MINT

[@Corsa15DT]

Test Drive had 2 big problems: 1. had to reload from tape after every stage or so. huge problem for C64 for many games of this type. 2. can't accelerate and steer at the same time. Othewise one of the best racing simulation games for the C64.

[@dace2150]

I always loved Commando on th c64, 1 of the best games I will always love it.

[@lurkerrekrul]

I had Adventure Construction Set when I was younger. I got it for Christmas back in the 80s. To be honest, I didn't like it. I loved the idea of it, but the actual execution fell short in my opinion. I tried playing the example game and it was so slow that I gave up in frustration. I don't mean the story, i mean the actual speed that the game ran at. When there was more than just your character on the screen, the game slowed to a crawl. It was then that I realized that any game I made with it would be equally as slow. That alone discouraged me from even trying to make a game with it.

[@khorgor]

Rogue, as in Rogue-like? I get it, those games are not for everyone, but that game helped create a whole genre. Reminds me of Rolling Stone magazine dismissing Black Sabbath as a band without any merit

[@pnvgordinho]

I don't think you can judge those guys. Those games were all they had game then and we, today have the nostalgia thing. We look at pixel games and we love them all. Look at the Philips videopac. All games are squares shooting triangles and I love some of those games. Im sure if you show these games to a person that was born in the playstation era and ask them to score the games, they would score even lower. But I have to agree with you, some of those games look cool and I would play them for sure.

[@richardwhitehead6966]

Championship Wrestling was so much fun.

[@frankbrodie5168]

Excellently presented video. But most of the bad reviews come solely down to the 'horses for courses' analogy. Did people back then even spend money on games based solely on reviews? Our town video games shop would stick ANY game for you to try before you buy. Not for more than 10 minutes maybe. But you could get the gist of a game if you were worried about your hard earned 2 quid being wasted. I could name 100 games that Zzap!64 scored far too highly in my opinion, as a contrast to this video. EVERY single Jeff Minter game for starters. Rignall only liked shoot-em-ups. Penn was a grumpy arse who disliked everything it seemed by the time he finished on Zzap. (I met them both. And Minter.) The reviews were a sidebar for me in Zzap. Just there to read and do a bit of a raised eyebrow at if I'd already seen a game they reviewed. The best bits of the magazine were the letters and cheat pages in my opinion. Even the ads are a joy to look back at when I browse through my set of scans of every issue. (And I also still own the first 50 or so actual issues of the mags.)

[@purplehaze2342]

Ah man I absolutely loved championship wrestling I used to be choss at it.

[@mariusmyhre7594]

Still have my original disc copy, which my brother gave me for christmas that year :)

[@krissymarklewis1793]

Wicked, was just looking for something cool to watch!

[@oldstylegaming]

Been a nightmare this one to be honest, I had the idea about a year ago and 2 weeks ago decided to do it.... my editor was throwing a fit at all the overlays etc so ive ended up not having labels in for each game but i do introduce each one

[@krissymarklewis1793]

Didn't Zzap give Renegade 3 a really high score when it was atrocious?

[@oldstylegaming]

yeah they reviewed it twice the full priced one got a staggering 90% then the Hitsquad release got 74% which is still too high. That one will be in the next zzap video i do on over inflated scores

[@krissymarklewis1793]

@@oldstylegaming It made me laugh when your Sinclair did a walkthrough for Target Renegade. FFS how can you do a walkthrough for a beat em up haha!

[@gfdggdfgdgf]

Commando, test drive, wrestling, badlands, airborne ranger are all games I played for hours and hours.

[@velouris76]

I remember Commando getting a rubbish review in ZZap64…and then, on a family holiday in N.Ireland, I played it on a cousin’s C64, and was blown away by how good it was!!!!… Much, much better than “Rambo” …which I’m sure ZZap gave a higher rating…

[@cptgunch]

Jetset Willy looks like Fearless Fred and the Factory of Doom

[@maxsmarts8210]

Awesome video mate , loved Test Drive , Airborne Ranger , Soldier One, Snow Strike, Ninja and Jetset Willy 2.

[@djmcintyre2360]

I reckon the scores were low in 92 as the reviewers had probably started gaming on the 16 bit consoles and were harsher on some of the old 8 bit classics. I still give Commando an outing on occasions. Thanks for reminding me of Terramex. One I completely forgot about…

[@pnvgordinho]

ZZap 64 had some cool covers.

[@leeannewillson7342]

Ninja got quite a bit of playtime from me in the day :)

[@MrRobbyvent]

I agree mostly with zzap , especially about commando, test drive, wrestling, and others which I know less and I judge just from the look.Terramex and Rogue, I agree, deserved more.

[@garrettspencer3887]

nice vid just supported u

[@oldstylegaming]

Supported?

[@garrettspencer3887]

@@oldstylegaming subbed to u

[@oldstylegaming]

@@garrettspencer3887 thanks mate. Have you just found my channel?

[@garrettspencer3887]

@@oldstylegaming actually no I think I already have but I wasn’t sure if I seen u on my channel

[@jaysmith2858]

There was a lot of 'shenanigans' going on back in the day when it came to reviews of both software and hardware. People think it's a modern phenomenon that goes on with review sites such as IGN, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes etc, but it certainly isn't. I've seen some videos/articles about what went on, and even back then 'critics' were paid off and/or often made up reviews/scores irrespective of whether they had played the game or not.

[@talideon]

11:22 - ah, yes. The worst period of Zzap / Commodore Force. Commodore Format was a great magazine overall that sometimes had dodgy full-price reviews, but the techy part was solid, and Roger Frames had generally accurate budget reviews earlier on, but Europress's effort to turn Zzap into a bad CF ruined a great magazine. I bought both up until the end.