The 10 Amiga games that rocked my childhood

I've been playing computer games for as long as I can remember. The first system (if you can call it that) I had was an Acorn tape driven thing. I remember you used to have to put in the cassette, press play, go for a bike ride, come home and have dinner, watch The Demon Headmaster, Woof, Knightmare or whatever else was on tele and then go back to check if the level had loaded. Then you'd play for 30 seconds, die, and then have to rewind the cassette and go through the whole thing again. Thank God for technological advances.

Before I got the PS3 that I currently game on these days, I used my PC, but before that, it was the Amiga. The Amiga 600 more specifically. I loved that thing and spent many an hour playing through game after game or 24bit goodness.

What follows is my top 10 Amiga games. The games that shaped my childhood. The games that turned me into the gamer I'll gladly call myself today. The games that you should have played, and if you didn't, shame on you.

10. Body Blows
My first beat 'em up of choice. Four disks of greatness. Unfortunately, my disk four didn't work, so this remains the only game on my list that I didn't complete.



9. Lotus Turbo Challenge 2
I can still remember some of the level codes. "Liverpool" was one, and "Peasoup" was another. Suffice to say I played this far too much!



8. SuperFrog
Super. Frog. He was a frog. But super. What more could you ask for?



7. Desert Strike
This game took me so long to complete. It was epically difficult. Taking on an entire army with a single chopper does have a tendency to be challenging though.



10. The Blues Brothers
Me and my brother would play this in two player mode for hours. I was always the tall slim guy, and my brother was the short fat one. Pretty much how we still are today.



5. Zool
Zool. The Alien from the Nth Dimension. Where was the Nth Dimension? Well you never found out. But I remember that you had to collect sweets and play music on big pianos for bonuses, which was cool. Also the soundtrack kicked ass.



4. Cannon Fodder
Left click move. Right click shoot. So simple. Go satisfying.



Sensible Soccer
They don't make football games like this anymore, which is a shame. Top down and the ability to run in eight directions. Oh, and you could design your own kits too. What more could you want?



2. Frontier Elite 2
This took over my life for a short period. Arguably one of the greatest games ever. But if you ever played it, you already know that.



1. Flashback
Horribly complex puzzles and horribly hard baddies, but gorgeous levels, great gameplay and graphics that beat most other things out at the time. This game ruined any social life I may have otherwise had, even if my first version was in French.



Ones that almost made the top 10:
Batman: The Movie
Cool Spot
Chuck Rock
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
Earthworm Jim
Speedball 2
The Chaos Engine
The Secret of Monkey Island