Worst Ever Amstrad CPC Games

[Xyphoe]

So what were the worst Amstrad games in your opinion? Which were the embarrassing disasters? Insults to programming? Or blatant quick cash in rush jobs that should never have gone on sale? 

Might be opening a 'can of worms' with this one and a rather distasteful subject for us all, but I'm putting together a light hearted 'worst ever games for the amstrad' video and didn't want to miss any out. 

I think public domain, homebrew and type-in games should be discounted. There were also so many bad Amsoft games too which I'll probably lump all into together at some position in the vid.

The more important or larger impact of the game the better, rather than some cheapo budget knock off too.
eg OUTRUN over say some obscure 99p budget release that no-ones ever heard of

I'll start off ...

OUTRUN
WORLD CUP CARNIVAL
COUNT DUCKULA 2
ALTERED BEAST

[MacDeath]

=Black...Tiger...


Only for the fact I paid for this piece of crap...


=Xybots wasn't that bad (I paid for it too) as it had a sweet 2 player mode and to be honest, it is still far better than Speccy or C64 versions ... really...
but it could anyway be fairly better IMO.

The classic they could even had put the sprites in 3 colours...

[Xyphoe]

You really do hate Black Tiger don't you? 
I never played it, will take a look at it later. Is it any worse than the other Capcom conversion/speccy port that is Bionic Commando?

Xybots had the smallest playing screen ever!!!

[MacDeath]

Xybot : yes but it is the ancestor of Doomlike Network games... and manage to be faithfull to arcade gameplay.


Black tiger :
Sadly... this could have done a decent job even in mode1 but collision when you fire at enemies are attrocious.

Music is anoying at best... no sound effect otherwise.

Just imagine a lazier strider engine but even "worsterst".



Well, Bionic Commando was in colour inside the playfield... I guess...
But I hadn't played it at the time.


By the way to get a list, start with Speccy ports wikipage.

[Gryzor]

Please don't include Outrun... I know everyone keeps bashing it, but I found it was a good game in its own right. As a port, ok, maybe it sucked, but it was still much better than tons of other efforts!


Can't wait for the vid

[tastefulmrship]

When it comes to games lists like this, I'm kinda known for being consverative with my selections... and this is just the same!
It's only based on games I owned in the 80s/90s; so it doesn't include any games I've played since getting PC emulators & tons of .dsk files.


Amsoft (Bridge-it, Atom Smasher, Galactic Plague, Electro Freddy, Haunted Hedges, Rol-Ahoy, Rol-Caves, Rol-Run, Home Runner, Hunchback, Punchy, Mr Wong's, Qabbalah, Sultan's Maze, all sports related Amsoft games)
The Wild Bunch
Caves Of Doom
Chiller
Chopper Squad
Vampire Killer
Commando (No 3-channel music & no hiscore music! Disgusting)
Hi-Rise
Flimbo's Quest (No horizontal scrolling, so unplayable & crap title-music)
Ghouls
Knight Force
Kokotoni Wilf
Mr Freeze
Nemesis The Warlock (Load and listen to the music... but NEVER play the game)
Psycho Pigs UXB
<insert random name here> Simulator by Codemasters
St Dragon (horrible scrolling & graphics)
Starion
Trollie Wallie
Trashman


- Nothing controversial there, really!

[Gryzor]

Didn't Commando have a High-score music? I really do remember enjoying it... and, aside from that, an excellent game!

Chiller really broke my nerves - SO hard!

[nurgle]

I also remember Chiller as being one of the worst games I ever played on any platform.


Commando on the CPC was quite enjoyable though. Much better then the C64 version and it did have High Score music.


For really bad games, the Spectrum people had this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Buy_This
Hard to beat, really.

[EgoTrip]

Super Gran needs a mention, that game was terrible.

[tastefulmrship]

Didn't Commando have a High-score music? I really do remember enjoying it... and, aside from that, an excellent game!

No, you're right, it has 2-channel bleepy highscore music.
My mistake. I'll remove it from my list.

[McKlain]

Oh man, Psycho Pigs UXB was technically terrible but lots of fun 

[SyX]

Triple Comando... what a pile of s#$t!!! 

And how always, nobody expects the spanish "ugly ducklings"  Sorry, you will need a translator to read all the articles about the most unknow spanish game companies,  but i can promise hours of laughs, the first sentece is "Did you remember these companies? Did you have nightmares with their games?" 

[Jase]

Depends on how you define worst.


For me, Milk-Race by Mastertronic was really bad. First time I played it, I finished it in about 10 mins. It was then just put away and ignored.


Sorry Gryzor - but Outrun... SO SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWWWW to play... in fact, I use the term play quite loosely, more endure.


And, my most controversial choice is Alien-8 & Knightlore. I just didn't get it. Yes, a fake in isometric 3d... but the speed-ups and slow-downs when moving behind stuff (even worse when an enemy went behind things), the fact both games were pretty much the same... mad control methods, sound-fx ported from the spectrum. Looking back, I think I was forced into liking it because of the Ultimate label, obscenely high ratings and fancy packaging. This also put me off playing head over heels due to the similarities in graphics.

[sigh]

Outrun (DEFINITELY!!!)

Double Dragon 64KB version (Melbourne House)(DEFINITELY)

Streetfighter

[tastefulmrship]

And, my most controversial choice is Alien-8 & Knightlore. I just didn't get it. Yes, a fake in isometric 3d... but the speed-ups and slow-downs when moving behind stuff (even worse when an enemy went behind things), the fact both games were pretty much the same... mad control methods, sound-fx ported from the spectrum. Looking back, I think I was forced into liking it because of the Ultimate label, obscenely high ratings and fancy packaging. This also put me off playing head over heels due to the similarities in graphics.

I must disagree, I loved KNIGHTLORE & ALIEN-8 (and SABREWULF, though it wasn't iso-3D), but will admit that you needed to know the levels before playing the game to actually get anywhere and the playability did suffer from serious slow-down most of the time. The recent remake of KNIGHTLORE was superb, if a little easier to complete than the original... possibly due to the fact that it didn't slow down, making timing of all jumps nearly possible.


HEAD OVER HEELS and BATMAN were a lot better in terms of looks and gameplay, though still suffered from slow-down when lots of things (ie 2) moved onscreen at once. I would recommend giving HOH a go if you've still got the .dsk/3" handy.

Also, give HYDROFOOL a go if you've not played it. Not only does it have a Rob Hubbard tune he DIDN'T release on the C64, it's also a pretty good isometric game that doesn't slow-down... too much!

[nurgle]

Super Gran needs a mention, that game was terrible.

OMG forgot about that one. Have the original on tape. Awful.

[tastefulmrship]

The more important or larger impact of the game the better, rather than some cheapo budget knock off too.
eg OUTRUN over say some obscure 99p budget release that no-ones ever heard of

BARBARIAN 2 - Just plain rubbish in comparison to the brilliant, if a little samey, original!
GAUNTLET 3 - Terrible sequel that didn't need to exist!
GLIDER RIDER - Bombing was almost impossible & it was a blatant one-coloured Speccy port. The only redeeming grace was DW's awesome soundtrack!
JET SET WILLY - Why? The FINAL FRONTIER should have been the only JET SET WILLY game. Why have a cut-down version?
THE SENTINEL - Our version was diabolical in comparison to the 6502 and 68000 versions.

Anything with DIZZY or SEYMOUR... no, anything 8-bit from CODEMASTERS in general!

[Jase]

Anything with DIZZY or SEYMOUR... no, anything 8-bit from CODEMASTERS in general!

I quite enjoyed (Pro) Super Robin Hood (Simulator) by CM... and Pro (Super) BMX Simulator...
And the free version of (Pro) (Super) Dizzy (Simulator) given away by Amstrad Action (cos it was really easy to steal the music!)


But I have just remembered "Karl's Treasure Hunt"... Anyone remember that? The noise made when your character jumps... sounded like a depressed cow or something... Graphics were crude too, and the (can't think of another word for it) physics when your character does jump...

[MaV]

I quite liked Glider Rider and the first Dizzy game (haven't played the others).

Kane was awful, as was Radzone. I never could figure out what to do in Sweevo's World, though I liked all the other 3D isometric games I've played (either by Ultimate, or Batman, Head over Heels).

[tastefulmrship]

Kane was awful, as was Radzone. I never could figure out what to do in Sweevo's World, though I liked all the other 3D isometric games I've played (either by Ultimate, or Batman, Head over Heels).

I quite liked KANE and RADZONE, however BIOSPHERES (JDR's other CPC game) was bad. Also remember that RADZONE is written in BASIC with M/C sprite handling and random music routines!


I think this thread is beginning to lose its integrity somewhat, as personal preferences are dominating our choices. I think we should first establish what constitutes a BAD CPC GAME; is it graphics, sound, playability, badly programmed routines, lots of flickering sprites? Or should we just say AMSOFT and leave it there?

(Are there any good AMSOFT games? Even ROL-TIME is a little chunky & ROL-SPACE is simply unplayable)

[Gryzor]

BARBARIAN 2 - Just plain rubbish in comparison to the brilliant, if a little samey, original!

Aw, come on, even if th original was much better this doesn't make the sequel worth of a Worst Of list! It was actually quite a nice game, and Maria surely delivered once more!

[tastefulmrship]

Aw, come on, even if th original was much better this doesn't make the sequel worth of a Worst Of list! It was actually quite a nice game, and Maria surely delivered once more!

BARBARIAN 2 was just terrible! It took the pink-graphic from the original and stuck him in a game where you had to pixel-perfect jump over pits & lava flows, fight an infinite number of hideously-coloured creatures that had no AI other than hit & move forward & hit again and navigate a seemingly impossible maze... at the same time! Even a scantily clad Maria on the box couldn't save it. My petition stands.
And then they made a CPC+ cartridge version! Without changing the palette! (Did they change ANYTHING on the cartridge version?)

VIXEN wasn't a very good game either and that had a scantily clad Corinne Russell on the box!

[mr_lou]

I have to say, the biggest disappointment for me ever, was the CPC version of Bubble Bobble.
But that was because I'd been playing the original arcade version a lot, and was so looking forward to it on the CPC. When I heard it was coming for the CPC I had christmas lights in my eyes. Oh wow what great news!!!
And then it turned out to be... well, a completely different game almost! Huge disappointment.

Crap graphics, no music, slow, shit sound-effects, wtf?!
Also gave the CPC a bad name with all my C64 mates.


I don't understand though, why Radzone was brought up. I always found that to be a rather good game. Great atmosphere, good graphics, neat sound-effects, big map, entertainment for a long time.

[steve]

it seems to be true that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

[Gryzor]

Big disappointments do not a bad game make. That's a different issue?