This is another one of the mainstream "games focused" Amiga magazines. It's a bit of an odd one, the quality of the coverdisks declined over time, and the reviews weren't always the best, but it was always worth a read and it was always good to get something interesting on the disk, even if it wasn't always the best games featured, so let's take a look at the Amiga Actions mags that I had.
This was the first Amiga Action mag I ever got. I rarely saw this mag in stock so I wasn't really aware of it's existence until this issue, despite having been around for a while, but this was a good mag, so let's take a look.
With 16 games reviewed, and 3 previews, this was a bumper magazine packed to the rafters. There's some great reviews here too, looking at the CD32 version of Zool, and looking at Fury Of The Furries which also ended up on the coverdisk. There's a decent review of The Settlers too, which is a game I really got in to on the Amiga. Yeah, I'm glad I got this issue.
I was obsessed with one-v-one fighters, they're probably still my favourite genre, and this was one I was excited about. So, I booted up the demo. Yeah, it plays well, looks nice, but you're only limited to two characters. BUT, Puppet is a superb character to have, which makes a changes, as usually they pick crappy characters for these games. However, only having two characters and one fight, it meant that it soon lost it's hook after being played a few times.
Baldy: ok, so it's a simple game, it's ok though. It's not got a lot of replay value here though, and its kinda dull after the first few goes, but it is a PD game and it's the full game, so you can't expect too much.
Fury Of The Furries: I've saved the best till last ......... now this is a stonker of a game. Even as I write this, I can hear the music in my head. The game play is quite varied, a nice challenge but not too difficult to put you off. I always wanted the full game of this but could never afford it at the time, but, it was definitely a worth while demo to put on the disk.
8 Top Demos? 4 Full Games? The Decisive Verdict on World Cup Games? Exclusive Reviews? ....... What's not to like? Well, let's take a look in to this issue of Amiga Action
Well, to begin with, this is packed to the rafters with about 25 game reviews packed in to them pages. But, it's not just quantity, some quality games are reviewed here, with the likes of Apidya, Banshee, Frontier Elite II, Elfmania, International Sensible Soccer and also, what I think is the lowest scoring review, Kick Off 3 (only getting 29%) - yeah, I liked this mag, and I think this was probably the peak for the magazine itself, but the coverdisks, well that's a different story, so let's dive in to the those free pieces of plastic that came with.
Wembley International Soccer: I'll get this out the way with first, it's AGA only, requiring an A1200, which I didn't have, so never played it ...... tbh, I'm not big on footy games, so this didn't bother me, but it was wasted space on the disk.
Tic Tac Toe: This is not what you think it is, it's actually a fruit machine simulator - tbh, it kinda sucks, it feels like it was rushed and made in a couple of hours. It's an empty experience and a waste of disk space (only my opinion of course)
Sensible Massacre: Now this is the redeeming feature of this disk. It's a fun little game that allows you to enact your revenge on the Holland football team for knocking England out of the qualifiers in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. You play as the goalkeeper, but you're throwing grenades at the dutch players in a sort of Missile Command meets Cannon Fodder style. I had a laugh with this one.
Gooch Cricket: this is an addon for the full game, and not owning the full game, I was unable to play this, but tbh, I'm not a fan of Cricket games anyway, so this wasn't up my street
Simon: Waste of disk space. Remember the Simon toy? It's that but on your computer. It loses it's interest about 5 seconds after you've booted it up.
Shoot Pontoon: It's the classic card game but on your Amiga. I like the card game, and I enjoyed this a bit. It looks like it's written in AMOS Pro as the UI has the "AMOS Pro Interface" look about it. Either way, it was a nice distraction, even if it's not the best game in the world.
D-Day: It's the well known war-game where you play out the events of D-Day (hence the name) - I tried to get on with this but it was a bit too slow and a bit boring for me. I'm sure there's quite a lot of game here if it's the sort of thing you're in to, but it's just not my bag.
Missile Command: Now, the disk label says "Not quite, but it's close enough to not matter" but I think this is one of the best ports or clones of the classic arcade game I've played, and it's a PD game too. Yeah, this is definitely the highlight of the coverdisks this issue.
Plenty of content in the mag itself, lots of reviews, but a poor showing from the coverdisks.
So, Amiga Action, huh? Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Coverdisk wise it was a bit disappointing, but the mag content itself was pretty decent if gaming is your primary focus for the Amiga. Looking back at older issues, Amiga Action had some kick ass coverdisks in the early days, but the quality of these declined over the years, and I wonder if that's because the games companies didn't want to send them stuff to put on the disks, and therefore AA had to fill the disks with PD titles, which vary in quality.
Either way, Amiga Action wasn't all bad, and I'm sure it has it's fans.