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The One Amiga

Let's take a look at another big hitter for Amiga games, a mag that I found myself purchasing quite a bit actually, well, more than Amiga Power & Amiga Action, which is a bit of a shock for me really, as I always preferred the more "general purpose" mags with a mix of serious content as well as gaming content (so the likes of Amiga Format, Amiga Computing, CU Amiga etc.) but, there's no denying, The One had some great coverdisks, but sometimes some quite questionable reviews, so let's take a look at the issues of The One that I actually bought back in the day.

The One Amiga: Issue 65 (February 1994)

I kinda bought this one on a whim (pardon the pun), but I ended up really enjoying the coverdisks here, and there was also an article in the mag revealing the finishing moves for Mortal Kombat which was good, as I borrowed the game off a mate for a couple of weeks.

The Magazine

So, this one is packed with reviews, some good, some bad, and some? .......... well, I'll explain about at least ne of them.

In this issue, they review Dangerous Streets for the CD32, and it's a scathing review, they absolutely slate the shit out of the game, with the reviewer even claiming that they bought a CD32 for a younger child in the family that cried when they saw how awful Dangerous Streets was. But, this is actually important, as exactly 20 months later, The One have a very different view of the game when it made it's way on to the coverdisk 🤔

The Coverdisks

Disk 1 - Beneath A Steel Sky: I'd never heard of this game at that time, and I didn't really know much about "point and click" games, but this was my introduction to the genre, and boy I was here for it. This is an absolute gem of a game, and it was a decent demo too. It took me a while to work out how to not get shot and killed almost immediately in to the game, but once I worked it out, I had quite a bit of fun with this game. I actually completed the demo, and really wanted the full game, but I'm kind of glad I didn't get it, as the RSI of swapping 16 disks would've been quite painful.

Disk 2 - Super Methane Bros: "Ma, can I get Bubble Bobble?" - "We have Bubble Bobble at home!" ...... maybe I'm being a bit unkind there, but it does have quite similar gameplay to Bubble Bobble, but it does do it's own things too. I really enjoyed this one, and just like Bubble Bobble, this game also has a total earworm of a tune that you'll be happily humming along for ages afterwards. Yeah, this is good game, if a little hard. The presentation is top notch, and the addictive gameplay is also there.

Conclusion for this issue

Amazing coverdisks, some good reviews, and some "interesting" thoughts about Dangerous Streets 🤣

The One Amiga: Issue 77 (February 1995)

I can't believe it was a whole year before I got another issue of "The One" but it is what it is. I was still all about CU Amiga and Amiga Format, and had just discovered Amiga User International too, so I had a wealth of magazines to choose from. But this one was also a pretty good mag.

The Magazine

There's quite a few good reviews, including some PD stuff reviewed too, and some game previews, but before we get on that, they also have tips for Mortal Kombat II which was definitely worth a read - I didn't even own that game, but as I've said before, I was obsessed with fighting games, and loved reading about them as much as playing them.

I was a bit surprised about the mag's review of Death Mask in this issue though, as it only scored 58%. Personally, I don't think the game is that bad, and I enjoy the game, it's a good game and that's a hill I'm willing to die on 🤣

The Coverdisks

Marvin's Marvellous Adventure AGA: I didn't own an A1200, so this was a wasted disk. I formatted it and used it for something else.

Shadow Fighter: What a demo to have on the coverdisk. Of course, being a demo, you're limited on only two characters, but it was definitely worth the play, and I so wish I owned the full game back then, but alas, I didn't. This game proves that the Amiga can do one-v-one fighters properly, and that the lazy ass port of the original SF2 game was down to poor coding.

Conclusion on this issue

Not a bad mag, some good reviews, nice tips pages too and at least one good demo (didn't get to try the other) - yeah, I like this one

The One Amiga: Issue 79 (April 1995)

A couple of months later, I bought another issue of The One, and I was enticed by the contents of the mag and the coverdisks.

The Magazine

Let's address what's on the cover, big and bald, and exclusive look at the up and coming "Super Street Fighter II", not a review, but a preview look at it so far. It looks and promises to be good, and this version did turn out rather well for the Amiga (much better than the original and more playable than the following Super Turbo release) then there's the reviews, quite a few, but also one that made me laugh - I said I though that the Amiga Action review for Kick Off 3 was the lowest I saw at 29%, but I'd forgot that The One scored Akira CD32 at 6% ......... yes, SIX PERCENT 🤣 that did make me laugh.

The Coverdisks

X-Fighter: of course I was going to be enticed by this, it's a new up and coming fighting game, promising to be better than Street Fighter II, it was going to be the "killer app" of Amiga fighting games, but alas, it needed 2MB, and I only had a stock A500+ with 1MB. I browsed the contents of the disk and discovered that this looked like an AMOS game, having *.abk files (AMOS memory banks) so I loaded them in and examined the sprite data and background graphics. I kept the disk for a while in the hope I'd get a memory upgrade, but I never did, and ended up eventfully formatting the disk for use for something else.

It's worth noting a couple of things, this game was also called "Kwok's Game" on an Amiga Action coverdisk, but also, X-Fighter (or Kwok's Game) was never released.

Flight Of The Amazon Queen: I love this game, and I'm going to say it - whilst many cite one of the Indiana Jones games, or Beneath A Steel Sky, or even Monkey Island as the best point-n-click game, I say no, it's Flight Of The Amazon Queen. The humour is what makes this one tbh. I will say though, that the demo is quite short and I completed this in no time, but it was worth it.

Conclusion for this issue

One great demo, one I never got to see, some good reviews and a scathing review of Akira. This was a good read for me at the time and one good game to play.

The One Amiga: Issue 82 (July 1995)

Well I had to get this one, it's got Super SF2 on the coverdisk, and it's the OCS/ECS version, so I could actually play this sucker .......... let's take a look

The Magazine

Quite a few reviews in the mag, including a look at the CD32 version of X-Fighter that appeared on the coverdisk a few months back, however, I'm not sure how they looked at the CD32 version if it wasn't released, especially as it's unlikely a CD would've been pressed of this game, but I dunno, maybe there's a CD or an ISO out there somewhere.

F1 World Championship Edition got reviewed, and slated at only 58%, which I strongly disagree with, as it's a great game. I do wonder if they played the same game as me tbh.
Virocop got 88% which I think is a little low for the game (but it is a favourite of mine)
Tactical Manager 2 got 24% which is unforgivable - whilst football games are far from my favourite, as far as football management sims are concerned, TM2 is a lot more accurate than many others - sure, it doesn't have the presentation of it's contemporaries, but it's about the game, not the look
Player Manager 2 only got 49%, so maybe The One had grown tired of football management sims by this point.
Both the budget re-release on floppy, and the CD32 release, of Syndicate, scored 90% which I think is more than it deserves, but that's only my opinion

Coverdisk #1: Blitz Bombers & Wooglies

Blitz Bombers: I gave this one a miss, as it's an A1200 only game and I still only had an A500+

Wooglies: I didn't really get in to this one, which is a surprise, as I like a good puzzle game, I just couldn't grasp this one

Coverdisk #2: Super Street Fighter II (OCS/ECS version)

This demo is limited to either playing as Blanka or Deejay - its a good thing Blanka is one of my favourite characters (and has been "my main" for years) - it plays well, but graphically it looks a bit rough. It's a good effort for the standard Amiga, but the platform is really showing it's age by this point, and it's time to admit that the Amiga is a bit long in the tooth now, as much as I don't want to admit it. Still, it was a worth while demo to play.

Conclusion for this issue

Some baffling review scores, one good demo, but The One is starting to decline.

The One Amiga: Issue 85 (October 1995)

Well, The One are giving away full games now, but this is a weird one that I just had to get, not because I thought the game was good, but because I remember the abysmal review this game got 20 months ago.

The Magazine

By this point, the mag was pretty light on content, and rather thin, weighing in at only 64 pages (and that includes the front & back covers)

There was only a handful of actual reviews, and there seemed to be a lot of "filler" here now. A bit of a disappointing mag these days.

The Coverdisk: Dangerous Streets

So basically, this is the full commercial game, complete with manual copy protection. The One printed pages from the manual in the mag, but they didn't print all the pages, and sometimes the game asked for a word that was not included in the mag, which straight away was frustrating.

As for the game? Well, it's a one-v-one fighter, it's not great, but is it as bad as The One made out earlier in the mag's life? No, it's not, it's at least a little bit playable, but it's more of a curiosity and doesn't do anything that you'd actually want. The characters are just plain bizarre, they have weird back stories too, which make no sense at all.

Was it worth getting the mag for this game? Absolutely not, but at this stage, Amiga titles were starting to dwindle and where I lived, it was impossible to get Amiga games, even if you could afford them ....... I was desperate for something new to play.

Conclusion on this issue

One word: disappointing

The One Amiga: Issue 87 (December 1995)

At this point, it feels like The One are "phoning it in" - there's not a lot of mag content, the coverdisk, although a full game, isn't the best. I think this is sign of what's to come for The One.

The Magazine

It's another wafer thin mag with not much content. There's only a few reviews here, lets take a look

Coala - 90% - I never played this at the time, but it doesn't look good - taking a quick look on Lemon Amiga, it doesn't seem like this game is worth that high score
Flight Of The Amazon Queen - 91% - well, I love this game, but I'm a bit biased here, so I think it's worth it, but it depends on if you like point-n-click games
Super Tennis Champs - 93% - it's a generic Tennis game, I like it, it's good, but it's not 93% good
Team - 69% - I've never heard of this, and I'm struggling to find any information on this one. I can only assume it was that bad nobody bought it.

Preview wise, they look at Primal Rage and Hillsea Lido, the latter of which appeared on a future coverdisk, full game for free.

The Coverdisk: Baddiel & Skinner's Fantasy Football Manager

Not a great game, but I was really looking for something new to play. It's kind of generic for a football management game, but the screens showing a pic of the two look really good for an OCS/ECS pic.

I played it a couple of times, but it's kind of forgettable.

Conclusion on this issue

This was the last issue of "The One" that I ever bought, and I can see why. The magazine has massively declined and was getting thinner by each issue. Even the coverdisks couldn't save it anymore

Conclusion

Let's be honest, The One was very varied - the coverdisks were alright in the early days, but dropped off towards the end of the mags life. The reviews were questionable, and revisiting the same game later could yield wildly different review scores.

The One wasn't the most trustworthy mag, but, I enjoyed the coverdisks in those earlier days.

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