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I’m talking about Blackthorne and Lost Vikings.  Back in the DOS days (or SNES if you played it on SNES), these games were absolutely fantastic, and the graphics were stunning for a game in those days.

Lost Vikings revolves around you (the player) controlling three vikings.  It’s a side-scrolling platformer, and each viking has unique skills.  One carries a shield (that he can use to fly or use as a platform for the other vikings), another can use swords, and yet another one specializes in running and bulldozing.  Each level involves puzzles that require you to utilize one, two, or all three vikings in order to solve.  Great graphics and original gameplay make this a must-play!

Blackthorne was another great game.  It’s also a platformer, but it involves playing as a prince known as Blackthorne, and your job is to stop the evil Sarlac.  Like Lost Vikings, this isn’t the type of platformer where you just run and jump around!  You carry a gun to kill orcs, and the battles are just challenging enough to keep you entertained, but never so hard that it drives you crazy.  You can use a combination of items to advance through each level and solve puzzles, and it should provide hours of fun if you’re looking for a retro arcade style game.

Total Annihilation was hands down my favorite game back in the 1990s.

Released by the now defunct Cavedog software, it was the best and most advanced RTS game even a decade after its release.

Don’t believe me?

GameSpy released a list of the top 10 RTS games of ALL TIME in February 2004, and Total Annihilation tops the list:

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/february04/rts/index11.shtml

It even managed to beat out Starcraft (#2) and Warcraft 3 (#4).

Yes, we all know Starcraft and Warcraft are mega-popular and have sold huge numbers.  Sales figures don’t always correlate with best gameplay though.

For example, in Starcraft and even all the way up to Warcraft 3, you cannot dodge bullets.  Total Annihilation was released in 1997 with a physics engine that allows you to dodge bullets.  Starcraft and Warcraft battles may feature around 50 units for a “huge” battle.  Total Annihilation features over 1000 units in a mid-size battle.

If you’re a fan of strategy games and you haven’t played Total Annihilation yet, you need to get it.  You can probably buy it on eBay for a few bucks.

It loosely translates to “shot on goal” – a football reference.

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