The 100 Best Commodore 64 Games - Reviewed In Zzap!64
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- Опубліковано 28 січ 2024
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Hey whatsup guys OSG here with another epic 100 games list and this time it’s the 100 Commodore 64 games that were rated the best by Zzap!64
Obviously Zzap never reviewed every C64 game but they did a hell of a lot of them and this video will show you the 100 games that scored highest from Sizzlers to Gold medal games.
There were a lot of same percentage scores to be honest so for that reason I’ve cross matched them against scores from Lemon64 to get a better order than alphabetically in each percentage bracket.
I have to say that this list really surprised me as to how some games were higher than games that are absolute classics…. So don’t shoot the messenger I’m only reporting on the scores that were in the magazine and not my personal opinion.
As with my other 100 games videos I won’t be voice overing them as it would take just to dam long.
Anyway sit back grab a coffee and watch the 100 best Commodore 64 games as reviewed by Zzap!64 - Ігри
The C64, Amiga and Zzap!64 days were just glorious and I'm so glad I got to grow up in this era. Thank you for creating this video and celebrating the halcyon days!
great times mate, kids will never feel what we felt back then, waiting for magazines to come out to see what we should buy next...
Same here! Had tea and biscuits waiting for them to load🙂
Yep good times the evolution of home computers and consoles, trips to the arcades and fantastic movies that have really rubbish sequels and remakes these days good times no wonder there is such a demand for retro gaming
This post says it all
Same, though for me it was the Speccy and Crash.
24:52 That little elephant shouting C - C - CO*K! in Swedish will never NOT be funny. XD
Arkanoid load soundtrack at the intro - love it
You're right, the order is pretty bizarre for many of these games! None of them are bad games, but especially the US-made games seem almost randomly inserted. Thanks for putting this together, was a fun watch.
But the class games still stand out!
That's true, Robin. Some great games on this list, but the order is a bit of a mystery. I guess different reviewers like different things and score them that way. I might put Bubble Bobble in the top ten, but number one?
Great work, OSG! I love the sound of the famous CID chip so much. In the right hands, it was truly remarkable.
Its not CID chip its Zzid chip
The Cound Interface Device?
@@stevenmillward4105 Yikes, I can't believe I typed that. LOL.
Top video. A lot of my youth was lost to many of these games. Great day's.
They were great days mate, thanks for watching
Zzap and commodore format i miss those days.. especially the tapes.. i would love to see if they've been packed into roms
Not sure if ever reviewed but Bandits was an amazingly cool and addictive port of something. Also, a scrolling pinball game which I played for hours and hours..
i really enjoyed thank you
Zzap!64 What a fantastic mag! I bought it religiously every month, the reviewers were great and the reviews were almost always spot on. So many classic C64 games here! So much nostalgia! Would've been nice if you displayed the magazine cover from which the reviews came, Zzap!64 had some amazing cover artwork every month, they always stood out on the shelves....Great vid m8
lol you know I had them covers cos I gave them to you, it was just to intensive for my editor mate, it took over 3hrs to render this, on top of that about 5 hrs yesterday making the labels for each video...these 100 games lists are sooooo labour intensive
when I start streaming with RetroB8 you could come on as a guest and we could discuss your love for Zzap!
Yeah! I was just wondering why you hadn't used em! Yeah! 100 is a lot of work! Why not do the next one in 2 vids of 50 each maybe? @@oldstylegaming
maybe mate, I have a lot of ideas in my head as you know...its just getting them on screen thats the problem lol
Where Salamander and Retrograde are😅
The graphics of Entombed and the others in that series were so captivating, they really felt like adventures even though I couldn't get very far. I do remember Guardian as a really excellent Defender port. Missing: Gribbly's Day Out! Amazing game, if difficult.
My first issue was Issue 45. Had a cover tape on the front with the Robocop demo and Full game Parallax. Reviewers were Gordo, Kati and Mat. Had Amiga reviews but they were at the back.
Hey OSG! So, I have an idea for a series of videos. What if you did a Zzap 64/Commodore Force review vs. a Commodore Format review, and which magazine had that game's review more accurate to how you would score it.
Great idea, ill note it down and do some research.
that discord notification sound at 20:03 though
Great work and sweet memories! I remember HES Games as being called Going for Gold. Wasn’t that the UK name?
It was rereleased in the UK as Go For The Gold, Was also called Gold Medal Games in the states too. Was always one of my favourites. The hurdles in particular always stood out as being pretty much perfect when you managed to get the timing down
need to play some of these games again, love the last ninja 3 soundtrack.
Wow what a cracking video.some amazing games on the list but a few dodgy scores too , golden axe would be great but no more than 3 enemies on screen at once so for me way better like target Renegade out there . Ghouls n ghosts not a great conversion bar the music lol
I thought Double Dragon 2 was a far better game than Golden Axe on the C64. And Cauldron 2 getting that score. Once that pumpkin starts bouncing it's uncontrollable.
Very cool to see all the best c64 games in one video! Or the best rated anyhow 😛. Turrican 😍
Had some crazy stuff on the old C64 amazing what some devs could squeeze into 64K
Great playing of Green Beret, that one is really hard.
Anyone know if there is a term for that late 64 era pixel style employed in games like Robocop, Dragon Ninja, Target Renegade, Navy Seals etc? Like, quite fine grained, less blocky, smaller character style?!
Personally I dont know, im not a coder, but Ill ask someone and reply back on here later...or he will reply on here
Maybe another video. Lol
I think most or all of those games use the "sprite overlay" technique, which involves putting a high-resolution single-colour sprites (usually black) on top of a multi-colour sprite which when done right can give the impression of having a 4-colour hi-res sprite. The only problem is that you're using 2 sprites instead of 1 so it needs to fit in with the game design to only allow 4 of these sprites (instead of the usual 8) in any given horizontal area of the screen.
@@8_Bit OMG thank you so much!!
@@oldstylegaming 😀🙏
Mercenary was an incredible achievement. I remember the feeling that I was playing something that I'd never seen the like of before. Go where you want, when you want, how you want. I suppose it was just Elite on the ground but leaving Targ has stayed with me.
Great vid🎉 47:40 Why is in-game music different for Ghost'n'Goblins? Are there different versions?
Yeah the one in this video is actually the 'recent' remake released in 2015 called Ghosts'n Goblins Arcade (released by Nostalgia)
Yeah it's the new version that adds missing levels
So many must haves! though the freescape games haven't aged well, the game you showed for Mercenary seconded city looks suspiciously like the first game.
Golden axe was pants, I played alter ego years ago, great game couldn't beat Turrican though
This is an Epic compilation
Ok settling in for this one, looking forward to it... must admit didnt think it would kick off with a game at 92%, that is a lot of games in that 8%. This would actually make an excellent set to go for the Zzap!64 100 set for us collectors.
The amount of work (and time) you put into these things...it really is appreciated, mate. Great vid. 🙂
yeah pain in the arse these long ones really with all the splicing and and labels
So many masterpiece
I think Zzap! may have taken the odd kick-back here and there.
Two games off the top of my head that could have been in this list: Stunt Car Racer (92%) and Scarabaeus (96%).
tremendous idea for a video! They really never got to spend enough time with games, they've admitted as much since, but they did alright overall. Except with Hawkeye :D I could even smell a rat back then, sometimes all is not what it seems.
how in gods name did ballblazer get 98% thats what I want to know...maybe it was after a heavy night on the drink they reviewed that.....
@@oldstylegaming probably down to the two-player mode, which can be fun. It sucks as a solo game.
I have every issue of Zzap! - the first one I bought was issue no. 6. I remember trying to get the first five from their back issues department, but they only had 2-5 available as the first issue had sold out, so I placed an ad in MicroMart to which Julian Rignall himself responded and enabled me to complete my collection! Brilliant! Not only did I get Issue One, but must've spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with him, talking about the Commodore 64!
And, if I hadn't been such a shy, spotty and awkward young teenager, I might have got to have a go at the Scorelord's Challenge.....but when he was going "I AM the Scorelord", all I could come back with is "yeah, I know". He must have thought "what an idiot, he doesn't get it".....
Oh well. I blew it.
If only, eh?
Haha
@@oldstylegaming PS Have you got 'The Sentinel' by Firebird in there? They thought it was so good, they refused to give it a rating!
Well my younger sister wouldn't argue with the #1 fosho! She was 16 by then, and her boyfriend would be at the house as I left for work some mornings. I'd stick my Commodore 64 on the coffee table in front of the TV for them to play 2 player games or whatever. And come back from work to find them marathoning that particular game. They had entire devious strats worked out whereby he would sacrifice his own character so she could progress without dying. Thereby getting all the level skip power ups to appear.
I loved Zzap!64 back in the day. I love shootemups and if Rignall liked it I knew I would. Looking back at some of these games I am not sure they have stood the test of time very well but for their day they were all pretty amazing. So much innovation coupled with some almost perfect arcade ports.......what a time to have been young and own a C64
It seems Zzap were very... generous... with handing out high-scoring reviews in their earlier issues.
Buggy boy a stonewall classic on c64.
Didn't see shinobi on the list😢
Tusker was amazing for its time too. I was also thinking that Rainbow Islands and Turrican should be have been on the list too :)
great video, but as you mentioned there are games missing, many in fact, the ones you mentioned plus Wizball, spindizzy, uridium, sanxion, the eidolon, thrust, spellbound, scarabaeus, winter games, summer games 2, world games, starquake, the untouchables, park patrol, slamball. All these plus a few more I can think of off the top of my head all scored above 92% so should have been included
Zaxxon should have been on there, that game was amazing!
Which version though? There were two
MP Soccer is still the best football game out there! ;)
Great game mate, I spent half my life on that game when I was a kid, I actually like it better than Sensible Soccer but maybe thats down to nostalgia
My mate and I always tried to get Ireland to the final: I would play the first half and he the second. It literally killed us just trying to draw against Brazil, hands and joysticks destroyed. Great gaming days. @@oldstylegaming
Small nitpick, but for Ghosts n Goblins you used remake footage instead of original Elite release :)
Oh.... when i get footage I just save them into a folder to reuse, ive made a note of that
Likewise with Executive Leaderboard footage instead of the original Leaderboard. 😊
*Ghosts, I think you are confusing it with the sequel Ghouls n Ghosts
@@scottbreon9448 Fixed, thank you :)
Bubble Booble righfully deserved the top place. The C64 version surpasses the NES one by a mile.
yup, my fave game of the whole 80's
AH! The days of the Commodore 64 and Zzap! 64 indeed.
Back when magazines would actually have free games on their covers. And often what were at the time AAA games. (Hawkeye from this list springs to mind.)
Yeah.. You were paying for the magazine. So it wasn't like free games on Steam these days even. But for people like myself who bought the magazine every month anyway, the games were indeed free as per I paid nothing for them.
Still own a vast chunk of Zzap! 64 magazines. I'm going to say the first 50 issues I think. Some are in bad bad condition. But then, some aren't. And I've had a folder on my PC with every page of every issue scanned for well over 20 years at this point. Along with a full set of CRASH! scans as well.
Rambo and Wizball were great games in my opinion, a shame they weren't featured high enough
Sorry mate...thats my fault, wizball defo scored high enough but for some reason went missing from my spread sheet
A reminder that 9x% in 1985 is very different from 9x% in 1990!
Colossal score on Paradroid there, btw 👍
I always found the German "PowerPlay" magazin so much more reliable & accurate with its ratings ❤
More retro channels on YT should take their reviews in account...
Ill take a look, maybe do a comparison between the magazines
Surprise Pool of Radiance didn't make it. Also Zak McCracken, and Turrican 1+2. Rick Dangerous was also quite fun.
they never made it cos they never got reviewed which is really surprising as Zzap was still going when they were released
Zak McCracken was reviewed in issue 47 and given 93% on the C64. It even made the front cover@@oldstylegaming .
@@oldstylegamingin zzap 61, Turrican had 97%, and Turrican 2 in zzap 70 had 96% ;)
@@robertomartin9124 oh... i have missed that, for some reason turrican 2 wasnt on my sheet.... ffs
Kind to think of it, I don't think they reviewed a lot of RPGs. Mostly general action games, platformers, sports games, shooters and adventure games.
No Rainbow Island... was 92%, I suppose it didn't make the 100 entry cut... (I thought was higher than 92, "Zzap!", the italian version of "Zzap!64", gave it 95!)
I really need to fix my Commodores
best thing you will ever do for memories
For some reason I thought Mayhem In Monsterland and Lemmings were going to be top. I (mis)remember them getting crazy scores (something like 100% and 110% !) but I might be mixing it up with another c64 magazine ....
Commodore Format gave mayhem 100% i know
Mayhem was overrated in my opinion. Great technical achievement, but the gameplay is overrated. The Creatures games were FAR BETTER IMHO
As someone who grew up with an NES and never got into Commodore/Amiga I appreciate these lists. There are too many games to go through for each system and I simply don't have the time. I'd rather focus on the best each system has to offer instead of wading through a tonne of crap to find one gem.
I wish there were top 100 lists for games that didn't require any keyboard input, only controller inputs, though. I put together mini emulation devices for friends/family and most of them are not keen on PC style gaming. They just want to sit on their couch with a wireless controller and play games like that. With that said, I wish there was a database, or at least a top 100, of Commodore and Amiga games that you can play with a controller only so that I can expose them to some of these classic games without worrying that they may need to bring up a virtual keyboard to press specific buttons... you know, the KISS method, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."
You can map keyboard keys to a joypad. For example TheC64 has mapped space, return, run/stop, F7 and P that covers a hell of a lot of c64 games as far as keyboard input goes
But.... you do have a point... i might look into a video like that.
@@oldstylegaming that would be awesome
I was quite surprised Cybernoid was in the list. It's a great game in many ways, but it's difficulty levels were so fierce I thought it might have lost a few % points.... Shows what I know !
Armalyte is rock hard too
@@oldstylegamingI should have waited till the end..... It's a great list with some corners, but Head Over Heels at 98%????? That must have been reviewed the day after a heavy Christmas party !
@@steelpatriot3683 lol, head over heals is pretty good mate
The developer of the original Spectrum version was known for making ridiculously hard games, But ZZap had a hard on for hard games anyway. They gave Hercules like 93 percent
That's a sorry way to land an airplane 😂 #50 Chuck Yeager
Hahaha i know right
@@oldstylegaminghaha these game developers can be really mean lol how can you be expected to be good at all 100 games? 🤣
I was expecting Highlander to be higher?!
Because Highlander was a shit game
Usually really enjoy OSG. Not sure why no Summer Games 2 @ 97% or Winter Games @ 94% arent here? 2 of the most famous C64 games released in the 80s.
Yeah there has been an error when sorting in my excel file..... i removed duplicates as lots of games were re released on budget and re reviewed.... unfortunately it completely removed some great games...i will right this eventually.... dont not enjoy my videos over it though mate it was an honest mistake. Ill pin a comment tonight now i know why the issue happened
Weird no Commando at all?
Miami Vice. Al day, Miami Vice
Alter Ego raised me - only had the Female version but I didn't mind, it was amazing!
yeah its like ChatGPT of the 80s
Do a video about turican on nintendo.
*Turrican
@@scottbreon9448 yup.
Some games with very high scores are missing, aren't they? Summer Games with 97%, Winter Games with 94% or Exploding Fist with 93%, for example
Maybe my excel sheet has sorted them wrong but yes you are right. Pissed me off a bit now that as this took so long to make.
A lot of the 'wonky' scores can be traced straight back to whoever was editor or main reviewer of said game at the particular time. Rignall was famously not fond of anything that wasn't a shoot-em-up. Hell, he even had video game playing trophies from his pre-Zzap! 64 days. Penn liked all the cutesy games. And wasn't it Gordon and Kati/Katie in the later years? Once they arrived it just all felt a bit too industry led. Not that Penn and Rignall were innocent of that either. They were both so far up Jeff Minter's arse that anything he released got a straight 10% or more boost. Almost all of Minter's games were sizzlers as I recall. He even went as far as having a tammy huff with the lads when they reviewed one of his games less than stellar.
Although most of these games deserve their lofty praise, a few don't. Golden Axe getting 96% yet the far superior and much more playable Double Dragon 2 got around 68%. Must have been some brown paper envelopes doing the rounds. A butchered and cut down port of Ghosts'n'Goblins getting 97% and Cauldron 2 getting 94%. I'm sure some of these score's were either bribes or dependant on the moods of the reviewers on certain days. Can't argue with any of the top 20 though.
Zzap 64 was an incredible magazine at the time. Other magazines were really dry and boring and had a corporate feel... Zzap just did what they wanted and didn't care about giving a game 9% even if Commodore User gave it 5 stars... :D
I get it but sometimes that meant that really good games got low scores when in fact they deserved way higher.... for example Catalypse
Arac definitely didn't deserve to score so highly.
Didn't they rebrand to 'Commodore Force' at one point?
Yeah for the last few issues i think after 100 or so zzaps they changed to commodore force... format was a rival to zzap
@@oldstylegaming i remember getting Force and Format both for a while. So many demo tapes!
To this day I’ve no idea how Ferrari Formula 1 got 95%. It was undriveable. I was so disappointed.
yeah shocking score for that game which is mediocre at best
I loved Zzap64, I bought it every month and would read it over and over, no other mag came close to being as entertaining, but it had some crazy takes sometimes. Ghostbusters, one of the best C64 games of all time (especially for the time it came out, 1984, very early on) got a review score of 40% !!!
At least back then no-one was scared to actually use the full range of scoring, a crap game was a crap game and got a crap score. None of this modern review bullshit where everyone is scared to offend anyone and the worst game imaginable still gets a 70.
Bright 🍬 💖💛🧡💖❤💝
Ballblazer 98%, ill have what they were drinking 😂
The original Atari 8-bit version of Ballblazer was great, all the ports were lacking though
@@scottbreon9448 Maybe but 98% is way OTT!
WHAAAT? No Turrican or Wizball? What in Hades is going on? There were some very poor games in that 100.
It appears ive made a clerical error when sorting my spread sheet out sorry, both the turricans and wizball should have been on...too late now though... but really they wouldnt have really changed the bad games in this list
@@oldstylegamingJust looked these up, Turrican scored 97% and both Wizball and Turrican II scored 96%.
@@garytilford6503 yeah ive seen afterwards, i think what has happened is ive removed duplicates in excel and its messed up removing both games with similar names... ill not do that again
Wow! Nr.2 is an absolute misfit. Score 0%!
Zzap always had kickass cover artwork. Oliver Frey never disappointed! Sad that he died in 2022 from MND.
Sad times
👍👍👍👍👍👍🕹🕹
Head over Heels would be #1 for me, in terms of playing time 🐶
still actually a great game to this day
Nr.86 is the worst😂 alsoo nr.75, they should'nt even be on the list.😮
What I hate about the Amiga and C64 is that youtubers do not put the soundFX, only the music. So for me, the Atari 2600 videos are better than this musical non sense. A game is about sound FX first.
The majority of C64/Amiga games don't let the player choose between music or sound effects, you just get whatever the developers decided to do for audio, so it has nothing to do with the youtubers. And for those games that do allow the choice, the default was usually music instead of sound effects, so again, it's silly to fault the people making the video to show the default settings of the game. And even then, I'd guess the majority of C64 and Amiga fans would choose the music over the sound effects when given a choice.
But still, your complaint is interesting in that it raises the issue of the choices developers make when faced with limited resources like limited sound channels. How and what to prioritize. On systems with very limited music-making ability, like the Atari 2600 or Spectrum, sound effects were prioritized. On the music more musical systems like the Amiga and C64, music was prioritized. On later systems with lots of sound channels, you get both, and even control of relative volumes of those.
Hate is a strong word..... I suppose its down to personal preference.... i mean if you are playing a shoot em up that had only sound effects it becomes very boring very fast, games arent about 1 thing or the other, to get a truly great game you would have a balanced mix of the 2.... but really a game is about gameplay first
Most C64 games at the time only had music or sound, very few had BOTH. Some had the option of music OR sound, but most C64 games at the time only had ONE that could be played since most SIDs used all three channels for the music. Now some of the latter games did have sound due to the SID musician only using two channels for music, and the other for SFX
For example, the reason why Bubble Bobble has SFX is that Peter Clarke only used two channels for music.
Sorry, but no voice over is a bit boring to me for an hour long video...
It would be even more boring listening to me harping on for an hour mate. Timewise though it wouldnt be feasible for me to voice over 100 games
@@AfterBurnett indeed, I do too.
@@AfterBurnett yeah I am looking for the insights, crazy facts, opinions. Just game footage, meh, I'll play then myself ;)
@@AfterBurnett noted