Pop Poll

POP POLL by Richard Karsmakers

Woozipoozinoozihoozi!!! And welcome to the last ST NEWS
popularity poll (and a totally independent one) until after the
summer! Again, it's pretty brainstrikingly realistic and whatever
you normally say of pop polls, or even Top of the Pops. This
time's poll has been put together after many hours of playing
games - especially the Llamasoft entries were played to bits!
Some of the things I had anticipated in ST NEWS Volume 4 Issue 2
have indeed come to pass: "Flightsimulator II" and "Elite" now
really left the ranks, and I suppose it will not take long for
"Carrier Command" to follow them, either. The most striking
thing, however, is the fact that "Bubble Bobble", "Super Spring",
"Super Hangon" and "Nebulus" (the best games of 1988) have now
met their final demise. They are going down at incredible speed
now - maybe because of the release of some brilliant new games in
recent weeks.
And therewith we come upon the new entries. Two of them are the
two first games on the ST written by game guru Jeff Minter of
Llamasoft. He knows a blast when he sees one, and is indeed
capable of creating them on the ST, too. "Gridrunner" is set to
be an evergreen, and so is "Andes Attack". Raving reviews is all
mags, including ST NEWS. Electronic Arts' latest release is
"Populous". Play God in this brilliant game that is a divine
replacement of "Seven Cities of Gold" that we'll probably never
see on the ST. "Police Quest II - The Vengeance" is the lowest
new entry. It didn't beat "Larry II", and I think it never will.
But it's nice, and playable. So it's present here.
The only thing left to say here is that there's only ONE title
that remained where it was: And that's Hewson's "Eliminator".

Ranking: Title: Company:
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1 ( -) Gridrunner Llamasoft
2 ( -) Populous Electronic Arts
3 ( 1) Falcon Mirrorsoft
4 ( -) Andes Attack Llamasoft
5 ( 7) Leisure Suit Larry II Sierra-on-Line
6 ( 1) Super Hangon Electric Dreams
7 ( 4) Warp Thalion
8 ( 5) Bubble Bobble Firebird
9 ( 6) Nebulus Hewson
10 ( 8) War in Middle Earth Melbourne House
11 ( 3) Operation Wolf Ocean
12 (10) Arkanoid II - Revenge of Doh Imagine
13 (11) Skweek Loriciels
14 ( 9) Starglider II Rainbird
15 (12) Super Sprint Electric Dreams
16 (13) The Great Giana Sisters Micro Partner
17 ( -) Police Quest II Sierra-on-Line
18 (18) Eliminator Hewson
19 (17) International Karate + System 3
20 (16) Carrier Command Rainbird
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I'll be seein' ya after the summer holiday in this same column
again. Stefan and myself have a lot to do in that holiday (as
you'll probably understand if you've read the "Volume 4 Issue 4
Preview" article, elsewhere in this issue of ST NEWS), so there
will be no pop poll in the upcoming issue...

Er....yes. One holiday tip: Vrij veilig op vakantie!