Amiga Games Reviews (Index to Amiga game reviews).
Amiga Shoot 'em up Catalogue
Posted for quick reference purposes, this is a chronological list of Amiga shoot 'em ups that have so far been covered in my History of Shoot 'em ups.
This list thus far contains 103 original infographics that can be mouse-wheeled through in order to get an idea of the Amiga shoot 'em up catalogue, with some admixture of Atari ST shooters. You can also right-click the images and open them in a new tab at full resolution (2k-5k px).
If a shooter entry has "Amiga original" appended, that means the shooter was originally coded for the Amiga; that is, it is not a coinop or other-micro port, but rather a Amiga-native game.
I also append "Amiga exclusive" to the relevant entries. Amiga-exclusive shooters are those that were only released for the Amiga. I do not care if some Amiga shooters were ported to "current gen platforms" decades later; that is utterly irrelevant to my authentic commentary. If you're playing 2020s ports of 1990s Amiga shooters on your cellphone, I don't care, remakes don't count, they mean nothing, the shooters are still Amiga-exclusives.
I also append "Best on Amiga" to the relevant entries.
This document was last updated on March 21, 2025.
1985-86 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Xtron Atari ST 1986
[No Amiga version.]
Skyfox Atari ST 1986
Electronic Arts released Skyfox for ST/Amiga in 1986. Skyfox features 15 scenarios, 5 skill levels and sprite-scaling and sprite-rotation. Developed by Dynamix, the ST/Amiga versions of Skyfox were drawn by John Burton, composed by Douglas Fulton and programmed by Mike Edwards and Steve Walloch. The original Apple 2 Skyfox of 1984 was designed and programmed by Ray Tobey.
1987 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Starglider Amiga 1987
Developed by Jez San of Argonaut Software for Amiga, Starglider and Starglider 2 are vector-based shooters notable for their fast and smooth rendering engines. Starglider of 1987 employs flicker-free wireframe graphics whereas Starglider 2 of 1988 solidly flat-shades its geometry. ST Starglider was released in 1986, Amiga Starglider in 1987 and ST/Amiga Starglider 2 in 1988.
Plutos Amiga 1987: Space War Arcade Simulation
Coded by Derek Johnston in 1987 Plutos features smooth scrolling at 50 FPS and 2-player coop mode. However, in order to achieve that framerate the playfield is not full-screen but metal-bordered. Terrain in Plutos is height-mapped; that is, your spaceship can collide with buildings. In Plutos one must also access fuel dumps that are dotted about the terrain in order to maintain control of the craft.
Amiga original.
Typhoon Amiga 1987
Kingsoft released Typhoon for the Amiga in 1987. Typhoon features smooth vertical scrolling, very fast sprite-shifting, digitized sound effects and 50 screens to blast through. Typhoon was programmed by Rolf Wagner and drawn by Christoph Sing.
Amiga original.
Insanity Fight Amiga 1987
LINEL Switzerland released Insanity Fight for Amiga in 1987. A push-scroller and super-scroller, Insanity Fight was programmed by Christian Haller.
Garrison Amiga 1987
Amiga original. Garrison 2 is an Amiga exclusive.
Iridon Amiga 1987
Kingsoft released Iridon for Amiga Kickstart v1.2 in 1987. Iridon was programmed by Jens Meggars and Thomas Sikora. Iridon displays in PAL 320x256. There are 50 motherships to destroy in Iridon.
Amiga exclusive.
Phalanx Amiga 1987
Digital Artists released Phalanx for the Amiga in 1987. Published by Kingsoft, Phalanx was programmed and drawn by Oliver Czesla and composed by Thomas Lopatic. Phalanx runs at 50 FPS with 256 v-pixels, but its active drawspace is not full-screen. There are 23 stages in Phalanx. Amiga-key + Alt-key activates a 20-second Shield.
Amiga exclusive.
Phalanx 2 Amiga 1987
Amiga exclusive.
Swooper Amiga 1987
Licensed from Golden Games, Diamond Software / Robtek released Swooper for the Amiga in 1987. A Phoenix-like, Swooper was programmed by Frank Neuhaus.
Amiga exclusive.
Goldrunner Atari ST 1987
(Amiga version is just a port of the ST version).
1988 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Virus Amiga 1988
The Pursuit to Earth Amiga 1988
Amiga original.
Phantom Fighter Amiga 1988
Emerald Software released Phantom Fighter for the Amiga in 1988. Phantom Fighter levels alternate between horizontally and vertically-scrolling.
Phantom Fighter was programmed by Billy Newport and drawn by Paul McLaughlin.
Flying Shark Amiga 1988
Flying Shark on the Amiga and Atari ST (1988) are better than Sky Shark MS-DOS, but still pale in comparison to Toaplan's 1987 arcade original. Put it this way: you'd rather be playing 1942 or 1943 on the C64.
The Amiga version was ported by Bob Hylands and Rob Brooks from the ST port coded by Henry Clark and Karl Jeffery.
StarRay Amiga 1988
Amiga original.
Eliminator Amiga 1988
Linel Switzerland's Eliminator on ST/Amiga was technically impressive for 1988. The player controls a vehicle from 3rd person perspective on 13 winding roadways with bends, crests, tunnels, jump-ramps and water canals. There are also barriers and alien-waves to blast through.
Eliminator employs vector graphics for its roadways, but its objects and aliens are sprite-scaled. Unlike the ports of railshooters such as Space Harrier (1989), Eliminator is playable and its framerate is smooth.
Eliminator weapons system: single, dual, side, double and triple cannons as well as bouncing bombs.
Sidewinder Amiga 1988-89
Sidewinder of 1988 was developed by Synergistic; Sidewinder 2 of 1989 by PAL. And since they were coded by different developers these are very different shoot 'em ups in terms of controls and graphics.
Sidewinder is especially difficult on Expert mode. Be prepared to get shot down on a regular basis. Sidewinder 2 is also no cakewalk due to its emphasis on destructible obstructions.
Amiga original.
Thunder Blade Amiga 1988
Sega's Thunder Blade coinop of 1987 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1988 by Tiertex. As with most of Tiertex's ports the 16 bit Thunder Blade ports are absolute garbage.
Menace Amiga 1988
Atax Amiga 1988
Eclipse Software Design released Atax for the Amiga in 1988. Atax scrolls vertically at 50 FPS. Atax was programmed, drawn and composed by Tony Barker.
Star Goose Amiga 1988
Logotron of the U.K. released Star Goose for the ST/Amiga in 1988. Star Goose features variable-rate vertical scrolling and tube segments. Star Goose terrain features undulation and bas-relief. Star Goose was designed by Steve Cain and Graham Everett, programmed by Graham Everett, drawn by Steve Cain and composed by Fred Gray. There are 8 stages in Star Goose.
Return to Genesis Amiga 1988
1989 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Blood Money Amiga 1989
Operation Thunderbolt Amiga 1989
Amiga exclusive.
Darius Amiga 1989
Softek's 1989 Amiga port of Taito's Darius coinop of 1987 is a joke: poor scrolling, poor sprite-shifting, poor collision detection and poor audio. It's called Darius+ but should be called Darius-1000.
Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit Amiga 1989
Sensible Software's C64 Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit of 1987 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1989 by Richard Leinfellner for IDS. Via a series of menus and icons the SEUCK utility allows users to design and test their own vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups.
Goldrunner 2 Amiga 1989
Cabal Amiga 1989
TAD Corporation's Cabal coinop of 1988 was ported to ST/Amiga by Ocean Software Ltd. in 1989. Offering 2-player simulatenous action Cabal is basically a third-person Operation Wolf. And just like Operation Wolf and Thunderbolt, Cabal is nowhere near as fun to play as the coinop.
Space Harrier Amiga 1989
Elite's Amiga port of Sega's 1987 super-scaling railshooter coinop, Space Harrier, was fairly playable in 1989, but Eliminator of 1988 was far superior.
Battle Squadron Amiga 1989
Coded by 18 year old Martin B. Pedersen in 8 months Battle Squadron of 1989 thoroughly taps the Amiga chipset via sprite "predator cloaking", viewport tints and other uncommon graphics coding routines.
Hybris and Battle Squadron's graphics were drawn and animated by Torben Larsen.
Battle Squadron's 256 vertical-pixels display simultaneously shifts over one dozen projectiles, air units and ground units, for a sum-total of almost 50 on-screen objects. In addition, the objects are sizeable. And that is why Battle Squadron runs at 25 not 50 FPS. However, its display nevertheless smoothly updates.
The sound effects are loud, raw and gritty. Best of all, its controls are pretty much perfect. Thus, it is eminently playable and replayable. An amazing shoot 'em up across the board, just like Hybris. However, Battle Squadron supports 2-player simultaneous.
Battle Squadron Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups): Nova Smart Bombs (AoE), Magnetic Torps (Red), Anti-matter Particle Beam (Blue), Magma Wave (Orange), Emerald Laser (Green).
Amiga exclusive.
Smash T.V. Amiga 1989
Commando Amiga 1989
Forgotten Worlds Amiga 1989
The 1989 MS-DOS, ST and Amiga versions of Capcom's Forgotten Worlds coinop should be forgotten; they are terrible ports by Arc Developments. Imagine wasting your pocket money on this garbage back in the day.
Some computer game journalism said this Forgotten Worlds port was one of the best, if not the best shoot 'em up when it came out. Laughable.
After Burner Amiga 1989
The Sega AM2 coinop versions of After Burner and After Burner 2 were released in 1987. After Burner 2 is just an updated After Burner, not a sequel. Two years later the Amiga received two ports of After Burner 2, one developed by Argonaut for Activision, the other by Weebee for Sega Enterprises Ltd.
In terms of controls, sprite-scaling and audio, both ports are poor renditions of the arcade machine that I did not enjoy at all, even back in the day when Tom Cruise's Top Gun was all the rage (1986).
Silkworm Amiga 1989
Best on Amiga.
Datastorm Amiga 1989
Amiga exclusive.
Xenon 2: Megablast Amiga 1989
Best on Amiga.
Super Gridrunner Amiga 1989
Jeff Minter of Llamasoft coded Super Gridrunner for ST/Amiga in 1989. Super Gridrunner is a fixed-viewport shoot 'em up that allows players to position their ship anywhere on-screen via mouse control. This is the 1989 16 bit version of the original VIC-20 / C64 version of Gridrunner from 1982.
Best on Amiga.
1990 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Katakis Amiga 1990
The Killing Game Show Amiga 1990
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
X-Out Amiga 1990
Z-Out Amiga 1990
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Paradroid 90 Amiga 1990
Best on Amiga.
Blasteroids Amiga 1990
Best on Amiga.
Ziriax Amiga 1990
Amiga exclusive.
Anarchy Amiga 1990
Best on Amiga.
U.N. Squadron Amiga 1990
Tiertex's 1990 port of Capcom's U.N. Squadron coinop shows that you can faithfully translate original arcade assets and presentation to ST/Amiga, but then fail to faithfully replicate the arcade's controls, collision detection, scrolling and sprite-shifting, which are much more important.
Wings of Death Amiga 1990: Five Different Weapons Systems
Coded by Marc Rosocha of Eclipse, Wings of Death of 1990 brings a high-fantasy theme to ST/Amiga shoot 'em ups. Its palette peaking at 512 on-screen colors, Wings of Death moves about up to 90 on-screen objects at 50 FPS.
ST/Amiga Wings of Death was designed and programmed by Marc Rosocha, lead-drawn by Erik Simon and composed by Jochen Hippel. ST Wings of Death Digisynth was handled by Tim Moss. Wings of Death audio includes speech synthesis, digitized sound effects and digital music effects totalling one megabyte as well as support for external Centronics D/A converters on the ST/STE.
Saveable High-score table.
Wings of Death Weapons System (transformation):
- The Insect: Spread-fire
- The Bat: Circleblast
- The Eagle: Powerbeam
- The Dragon: Dragonfire
- The Gryphon: Thunderballs
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Saint Dragon Amiga 1990
Saint Dragon of 1990 runs at 25 FPS, but plays smoothly. Ported from the Jaleco coinop of 1989 by Random Access / Sales Curve Ltd., this is one of the easier shoot 'em ups to play.
Part-dragon, Part-machine Cyborg Dragon:
Saint Dragon coded by John Croudy.
Dragon Breed Amiga 1990: King of Agamen vs. King of Darkness
Another easy "DragonLance"-type shoot 'em up, Irem's Dragon Breed coinop of 1989 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1990 by Arc Developments.
Dragon Breed coded by Tim Round.
Sonic Boom Amiga 1990: The World's Strongest Jetfighter
Sonic Boom was converted to the Amiga by Activision in 1990 from Sega's arcade-original. The Amiga version suffers from non-smooth scrolling, non-smooth sprite-shifting, poor collision detection and annoying music.
Atomic Robo-Kid Amiga 1990
Software Studios ported UPL's Atomic Robo-Kid coinop of 1988 to ST/Amiga in 1990. Atomic Robo-Kid shifts around a lot of big and colorful sprites, but its multi-directional scrolling is sluggish and its framerate is inconsistent.
Pang 1990 Amiga
Mercs Amiga 1991
Then, in 1990-91, Tiertex ported Capcom's sequel to Commando, Mercs, to 8 and 16 bit micros. Again, here is the 1991 Amiga version which lacks the smooth scrolling and responsive controls of the original coinop, as well as many of its details:
Both Commando and Mercs are top-down run and gun games that failed to impress me back in the day, let alone in 2025.
SWIV Amiga 1991
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
R-Type 2 Amiga 1991
War Zone Amiga 1991
Better than Commando and Mercs, War Zone is a fairly good ST/Amiga run and gun game developed by Core Design in 1991.
Alien Breed Amiga 1991
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Armalyte Amiga 1991
Lethal Xcess Amiga 1991: Sequel to Wings of Death
Developed by Eclipse in 1991 Lethal Xcess Wings of Death II was not available on MS-DOS: only ST/Amiga. This is a proper 16 bit micro shoot 'em up.
Lethal Xcess was designed by Marc Rosocha, Heinz Rudolf and Claus Frein, programmed by Claus Frein and Heinz Rudolf, drawn by Hans Rudolf and composed by Jochen Hippel.
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Apidya Amiga 1991
Amiga exclusive.
The Oath Amiga 1991
From Attic Entertainment Software Ltd., The Oath of 1991 is another stylish scrolling shooter with parallax scrolling, 32 on-screen colors and digitized speech. 2-player simultaneous.
The Oath coded by Jonathan Small.
The Oath Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups): Rocket Launcher, Grenade Thrower, Sonic Beam, Laser Beam, Plasma Beam, Rear Attack, A-Mace, Power Beam, Smart Bomb, Power-up, Speed-up, Shield, Shield Increase, 1-up.
Amiga exclusive.
Revenge of the Mutant Camels Amiga 1992
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Walker Amiga 1993
After the likes of Menace, Blood Money and Lemmings, DMA Design would develop Walker in 1993. Walker is a side-scrolling mech shooter with simple left-right keyboard-controlled movement and on-screen mouse-controlled targeting via crosshairs that can also lock-on to targets.
As in FASA's BattleTech the Walker AG-9's cannon can overheat and its shield can be depleted.
Walker is notable for its innovative kb/m controls, gritty graphics and sampled sound effects and speech. However, its scrolling is "interval-based", horizontal-only and non-parallax. In addition, its weapons system is cannon-only.
Amiga exclusive.
Stardust Amiga 1993-94
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Blastar Amiga 1993
Amiga exclusive.
Disposable Hero Amiga 1993
Developed by Euphoria in 1993, Disposable Hero is an Amiga-exclusive horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up notable for its extreme difficulty. Disposable Hero will humble most shoot 'em up veterans. And back in the day 90% of players would have been shot down by the very first projectile.
Awesome shoot 'em up.
Disposable Hero was programmed by Mario van Zeist and Harald Holt.
Disposable Hero Weapons System: When collected, blueprints are added to the factory. In the factory, three spaceships can be upgraded based on the equipment assembled from the blueprints.
Amiga exclusive.
Cannon Fodder Amiga 1993
Amiga original. Best on Amiga.
Overkill Amiga 1993
Amiga exclusive.
1994 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Banshee Amiga 1994: A1200 & Amiga CD32
Banshee is an Amiga 256-color AGA-exclusive developed by Core Design in 1994. Most people played Banshee on an Amiga 1200 with 2 megs of chip RAM. While Banshee features prerendered rotating objects (ray-traced), its controls and collision detection are somewhat off, and it only runs at half-frames (25 FPS).
In fact, Banshee was one of the biggest disappointments on the ailing Amiga platform of 1994.
Banshee Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups):
- Double Shot, Triple Shot, 45° Shot, Side Shot, Heavy Missile, Homing Missiles
- Bombs, Smart Bomb
- Points, Fire Power, Build Up, Speed Up, Loop, Extra Life, Extra Shield
Banshee was programmed by Søren Hannibal.
Amiga exclusive.
Tubular Worlds Amiga 1994: Battle 16 Warlords
Neither the OCS/ECS or AGA versions of Tubular Worlds on the Amiga (1994) are as good as the MS-DOS version, but they are still excellent. Oddly, TW Amiga noticeably reduces vertical pixels by 30-odd during boss battles. In fact, the AGA version reduces them on some normal levels as well.
Raiden Amiga 1994
While Raiden on the Amiga was not shaping up to be an accurate port of Seibu Kaihatsu's 1990 coinop, it was shaping up to be a decent shoot 'em up even though it employs a sidepanel that reduces the size of the playfield. In addition, the Amiga port does not feature the original arcade music. However, there was a possibility that Amiga Raiden would come complete with a level editor, which would have been cool, but the game was never released.
Amiga exclusive.
Zeewolf Amiga 1994
Amiga exclusive.
Defender Amiga 1994
T-Racer Amiga 1994
Virtual Dreams Software released T-Racer for the Amiga in 1994. T-Racer is a Project X clone. T-Racer was programmed by Alberto Longo (Breathless), drawn by Gianluca Abbate and Antonio Beatrice and composed by Pierpaolo Di Maio.
Amiga exclusive.
1995 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Amiga exclusive.
1997 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Tiger's Bane Amiga 1997
Coded in AMOS by Seumas McNally of Longbow Digital Arts (LDA), the shareware Tiger's Bane is a bi-directional, horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up inspired by the likes of Gunship 2000 and Desert Strike via its combo of multi-helicopter combat and combined-arms tactics.
Controls are accurate, the parallax scrolling and sprite-shifting is smooth, and the sprites are well-drawn and -animated. Presentation-wise, the drop-shadows, fancy screenwipes and effects evoke the Amiga's multi-media programs. In addition, an extensive Help system is included, and there are even mouse-over image-based pop-ups (e.g., mousing over text that describes an enemy unit causes an image of an enemy unit to pop up over the text).
Tiger's Bane supports keyboard, joystick and even twin-joystick control. Tiger's Bane Weapons System: Chaingun, Hydra Rocket, Hellfire, SideWinder, SideArms.
The only "problem" with Tiger's Bane is that it came out in 1997, post-prime Amiga.
Amiga exclusive.
1999 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
T-Zer0 Amiga 1999
T-Zer0 AGA was developed by TraumaZero Team and released by ClickBOOM / PXL Computers Inc. in 1999. T-Zer0 features 50 FPS per-pixel multi-directional screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting.
Three primary weapons and six secondary weapons are available, along with three spaceships. There are several in-game bonuses. T-Zer0 also comes with a map editor and CD-quality trance tracks.
T-Zer0 requires an A1200 030 with 2 megs of Chip RAM and 8 megs of Fast RAM, but 060 Blizzard or Cyberstorm acceleration is recommended. T-Zer0 has an install size of 250 MB, 190 MB of which is given over to FMV-based cinematization -- what a waste of time and resources: who the hell gives a damn about FMVs in shoot 'em ups? Why not just make, I don't know, an even better shoot 'em up?
T-Zer0 Weapons System:
- Primary Weapons: Laser, Front Plasma, Guns
- Secondary Weapons: Homing Missile, Side Beam, Plama, Rear Plasma, Missiles, K-Missiles
- Specials: Nuclear Blast, Stealth, Extra Life, Special Weapon, Hyperdrive, Inversion (of direction-input controls), Short Circuit
- Bonuses: Shapes, Star, Gold Star, Gems
Amiga exclusive.
2000 Amiga Shoot 'em ups
Apano Sin Amiga 2000
Amiga exclusive.
cf.
- Amiga Games Reviews (Index to Amiga game reviews)
- History of Shoot 'em Ups 1976-2000
- TRS-80 Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- Commodore 64 Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- IBM PC Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- Invader-likes: clones and ports of Taito's Space Invaders 1978
- Galaxian-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Galaxian 1979
- Asteroids-likes: clones and ports of Atari's Asteroids 1979
- Berzerk-likes: clones and ports of Stern Electronics' Berzerk 1980
- Defender-likes: clones and ports of Williams' Defender 1981
- Scramble-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Scramble 1981
- Galaga-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Galaga 1981
- Robotron-likes: clones and ports of Vid Kidz's Robotron 1982
- Xevious-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Xevious 1982
- Gravitar-likes: clones and ports of Atari's Gravitar 1982
- Gyruss-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Gyruss 1983
- Gradius-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Gradius 1985
- R-Type-likes: clones and ports of Irem's R-Type 1987
- Western Computer-game Machines
- History of Computer Games 1976-2024
- History of 1990s Computer Games
- cRPG Blog (Master Index)
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