The best top down games

Top down games were very popular in the 80s and the 90s, when graphic cards were not capable of supporting 3D, and even when 3D started to become popular, 2D games continued to be easier to develop, at least in the infancy of 3D gaming. 2D game offered the player a viewpoint that helped keeping things easily under control (think about top down party-based RPGs or hex-based strategy games).

Most popular top down applications

Dune 2000

strategyWindows XP/98/95

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

strategyDOS

Grand Theft Auto

action-adventureDOS, Windows XP/98/95

Top down applications

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Fields of Glory

DOS1993protected4.1/5 MicroProse Software
Ragnarok

DOS1993freeware4.1/5 Gray Design Associates
Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness

DOS19874.1/5 Origin Systems

This is the first of the very popular RPG saga Ultima. The setting is the land of Sosaria, the enemy to defeat is Mondain. It's a classic cRPG. The wilderness and cities are represented from a top down perspective, while dungeons can be explored in a first person 3d view.
Raptor: Call of the Shadows

DOSWindows XP/98/951994protected4.1/5 Mountain King Studios
Hexxagon

DOS19934.1/5 Argo Games
Speedball 2

DOS19924.1/5 Bitmap Brothers
Star Wars 2

DOS19894.1/5
Sid Meier's Pirates!

DOS1987protected4.1/5 MicroProse Software
Battle Isle 2200

DOS1994protected4.1/5 Blue Byte Software
Steel Panthers 3: Brigade Command - 1939-1999

DOS1997protected4.1/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Command & Conquer

DOS1995freeware4.1/5 Westwood Studios
Ground Control

Windows XP/98/952000protected4.1/5 Massive Entertainment

Ground Control is a strategy game developed by Massive Entertainment and released by Sierra On-Line in 2000. More precisely Ground Control is a real time tactical game with a sci-fi setting.
Nebulus

DOS19884.1/5 Hewson Consultants

Nebulus, also known as Tower Toppler in some regions, is a classic video game released in the 1980s. It was developed by John M. Phillips and published by Hewson Consultants. The game was initially released for various home computer systems, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, and others. It later saw ports to different platforms. Neb...
NFL Football

DOS19924.1/5 Distinctive Software
Nuclear War

DOS19894.1/5 New World Computing

Nuclear War is an abandoned turn-based strategy game designed by Eric Hyman and Jon Van Caneghem. Nuclear War was developed and released by New World Computing in 1989 for Amiga and, later, for DOS, and it's loosely based on a card game of the same name. Nuclear War took a satirical approach to the grim possibility of a global nuclear war and succe...
Kick off 2

DOS19904.1/5 Anco Software
The Ancient Art of War at Sea

DOS19874.1/5 Evryware
Wayne Gretzky Hockey

DOS19894.1/5 Bethesda Softworks
4Play

Windows 3.x1995NSFW4.1/5

4Play is a multi-player board-like strategy party-game for adults released for Windows 3.1 in 1995. 4Play is a board-game very similar to Monopoly in which players have to perform certain (adult) actions in response to events happening on the board.
Spacewar

DOS19854.1/5
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception

DOS19884.1/5 Westwood Studios
Conquest of Japan

DOS19924.1/5 Impressions Games
Exile: Escape from the Pit

Windows XP/98/95MacWindows 3.x1995freeware4.1/5 Spiderweb Software
Pizza Tycoon

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac1994protected4.1/5 Software 2000
Atomix

DOS19904.1/5 Softtouch
Blades of Exile

Windows 3.xMacWindows XP/98/951997freeware4.1/5 Spiderweb Software
Rockford: The Arcade Game

DOS1987protected4.1/5 Arcadia Systems
Shard of Spring

DOS1987protected4.1/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
WinRisk

Windows 3.x19924.1/5
Xonix

DOS1984remake4.1/5