The best top down games

Ski or Die is a winter sports-themed video game that was originally released in 1990 for various platforms, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, and MS-DOS. The game was developed by Electronic Arts and was a follow-up to their earlier title, "California Games". Ski or Die features a collection of winter sports events: downhill blitz, acro aerials, s...

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in 1996. It is part of the Command & Conquer series and is set in an alternate history where World War II never occurred, leading to a different global conflict.The success of Red Alert led to several seque...

Star Goose is a classic video game developed by Logotron and released in 1988 for various home computer systems of that era, including the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It is a top-down, vertically scrolling shooter that combines elements of shoot 'em up gameplay with exploration and power-up mechanics.

Monopoly Deluxe is an abandoned turn-based top-down Monopoly adaptation  of the classic board game, developed by Parker Brothers and released by Virgin Interactive in 1992. Monopoly Deluxe was published for DOS, Windows 3.1, and Macintosh.

Space Rogue is a science fiction RPG developed by Richard Garriott's Origin and desined by Paul Neurath. Space Rogue combines a 3D space simulation with a top down view RPG gameplay. As a space pilot you can hunt bounties, buy and sell goods, land on starbases or outposts and talk to NPCs, do quests, etc.

John Madden Football was the first of a series of american football sports games sponsored by the coach of the same name. The first John Madden Football is an abandoned game developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for Apple II and Commodore 64 and later released for DOS (in 1989). The Madden series became extremely popular and the sequels...

In Grand Theft Auto the player takes the role of a criminal who can freely roam around the city (Liberty City) completing tasks for the local mobs: stealing cars, killing pedestrians, all of it while avoiding the police and the army. The freedom of gameplay and the "I'm the bad guy" appeal of the game made the Grand Theft Auto series very popular.

God of Thunder is a classic computer game developed by Adept Software and released in 1993. It's a puzzle platformer with a fantasy theme. In the game, you control Thor, the Norse god of thunder, on a quest to save Midgard (Earth) from the evil god Loki and his minions.The gameplay involves navigating through various levels filled with obstacles, e...

Jones in the Fast Lane is the kind of game that you don't see often these days. It's a mix between a digital board game and a modern day life simulation. The goal of the game is to live the life of Jones, making choices about school, work, your home, etc. Graphics is a mix of cartonish and digitized characters, very reminishent of some of the best ...

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.

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.

Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams is an abandoned science fiction RPG designed by Jeff George, developed by Origin Systems and released in 1991 for DOS. Martian Dreams uses the Ultima VI engine to depict Mars in a top down perspective.

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is a CRPG developed by SSI Strategic Simulations Inc. and released in 1992 for DOS only. Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed is the sequel to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday and it's based on a campaign setting created by TSR in the late 80s. The game uses the Gold Box engine, common to much of the RPGs developed by SSI.

The Magic Candle: Volume 1 is the first chapter of a series of fantasy old school RPGs. The Magic Candle was developed and released by Mindcraft Software in 1989 for DOS but was also published for Apple II and Commodore 64. The whole Magic Candle series is very similar to some of the early Ultima games in every aspect: turn-based combat, top-down v...

After the success of Ultima 6: The False Prophet, Origin decided to "create worlds" not part of the popular Ultima series (strictly speaking) using the same engine of Ultima 6. They came up with two games: The Savage Empire and Martian Dreams. The Savage Empire is set in a stone age-like world and features prehistoric tribes, dinosaurs, insectoid a...