Top-down perspective sorted by release date

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 games

Dune 2000

strategyWindows XP/98/95

Civilization 2

strategyWindows XP/98/95

Grand Theft Auto 2

action-adventureWindows XP/98/95

Top down games

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Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes

DOS1990protected4/5 id software
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!

DOS1990protected4.1/5 id software
Conflict

DOS19904/5 Mastertronic
DarkSpyre

DOS19903.8/5 Event Horizon
Dawn Raider

DOS19904/5 Softstar Entertainment
Death by Backgammon

DOS19903.3/5
Decision at Gettysburg

DOS19903.7/5 TigLon Software
Dragon Lord

DOS19904.2/5 Spotlight Software
Dungeon Explorer

DOS19903.4/5
Escape from Hell

DOS19904/5 Electronic Arts
Fountain of Dreams

DOS19904.1/5 Electronic Arts
Frontline

DOS19903/5 Cases Computer Simulations
Full Metal Planete

DOSMac19903.8/5 Hitech Productions
Hard Nova

DOS19903.8/5 Malibu Interactive
Ikari III: The Rescue

DOS19903.5/5 SNK Corporation
Iron Lord

DOS19903.4/5 UBI Soft
Ishido: The Way of the Stones

DOSMac19904.1/5 Publishing International
It Came from the Desert

DOS1990freeware4.1/5 Cinemaware

It Came from the Desert is an abandonware action-adventure game developed by Cinemaware and released in 1990 for PC (DOS) and Amiga. It Came From the Desert is an action-adventure game with a peculiar flavor: it's set in the 50s, in the USA, and it's based on those old monster movies like Them! (also involving killer ants).
Italy 1990

DOS19903.9/5 Tiertex Design Studios
Ivan 'Iron Man' Stewart's Super Off Road

DOS19904.2/5 Leland

Ivan 'Iron Man' Stewart's Super Off Road is an abandoned diagonal-down off-road racing game developed by Leland and released by Virgin Interactive in 1990 for DOS, but also published for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, ZX Spectrum and a lot of 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. Super Off Road is a classic fixed-screen track-racing similar to S...
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I

DOS19904/5 Interplay Productions

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I is an abandoned fantasy top-down DOS RPG game set in the The Lord of the Rings universe. The Lord of the Rings I was developed and released by Interplay Productions in 1990. The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I is based on the popular The Lord Of The Rings book by J.R.R. Tolkien and it's focused on the f...
Keys to Maramon

DOS19903.9/5 Mindcraft Software
Khalaan

DOS19903.6/5 Chip
Kick off 2

DOS19904.1/5 Anco Software
King's Bounty

DOSMac19904/5 New World Computing
Kingdom of Kroz 2

DOS19903.2/5 Apogee Software
Kurtan

DOS19903.4/5 TbiliSoft
Logo

DOS1990NSFW3.8/5 Starbyte Software
Loopz

DOS19903.8/5 Audiogenic
Lost Adventures of Kroz

DOS1990freeware3.3/5 Apogee Software