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).

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Zoom!

DOS1988

Zoom! is a puzzle game that desperately wants to be cool. You're a sunglasses-wearing smiley face cruising down psychedelic gridlines while dodging blobs and filling in tiles like Tron on a budget. It’s fast, weird, and occa...

Sherlock: The Game of Logic

DOS1991protected Everett Kaser Software

Warcraft: Orcs and Humans

DOS1994protecteddemo Blizzard Entertainment

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is the first real-time fantasy strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment. Two separate story lines (Orcs and Humans) evolve with 12 scenarios per side telling the tale of the battle for the Kingdom of A...

Axis and Allies

Windows XP/98/951998 Wargaming West

Board game night went digital in 1998 with Axis and Allies, a strategy title that lets you rewrite WWII—assuming you don’t forget where you left your infantry. Fans of the tabletop classic will feel right at home maneu...

Locomotion

DOS1992 Prestige Softwareentwicklung

Seek and Destroy

DOS1996 Safari Software

Seek and Destroy was a shoot'em up published by the well known Epic Megagames in 1996 that tried to change the usual shoot'em up gameplay for the better. Instead of wave after wave of enemies to shoot down, you are given short mis...

V for victory: Market-Garden

DOS1993protected Atomic Games

101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy

Windows XP/98/951998 Empire Interactive

So you think you're ready to storm Normandy? Think again. 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy drops you into the chaos of World War II with all the grace of a paratrooper landing in a barn. This is a tactical strategy game that...

Railroad Tycoon Deluxe

DOS1993 MicroProse Software

Master of Orion 3

Windows XP/98/95Mac OS2003protected Quicksilver Software

Rogue

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac OS1984 Artificial Intelligence Design

Rogue is one of the first RPGs in the history of video gaming. It's a text-based dungeon crawler in which you have to fight your way in the dungeon to recover the Amulet of Yendor. Rogue became popular around 1980 on mainframes an...

Sensible Soccer

DOS1992 Sensible Software

Warlords

DOS1990 SSG Strategic Studies Group

Renegade Legion Interceptor

DOS1990protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

TomeNET

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001freeware

TomeNET (Troubles of Middle Earth, Net) is an online, multiplayer rogue-like game set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It’s a persistent-world game inspired by Angband, a single-player dungeon-crawler based on ...

Uncharted Waters

DOS1990 KOEI

Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons

DOS1995 KOEI

Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons is an abandoned simulation game, sequel of Uncharted Waters, developed and released by KOEI in 1995. The Uncharted Waters series is set in the Age of Discovery and gives the player the freedom to s...

Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!

DOS1990protected id software

Extreme Pinball

DOS1995 Epic MegaGames

Face Off!

DOS1989 MindSpan

Face Off! is an abandoned hockey sports game developed by MindSpan (known for their Hardball series) and released by Gamestar in 1989 for DOS and also for Commodore 64. Face Off supports multiplayer in competitive or cooperative m...

Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan

DOS1990 New World Computing

Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan is a computer RPG released in 1990 for MS-DOS and PC-98 platforms. It is based on the tabletop role-playing game Tunnels & Trolls created by Ken St. Andre, which was a lighter and more...

Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness

DOS1995protected Blizzard Entertainment

Slicks 'n' Slide

DOS1993

Bad Blood

DOS1990 Origin Systems

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where leather vests are apparently immune to radiation, Bad Blood lets you wander the wasteland deciding whether to be a brute, a brainiac, or a mutant with questionable fashion sense. Dialogue-heav...