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Downfall is an upgraded port of the Jaguar game of the same name, itself a port of the homebrew 2600 game Man Falls Down. The concept of the game is incredibly simple, you control a little man who falls down the screen landing on a series of platforms. If you fall off the bottom of the screen or get trapped at the top you die instantly and it’s game over. At certain intervals bonuses like fruit and power-ups appear on the platforms that can be collected but you have be quick to grab them with the screen constantly scrolling. So that is pretty much it really; there is some fancy parallax in the background, music and some speech samples too that sound like they were recorded from a speak and spell. Both the graphics and sound have been upgraded over the Jaguar version but it’s a crap game. All you do is constantly repeat the same simple action over and over again until you fall asleep or turn it off. The only reason you would come back to it is to beat your high score, if you really are that bored. It might be free but in this case there is a reason why, as even for a homebrew title this game this is very poor indeed.

This game was originally known as Humans and was one of the very first Lemmings clones to be released to cash in on the popularity of the blue haired death merchants. It was originally released on everything from the ST to the Gameboy and was easily the most successful of the wannabes. Atari later picked up the exclusive rights for this game through creators Imagitec Design and got them to update the game for their machines. The idea of the game is to guide a tribe of cavemen through a prehistoric world using teamwork and their undeveloped brains to create new inventions. Your humans can stand on top of each other to make ladders, jump and throw things. All these skills must be mastered and used to have any chance of completing a level. On selected levels you also get a witchdoctor who can cast spells to make you an object you require, the only down side is you must sacrifice a member of your team to do so! In this ancient world there are also dinosaurs wanting to eat you up and all manner of flying creatures that may or may not help you on your mission. The simple inventions are such things as fire, the wheel and spears and you must also work out the best way to use them! This is a top-notch game for the Falcon there is nothing else like this for the machine. This game looks, plays and sounds every bit as good as the Jaguar version and can also be played with the same controller too. It really is a must have for Atari’s often forgotten 32-bit system

As you can probably see already from the screenshot Dynabuster is none other than the all time classic Bomberman with a different name. Originally designed by Hudson Soft the arcade game by Irem used the same name as the home computer versions by French company Ubi Soft, Dynablaster, the name of this version is obviously a clever take on that. I am pretty sure everyone out there knows about this game but for those who have been living in a cave for 20 years here is a quick synopsis. You have 4 “bomber men” who each start in the corner of a grid type screen. You must use bombs to blow away the blocks so you can get to your opponents and then blow them up. Hidden behind some of the blocks are power-ups that are both good and bad! There are ones that speed you up, allow you to drop more bombs and increase the explosion distance but there are also ones that slow you down and make you drop bombs automatically! This Falcon version actually allows for up to 6 players by making use of the keyboard! It also adds some fantastic sound and plenty of game options. One of the best multi-player games ever created this game is simply unmissable.

Back in the 1980’s Bally / Midway released a number of different games to cash in on their Tron license and Light Cycles is probably the best known of them. As well as being probably the most iconic scene from the film it also made its way to the Atari 2600 under the title Surround. This homebrew game for the Falcon is just as basic as the 2600 game once you strip away the music and graphical touches. For those who don’t know the game the idea is to simply drive around the screen trying not to touch the trail left by you or your opponent. Like other versions its pretty good fun in two player but loses all point and appeal when played on your own. The programmers added some great music to this game and the high score side panel is a nice touch but these features aside there isn’t much more to it than the seminal original. If you are Tron mad then sure hunt this down but everyone else can give this game a miss.