M.U.L.E.

The Good
The first of its' kind, M.U.L.E is one of the best C64 games ever created. With a distinct mixture of strategic aspects (such as auctioneering and resource management), this one practically began the "multiplayer party game" genre (and is still immensely fun to play with a group of friends!)

The Bad
The AI is a little dull and easy to outwit-- but then again, the idea is to play it with a group of friends!

The Bottom Line
M.U.L.E was years before Mario Party and lightyears ahead of it in replayability. Highly recommended.

The Good
M.U.L.E. was the first game I can remember playing that actually demonstrated how multiplayer game play can actually improve game play. Four guys hunched around the monitor, each trying to outbid the other (but not bid too high), shouting at each other for outbidding them--no other computer game inspired such banter.

The premise of the game was simple to grasp, difficult to master, all the while staying engaging. This is a game I could always keep coming back to. No game was ever the same twice.

The Bad
They graphics for this game were a little weak, even for the era of computers it was released for. But graphics were not the draw for this game, but the excellent gameplay.

The Bottom Line
A great trading game with an engaging premise and gameplay.

The Good
Fun-Factor!! As old as this game is now, it still supplies fun for many ages.

The Bad
For some this game will be too complicated to get into.

The Bottom Line
Let's face it - the graphics are very 80's, and the music is a little cheesy. This being all the more reason to love this game. What the game really has going for it is fun-factor. Rarely does a game let you play computer opponents that continue to surprise you. It combines strategy with some mild gameplay and I have never met a person who has played this game with some length that didn't fall in love and get totally hooked on the game. MULE will never be forgotten.

The Good
This game is more complex than just about every modern resources management game I have played. It's not complex mathematically. It's complex in the number of strategies you can employ. Many modern games are "fake" complex and force you to understand advanced mathematics to simply model the game. Even after you apply all of these advanced techniques, these modern games are in reality much more simple than MULE.

The Bad
The limitations in graphics and computer memory limited how much they could do in this game. The maps could be larger, the resources more detailed, and the games longer. Modem support would have been great.

The Bottom Line
This is the great grand daddy to all of those 4x strategy and RTS games. MULE set the ground work for the resource management aspects of every modern strategy game. The only thing it didn't have was actual combat.