Virocop

Virocop is a third-person shooter created by Graftgold and published by Renegade in 1995 for the Amiga.

The game programmers, Steve Turner and Andrew Braybrook, took inspiration from their previous titles for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64: Quazatron and Magnetron. In fact, the main character of Virocop is a robot called D.A.V.E., which must destroy all viruses infecting the "Gamedisk." But the similarities with these 8-bit titles almost end here because Virocop is a game designed and programmed from scratch, specifically for the Amiga. And because of this, it uses all the features of this machine. The music, sounds, animations, graphics are some of the best seen on this platform. I mean, seriously, look at the screenshots! Even the ECS version, which has fewer colors than the AGA one, looks amazing. But most importantly, Virocop is an extremely polished game, with really high-quality programming. The level design, maybe, in some cases, is a bit challenging, but nothing too difficult.

It's almost impossible not to compare Virocop with the iconic Amiga shooter The Chaos Engine, but the Graftgold creation has nothing to fear from the comparison. It even has a 2-player mode, where one player controls movement and the other one fires. It also has a lighter, even funnier, atmosphere.

It's a real surprise that Virocop is not as popular as many other Amiga titles, probably because it was released very late when the Amiga at the end of its career. But it deserves to be on the list of the best shooters ever created for this machine. If somehow you missed this game, you have to try it.