Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Highlights delivers a surprisingly diverse gameplay package by bundling together five distinct titles that each shine in their own right. In Danger Freak, you’ll find a fast-paced side-scrolling shooter that emphasizes reflexes and pattern memorization. It’s the kind of frantic action that keeps you on your toes from the very first enemy encounter, rewarding quick thinking and precise timing.

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Realm of the Trolls shifts gears completely, offering a top-down fantasy adventure filled with exploration, puzzle solving, and light combat. You’ll guide your hero through winding dungeons and eerie forests, collecting keys and potions while avoiding cleverly placed traps. The slower pace gives you a chance to savor the atmosphere and appreciate the level design, making it a pleasant counterpoint to the more intense action titles in the collection.

Garrison and Katakis bring two more flavors of shmup goodness: Garrison challenges you with stationary turret defense against waves of enemies, demanding strategic placement and ammo management, whereas Katakis delivers classic horizontal shooting with sprawling levels, epic boss battles, and a tight control scheme. Finally, Volleyball Simulator swaps weapons for volleyballs, offering multiplayer matches, customizable teams, and realistic physics that make every spike and dig feel weighty and satisfying. Together, these five games cover a remarkable range of styles, ensuring there’s something here for almost every retro-action enthusiast.

Graphics

Graphically, Highlights embraces its retro roots with pixel art that ranges from gritty to colorful across its lineup. Danger Freak sports bold, chunky sprites and explosive effects that stand out on any modern display, while Katakis uses layered parallax scrolling to create a sense of depth rarely seen in contemporaneous shooters. The two side-scrollers look and feel authentic, complete with scanline filtering options to replicate that CRT aesthetic.

Realm of the Trolls opts for a more muted palette, using earthy tones and minimal animation to evoke classic dungeon-crawl atmospheres. Though its visuals are simpler, the hand-drawn feel of the environments and the occasional splash of magical effects lend it a unique charm. Garrison’s overhead perspective is crisp and clean, with clearly defined enemy units and projectiles—ideal for players who want to keep track of multiple threats on screen without visual clutter.

Volleyball Simulator, while not pushing any cutting-edge graphics, impresses with smooth animations and a surprisingly detailed court environment. Character models are slightly blocky, but their movements—jumps, dives, and ball hits—feel fluid. Menu interfaces across all five games are intuitive and consistent, making it easy to tweak video settings, calibrate controls, or jump back into your favorite mode in seconds.

Story

Highlights isn’t a narrative anthology in the traditional sense, but each game offers its own thematic framing that enriches the experience. Danger Freak’s story is minimal—an undercover agent on a mission to dismantle a criminal syndicate—but it provides just enough context to fuel the relentless pace of the action. The cutscenes are brief and to the point, keeping you engaged without bogging down the gameplay.

Realm of the Trolls presents the most developed storyline: you’re a lone wanderer tasked with rescuing villagers kidnapped by mischievous trolls. The text-based dialogue and simple quest log harken back to early RPGs, and though the plot doesn’t tread new ground, it gives your dungeon delve a clear purpose. Garrison and Katakis both lean on classic sci-fi tropes—alien invasions, interstellar warfare—but each spins the setting differently, with Garrison focusing on defense protocols and Katakis on full-throttle assault missions.

Volleyball Simulator forgoes any grand narrative, instead offering a “sports as story” approach where victory brackets and tournament progression serve as your campaign. Unlockable teams, brief character bios, and celebratory victory screens substitute for cutscenes, creating a lighthearted progression system that keeps you invested match after match. Overall, while noise-to-narrative ratios vary, each title gives you just enough premise to make your actions feel meaningful.

Overall Experience

As a compilation, Highlights excels at offering both breadth and depth. Fans of retro gaming will appreciate the careful emulation, the optional screen filters, and the faithful audio reproduction—from danger-alert sirens in Garrison to the pulsing synth tracks of Katakis. Loading times are minimal, and save states are available in every title, making it simple to pause mid-level and pick up where you left off.

The user interface unifies the collection, allowing you to switch between games without fumbling through multiple menus or awkward emulator overlays. Achievements and challenges specific to each game add replay value, encouraging you to tackle tougher difficulty modes or chase high scores. Multiplayer support in Volleyball Simulator and co-op opportunities in certain arcade modes further expand the appeal to friends and family gatherings.

Ultimately, Highlights is more than the sum of its parts. It balances frantic action, strategic defense, RPG exploration, and competitive sports into a cohesive package that’s perfect for newcomers and nostalgia seekers alike. Whether you’re craving the adrenaline rush of a high-speed shooter or the cozy thrill of a dungeon crawl, this compilation delivers an engaging—and surprisingly polished—retro gaming experience.

Retro Replay Score

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