Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Thalion: The First Year delivers a diverse quartet of titles that showcase the studio’s early strengths. Chambers of Shaolin kicks off the collection with tight beat ’em up combat, offering an array of martial arts moves and a rewarding progression system that keeps you striving for mastery. Each round demands precision timing and strategic block and counter techniques, ensuring that even veteran fighting game fans stay on their toes. The controls feel responsive, and each new opponent introduces subtle variations that prevent the action from growing stale.

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Leavin’ Teramis shifts the focus to side-scrolling run-and-gun action, combining platforming challenges with a varied arsenal of sci-fi weaponry. You’ll find yourself blasting through alien hordes while navigating tricky terrain, collecting power-ups, and rescuing stranded colonists. The level design balances linear paths with hidden alcoves, rewarding exploration as much as marksmanship. Although lives are limited, well-placed checkpoints ease the tension and encourage replay until you’ve discovered every secret.

In The Seven Gates of Jambala, Thalion introduces puzzle-driven platforming that tests both your reflexes and your problem-solving skills. Each realm forces you to gather keys, activate switches, and avoid hazards within tight time constraints, making every leap and dash feel crucial. The puzzles grow gradually more devious, blending inventory use with environmental interactions to keep you mentally engaged. Even after solving the main objectives, bonus challenges and speed runs add long-term replay value.

Warp rounds out the collection with a top-down space shooter that combines fast-paced action with ship customization and strategic weapon choices. Your mission is to breach enemy defenses, collect power modules, and navigate asteroid fields while fending off relentless alien squadrons. The escalating difficulty curve pushes you to master your ship’s handling and weapon cooldowns, ensuring each victory feels hard-earned. Together, these four titles offer a comprehensive look at Thalion’s gameplay versatility, delivering hours of varied, challenging fun.

Graphics

Though designed for the Atari ST’s limitations, each game in Thalion: The First Year boasts vibrant pixel art and expertly crafted sprite animations. Chambers of Shaolin uses a muted palette to evoke a classic martial arts dojo, with detailed character frames that highlight each punch and kick. Background elements—like waving banners and incense smoke—add depth without overtaxing the hardware. The result is a visually coherent experience that still feels polished decades later.

Leavin’ Teramis shines with parallax scrolling backgrounds that convey a sense of depth in alien cityscapes and underground caverns. Enemies and obstacles are rendered with crisp details, and the weapon effects—laser blasts, plasma bursts, and explosions—pop against darker backdrops. Animations remain smooth even in the heat of battle, thanks to Thalion’s knack for optimizing sprite routines. The subtle color gradients and texture work help each level feel distinct, enhancing the sense of progression.

The Seven Gates of Jambala employs a more fantastical aesthetic, using bold color choices to differentiate each realm’s theme—from lush forests to crystalline caverns. Environmental hazards, like rising lava or shifting platforms, are clearly indicated with contrasting hues, making it easier to plan your next move. Character sprites maintain fluid motion as you dash and jump, and the interface elements stay out of the way until you need them. These graphical flourishes keep puzzle solving visually intuitive and engaging.

Warp’s visual design embraces sci-fi tropes, with sleek starfields, glowing force fields, and detailed ship sprites that rotate smoothly in all directions. Enemy crafts exhibit unique shapes and attack patterns that are immediately recognizable, helping you adapt your tactics on the fly. The vibrant particle effects for weapon fire and explosions feel weighty and satisfying, while the HUD remains streamlined, displaying shields and energy without obstructing your view. Altogether, the graphics across the four titles capture the Atari ST era’s charm while standing up to modern scrutiny.

Story

Chambers of Shaolin frames its action within a classic hero’s journey: you are a lone disciple seeking to restore honor to your temple by vanquishing a corrupt warlord’s minions. Though the narrative is straightforward, it unfolds through brief cutscenes and stage intros that build anticipation for the next dojo challenge. The minimalist storytelling fits the game’s pace, letting the combat mechanics remain front and center while still providing context for your progress. Each victory feels meaningful because it ties back into your overarching quest for redemption.

Leavin’ Teramis casts you as a stranded space pilot whose crash landing on a hostile world sets off a chain of desperate escapes and skirmishes. Scattered audio logs and terminal messages expand on the events leading to the planet’s downfall, adding layers of intrigue to your mission to reach the extraction point. The story isn’t overly elaborate, but it provides enough motivation to push through tough segments and explore hidden alcoves in search of lore tidbits. The blend of action and narrative hooks keeps you invested in every rescue operation.

The Seven Gates of Jambala revolves around a young adventurer drawn into a battle between light and dark magic. Your goal is to unlock seven mystical gates to prevent an ancient evil from returning, with each gate guarding a unique elemental domain. Dialogue snippets and brief cutscenes introduce secondary characters—friendly sages and tricky spirits—who offer hints or obstacles. Though the narrative pace is leisurely between puzzles, it rewards completionists by gradually revealing the backstory behind the gates and the true nature of your quest.

Warp’s storyline places you at the helm of an experimental starfighter equipped to penetrate an alien armada’s defensive network. As you progress, encrypted transmissions hint at a looming invasion and a mysterious benefactor guiding your efforts. Character development is limited, but the stakes feel high thanks to escalating set pieces—ambushes in asteroid belts, deadly minefields, and assault carriers bristling with turrets. By the final showdown, you’ll have invested emotionally in humanity’s survival, lending weight to the climactic battle.

Overall Experience

Thalion: The First Year is a nostalgic time capsule that also stands as an impressive anthology of early ’90s game design. The compilation’s variety—from martial arts combat to puzzle platforming and space shooting—ensures that nearly every type of retro gamer finds something to love. Each title complements the others, creating a well-rounded package that highlights Thalion’s willingness to experiment with genres and push hardware limits. Playing through the collection offers a satisfying sense of discovery as you transition from one distinct world to the next.

Beyond the digital content, the inclusion of an exclusive Thalion T-shirt elevates the unboxing experience into a collector’s event. The shirt’s high-quality material and vintage logo art serve as a wearable badge of honor for longtime fans and newcomers alike. It’s a thoughtful bonus that reminds buyers this isn’t just a reissue—it’s a celebration of Thalion’s legacy. Wearing it while diving into the games only deepens the immersion and sense of community among retro enthusiasts.

The package is delivered in attractive, era-inspired packaging that evokes original Atari ST box art, complete with detailed manuals for each title. These manuals include development notes, level maps, and pro tips that deepen your understanding of each game’s mechanics. This analog companion material enhances the overall experience, bridging the gap between modern reissues and the tangible charm of vintage releases. It’s clear that a lot of care went into preserving the authenticity of these classics.

Whether you’re a seasoned Atari ST aficionado or a new player curious about gaming history, Thalion: The First Year offers tremendous value. The four games remain challenging, varied, and surprisingly fresh, even decades after their initial release. Combined with the exclusive T-shirt and faithful packaging, this anthology is more than just a nostalgia trip—it’s a testament to the creativity and enduring appeal of Thalion’s early catalog. For anyone seeking a well-rounded retro sampler with real substance, this collection comes highly recommended.

Retro Replay Score

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