Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Biggles offers a unique split experience that keeps players on their toes from start to finish. The first portion of the game is divided into three distinct sub-games, each with its own challenge and playstyle. In the opening side-view flight segment, you pilot a flimsy biplane through enemy skies, dodging Fokker D.VIIs and returning fire with a machine gun and bombs. The tension ramps up as you balance aerial combat with the limited firepower and fragile controls of your WWI-era aircraft.

The second sub-game transports you to modern-day London, where you guide your character across a series of rooftops. Here, precise jumps and timing are paramount: missing a gap or colliding with a guard means starting this segment over. This platforming challenge breaks up the aerial action, giving you a chance to test your reflexes on foot as you search for vital secret codes that impact later stages of the game.

After that, Biggles transitions into a Green Beret–inspired side-view shooter. You’ll navigate multiple vertical levels, dispatching waves of ground troops with your standard rifle and collecting grenades for crowd control. Lose all your lives in any of these three sub-games, and you cycle back to the very first challenge—an old-school arcade loop that demands mastery of every section to progress.

Once you conquer the trio of mini-games, you unlock the second half of the experience: a serious flight simulation. Here, a time-displaced helicopter awaits, complete with more sophisticated controls and a mission-critical task. You first fly to an Allied encampment, inputting the password you discovered in the rooftop segment, then set course for the secret German weapon site. The transition from arcade antics to simulation adds depth, making you feel the weight of the mission as you attempt to alter history for the better.

Graphics

Biggles features quintessential 1980s pixel art that oozes nostalgic charm. The biplane sprites are chunky but readable, and the scrolling backgrounds of rolling clouds and distant trenches capture the spirit of WWI dogfights. While the color palette is limited by the hardware of its era, clever use of contrast helps distinguish friend from foe, keeping gameplay clear even in the heat of aerial battle.

The modern-day rooftop sequences showcase a surprisingly varied urban skyline, complete with chimneys, water towers, and spotlights that sweep the night. Character animations are simple but effective: your pilot’s jump arcs and guard patrol loops give enough visual feedback to time your movements accurately. Sprite flicker can occur when many elements occupy the screen at once, but it rarely disrupts the flow of the platforming challenge.

The Green Beret–style stage and the helicopter simulation both lean into minimalistic design. Enemies appear as single-color silhouettes in the ground segments, while the rotary blades and cockpit dials in the chopper mission display a few extra shades and lines to convey mechanical detail. Though dated by modern standards, the graphics hold up as a testament to the ingenuity of 8-bit developers and maintain an appealing retro aesthetic throughout Biggles’ varied offerings.

Story

Inspired by W.E. Johns’ tales and the 1980s feature film, Biggles weaves a time-travel narrative that is surprisingly ambitious for its runtime. You play as Jim, Biggles’ unsuspecting brother, who discovers a German super-weapon capable of rewriting history. After accidentally transporting himself back to World War I, Jim’s mission is to warn Biggles and ensure the weapon is destroyed before it changes the course of the war—and the future.

The plot unfolds in brief cutscenes between gameplay segments, giving you just enough context to care about the stakes without bogging down the action. The modern-day code retrieval and password system tie directly into the story’s mechanics, reinforcing the idea that every jump and every roof you clear has real consequences. It’s a clever way to bind narrative and gameplay on hardware that couldn’t handle lengthy dialogue or cinematic flourishes.

By the time you reach the helicopter simulation, the narrative tension peaks: you’ve assembled all the clues, obtained the secret password, and now take flight to thwart the Germans’ ultimate plan. The simplicity of the storytelling leaves room for player imagination, and occasional in-mission text prompts remind you of the world-altering stakes. For fans of pulp-style adventure and time-travel yarns, Biggles delivers a lean but engaging plot that propels you from one mission to the next.

Overall Experience

Biggles stands out as an eclectic retro title that packs multiple genres into a single cartridge. Its structure—three quick arcade-style mini-games followed by a more deliberate flight simulation—keeps the pacing varied and the challenge fresh. While the restart-from-beginning penalty can feel punishing, it also fosters a “one more try” mentality that will hook fans of old-school difficulty.

The learning curve is steep but fair. Mastering the biplane’s controls, timing rooftop jumps, and clearing enemies in the infantry stage all prepare you for the ultimate helicopter sortie. The password mechanic from the London section adds a welcome twist: you truly see how each fragment of the journey matters when you punch in the code at the Allied base.

As a whole, Biggles is best suited for retro enthusiasts and seasoned gamers who appreciate challenging design and tightly woven gameplay loops. Younger or more casual players may find the lack of checkpoints and the jump between genres a bit jarring. However, for those seeking a bite-sized time-travel epic with varied stages and a heroic mission, Biggles remains a charming blast of 1980s gaming ingenuity.

Retro Replay Score

5.9/10