Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The Action Pack offers a quartet of distinct arcade experiences, each with its own control scheme and challenge curve. Bop’N Wrestle drops you into a pixelated ring where timing and positioning matter more than button mashing. Grabbing an opponent, delivering a slam, and pinning for the three-count feels surprisingly weighty for an early-era wrestling simulator. The opponent AI adapts quickly, forcing you to mix up your attacks or risk being tossed across the canvas.

I,Ball adapts classic half-court basketball into an over-the-top one-on-one duel. You’ll dribble, shoot, and steal your way through increasingly agile opponents. The low-gravity physics give the game a floaty, almost dreamy feel—jump shots carry farther, and rebounds can turn into lucky tip-ins. A single miss can cost you possession, so every pass and pivot counts.

Seabase Delta transports you to an undersea research station gone dark. This side-scrolling shooter emphasizes careful resource management: your harpoons and energy packs are limited, and every corridor could hide a hostile mech or a precious health pickup. Momentum and positioning are key as you navigate 3D-tilted corridors, blasting hazards and solving simple puzzles to progress deeper into the flooded depths.

Finally, Thrust challenges your precision and patience with gravity-flipping controls reminiscent of lunar lander games. You pilot a small craft through narrow caverns, counteracting gravity while avoiding walls and enemy turrets. Every level demands laser focus; too much thrust, and you’ll slam into rock formations, too little and you’ll spiral into deep caverns. With its steep learning curve, Thrust will test even seasoned arcade veterans.

Graphics

Given their late-’80s origins, the four games in The Action Pack share a nostalgic blocky look, but each title brings its own color palette and visual flair. Bop’N Wrestle employs large sprite characters with exaggerated limbs, giving matches a comedic yet readable style. The wrestling ring backdrop is simple but uses bright primary colors to convey crowd excitement.

I,Ball’s minimalist court relies on bold lines and solid fills, making player avatars stand out during fast breaks. The slow fade of the crowd in the background and the subtle ball spin animation exude classic arcade charm. Though the sprites are low resolution, the color choices make each shot easily distinguishable even in hectic moments.

Seabase Delta feels more atmospheric, with teal and navy gradients that mimic deep-sea darkness. The tiled walls of the base, flickering console screens, and enemy silhouettes all reinforce the claustrophobic setting. Occasional flashes of bright orange torpedoes or exploding debris provide satisfying visual contrast.

Thrust goes retro in the purest sense with wireframe graphics reminiscent of vector displays. Caverns are etched in sharp white lines against a black void, while your ship and enemy bases glow in neon hues. This stark contrast not only highlights the game’s precision demands but also serves as a visual throwback for fans of early arcade cabinets.

Story

While The Action Pack isn’t a narrative powerhouse, each game offers a basic premise that frames its action. Bop’N Wrestle casts you as an up-and-coming grappler aiming to conquer a global tag-team tournament. Characters sport over-the-top personalities—hulking strongmen, swift high-flyers, and a masked luchador—yet the story essentially exists to justify the next match-up.

I,Ball positions you as a rookie looking to rise through the ranks of an interstellar basketball league. Every victory brings you closer to a championship face-off under the shimmering lights of a cosmic arena. The story beats appear between matches in simple text screens, serving more as motivational flavor than a branching plot.

Seabase Delta imbues its shooter action with a rescue mission: recover missing scientists, reactivate power cores, and escape before the entire base collapses. Logs found in side rooms provide bits of lore—how the experimental reactor went haywire, which researchers you saved—but the main drive is to survive and make it out alive.

Thrust is almost purely mechanical in its narrative, offering scant details beyond “retrieve fuel cells” and “destroy the core.” The absence of dialogue or cut scenes places full emphasis on gameplay. That stark simplicity, however, encourages players to create their own backstory: you are the lone pilot pitted against an imposing orbital defense system.

Overall Experience

The Action Pack shines as a budget anthology that packs surprising depth into four bite-sized games. Its greatest strength lies in variety: within minutes you can switch from wrestling showdowns to zero-G basketball, from undersea jaunts to gravity-defying flight. This keeps the experience fresh and prevents any single entry from overstaying its welcome.

Emulation on modern systems is handled cleanly, with customizable controls and optional scan-line filters for purists. Each title runs smoothly, and loading times are effectively nonexistent, maintaining the arcade feel. The simple menu interface lets you jump between games with minimal downtime, encouraging experimentation and replay.

Though none of the four titles will redefine their respective genres, they represent classic design philosophies—easy to learn, hard to master, and eternally replayable. The Action Pack is ideal for retro enthusiasts seeking a quick arcade fix or newcomers interested in gaming’s early experimentation. At its price point, the collection delivers solid bang for your buck.

If you crave nostalgic charm over high-definition spectacle and appreciate straightforward, skill-based gameplay, The Action Pack is a satisfying purchase. Just be prepared for pixelated wrestlers, floaty basketballs, cramped undersea corridors, and neon wireframes—you won’t find storybook epics here, but you will find four compact adventures that stand the test of time.