Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The Story So Far: Vol 2 delivers a diverse suite of retro gameplay experiences, pulling together five distinct titles into one compilation. Beyond the Ice Palace introduces classic side-scrolling hack-and-slash action, where you guide a lone warrior through icy fortresses and hordes of frosty foes. The combat is deliberately straightforward—sword swings and magic spells—but the level design keeps you on your toes with environmental hazards and hidden power-ups. It captures the old-school difficulty curve, challenging newcomers while rewarding exploration and mastery of timing.

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Hoppin’ Mad shakes things up with its unique puzzle-platformer twist. You must strategically jump blocks and navigate intricate tile patterns to build bridges and solve spatial conundrums. Each level feels like a miniature brain-teaser, often requiring multiple attempts to learn the optimal sequence of jumps. While the control scheme remains simple—just hop and move left or right—the real challenge arises from anticipating block physics and planning three steps ahead. This cerebral variation adds welcome depth to the compilation.

Live and Let Die and Overlander expand the gameplay further by introducing vehicular combat and overhead exploration. Live and Let Die becomes a high-stakes chase game, where you pilot a speedboat to take down smugglers under time constraints. The tension builds as you dodge obstacles and manage your boat’s health, creating a pulse-pounding experience once you get used to the handling. Overlander, in contrast, offers a sprawling map with multiple vehicle types—cars, boats, and even helicopters—tasking you with crossing hostile terrain and defending convoys. Both titles offer a break from side-scrollers, showcasing the variety of arcade genres popular in the ’80s.

Finally, Space Harrier rounds out the compilation with its trademark fast-paced rail shooter action. Clocking in at breakneck speeds, this game tests your reflexes as you dodge incoming projectiles and colossal bosses while firing your bazooka-like weapon. The sense of velocity and vibrant sprite work make each stage feel like a whirlwind tour through surreal landscapes. Combined, these five titles ensure that The Story So Far: Vol 2 never feels repetitive—each entry brings its own mechanics, pacing, and challenges to the table.

Graphics

Graphically, The Story So Far: Vol 2 captures the charm of 8- and 16-bit era artwork with bright color palettes, pixel-perfect sprites, and richly detailed backdrops. Beyond the Ice Palace delivers chilling blues and whites that evoke a frozen wilderness, while the protagonists and enemies boast enough animation frames to feel fluid even by modern retro standards. The title’s stark contrast between icy caverns and fiery boss arenas underscores its visual flair.

Hoppin’ Mad leans into a cartoonish aesthetic, with blocky platforms rendered in cheerful primary colors. The simplicity of the graphics serves the puzzle mechanics well, as players can quickly discern movable blocks from static terrain. Occasional parallax layers in the background add surprising depth, elevating what might otherwise feel like a utilitarian puzzle interface into a vibrant, living world.

The boat and vehicle titles—Live and Let Die and Overlander—showcase varied environments, from sunlit coastal routes to dusty desert roads. Though their vantage points differ, both games maintain consistent sprite quality and smooth scrolling. Water reflections, debris, and oncoming traffic in Live and Let Die evoke an immersive chase atmosphere, while Overlander’s overhead tileset cleverly differentiates terrain types and obstacles without overwhelming the screen.

Space Harrier pushes the compilation’s visual envelope with fast-scrolling backgrounds, zoom lines, and large enemy sprites that grow and shrink in a pseudo-3D effect. The vibrant color transitions and clever sprite scaling make the stages feel alive, especially when large bosses suddenly burst onto the screen. Though each game hails from different hardware limitations, the compilation’s unified display settings ensure a cohesive visual presentation, complete with optional scanline filters and aspect-ratio adjustments.

Story

While retro arcade games were seldom narrative powerhouses, The Story So Far: Vol 2 adds context and cohesion through a unified presentation. Beyond the Ice Palace casts you as a warrior on a quest to rescue your kingdom from an evil wizard. The campaign unfolds in straightforward chapters, each punctuated by minibosses and a climactic final guardian. It’s a simple hero’s journey that serves as a nostalgic throwback to ’80s fantasy tropes.

Hoppin’ Mad’s narrative is minimalist by design: a scientist’s teleportation experiment goes awry, scattering his hopping creatures across bizarre platforms. Your goal is to round them up one by one, effectively reassembling your flock. Though the story barely goes beyond a blasted lab and shifting blocks, the whimsical premise matches the game’s lighthearted tone, giving it a sense of playful purpose.

Live and Let Die and Overlander feature covert ops and cross-country rescue missions, respectively. In Live and Let Die, you play an agent determined to thwart a global arms dealer’s escape via river routes. Brief cutscenes and mission briefs punctuate each stage, lending a Bond-style flair to your aquatic pursuits. Overlander ups the narrative stakes by sending you across hostile territory to safeguard vital supplies, complete with intercepted communications and makeshift waystations that hint at a larger conflict.

Space Harrier strips back story to its essentials: you assume the role of a “Space Harrier” tasked with eradicating the dark forces threatening two rebel worlds. While dialog is virtually non-existent, the escalating boss battles and increasingly surreal environments convey a meta-narrative of interplanetary defense. In the end, the compilation’s varied story threads, though disparate, all evoke classic arcade era simplicity, allowing gameplay to shine as the primary form of storytelling.

Overall Experience

The Story So Far: Vol 2 is a treasure trove for retro game enthusiasts and curious newcomers alike. Its five-game line-up spans multiple genres—action, puzzle, vehicular combat, and rail shooter—ensuring that few play sessions feel the same. The variety not only keeps the senses engaged but also highlights the creative experimentation of early game developers pushing hardware limits.

Modern amenities such as save states, rewind functions, and optional display filters make revisiting these classics much more approachable than hunting down original hardware. The intuitive menu system lets you jump between titles seamlessly, and each game boots up in seconds, perfect for quick bursts of nostalgia or extended marathon sessions.

While some players may find the difficulty spikes punishing—especially in titles like Beyond the Ice Palace and Space Harrier—the inclusion of adjustable lives and continues helps balance challenge with accessibility. The compilation also offers historical notes and original box art galleries, providing valuable context for collectors and historians.

Overall, The Story So Far: Vol 2 stands as a well-curated snapshot of 1980s arcade ingenuity. It’s more than just a compilation; it’s a celebration of early gaming’s bold ideas and mechanical purity. Whether you’re seeking pixel-perfect thrills, head-scratching puzzles, or high-speed mayhem, this collection delivers hours of varied entertainment at a bargain price.

Retro Replay Score

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