Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Play the Games Vol. 1: Der 10 Spiele Super-Pack delivers an eclectic mix of eleven titles spanning genres from one-on-one fighters to strategy simulations and platforming adventures. Each game offers a unique control scheme and pacing, ensuring that players rarely spend more than an hour on a single title before moving on to the next. Whether you’re executing combos in Battle Arena Toshinden or charting trade routes in Ocean Trader, this compilation emphasizes variety over specialization.

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Battle Arena Toshinden shines as the most immediate pick-up-and-play experience: the 3D arenas, dodge rolls, and weapon-based combat feel surprisingly tight for a mid-’90s polygonal fighter. In contrast, Earthworm Jim 2’s run-and-gun platforming provides fast-paced action with inventive level design and quirky power-ups. Turrican II: The Final Fight rounds out the action genre with sprawling stages, heavy exploration, and an arsenal of upgradable weapons that reward thorough exploration.

On the strategy front, Claim to Power and Imperium Romanum cater to very different tastes. Claim to Power is a real-time RPG that feels more like a stripped-down Diablo predecessor, focusing on character builds and loot drops. Imperium Romanum offers city-building mechanics reminiscent of Caesar III, tasking you with resource management and population happiness in ancient Rome. Eishockey Manager and Ocean Trader, meanwhile, provide lighter management sims — one shaping hockey rosters, the other trading commodities across a pixelated map of Europe.

Graphics

Graphical fidelity in this collection spans several generations of PC and console hardware. Battle Arena Toshinden’s early polygonal models and simple textures stand in stark contrast to the rich hand-drawn sprites of Earthworm Jim 2. While Toshinden’s visuals feel dated by modern standards, the characters remain identifiable and colorful, and the move animations hold up thanks to their solid frame data.

Claim to Power, Exploration, and Flamingo Tours adopt top-down or isometric perspectives with pre-rendered assets that evoke late ’90s PC gaming. Claim to Power’s environments are dark and moody, with stylized spell effects, whereas Flamingo Tours employs realistic photographs and simple overlays to simulate travel agency marketing—an odd but charming aesthetic choice. In Turrican II, the pixel art is exceptionally detailed, showcasing parallax scrolling, fluid explosions, and varied environmental themes that still impress homebrew hobbyists today.

Meridian 59, the surprise unlisted title, offers one of the more rudimentary visuals, featuring tiled textures and blocky character models indicative of its pioneering MMO status. Though it lags behind the other entries graphically, its historical significance adds a layer of nostalgia for genre historians. Across the compilation, loading times are generally brief, and none of the titles push modern PCs to their limits, making compatibility with current hardware a nonissue.

Story

There is no overarching narrative tying these eleven titles together; each game brings its own plot or premise to the table. Battle Arena Toshinden requires little exposition beyond tournament rivalries, while Earthworm Jim 2 offers a tongue-in-cheek journey through bizarre planets and villainous CEO plots. Turrican II presents a classic sci-fi rescue mission with minimal dialogue but memorable set pieces.

Claim to Power and Meridian 59 provide the deepest lore, inviting players into sprawling medieval-fantasy worlds filled with factions, quests, and magic. Meridian 59’s MMO environment is built on player interaction more than scripted story beats, so much of its charm derives from emergent gameplay rather than in-game cutscenes. Exploration and Flamingo Tours, by contrast, are almost purely mechanical: one is a dungeon-crawling roguelike, the other a text-driven travel simulation with little narrative development.

Even the management sims like Eishockey Manager and Ocean Trader harbor story elements in the form of seasonal campaigns or trade narratives, but these are largely driven by statistics and player decisions rather than crafted scripts. Imperium Romanum offers tutorial-style storytelling through brief mission intros, yet the bulk of the narrative is conveyed by the player shaping their own Roman empire. In sum, story quality varies dramatically, so buyers seeking strong, character-driven plots should focus on the RPG entries.

Overall Experience

As a budget compilation, Play the Games Vol. 1 delivers remarkable breadth but uneven depth. The price point makes it an attractive choice for retro enthusiasts or curious newcomers eager to sample a wide array of 1990s gaming styles in one package. The surprise inclusion of Meridian 59 — unlisted on the box — will delight MMO historians, even if it feels tacked on next to more polished single-player fare.

Installation is straightforward thanks to a unified launcher, though some titles require manual configuration of video or sound settings to run smoothly on modern Windows versions. Documentation is limited to brief readme files and individual manuals scanned into PDF, which may frustrate those seeking in-game tutorials. Nevertheless, the compilation’s overall polish is higher than most no-frills bundles you’ll find on bargain shelves.

Ultimately, this Super-Pack is a testament to the diversity of mid-’90s gaming. From visceral fighting in Toshinden to the methodical depths of city-building and trading sims, there’s enough here to keep mixed-genre players engaged for weeks. While not every title reaches classic status, the cumulative value and nostalgic flair make it a worthwhile addition to any retro gaming library.

Retro Replay Score

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