Are you feeling nostalgic? Do you miss those days of classic adventure games? Then your solution lies with 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 for the PC. With not one or two but three different adventures, players will enter various stories to try to reach the end of each tale. With tough and sometimes obscure puzzles and solution, 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 is essentially three games for a low price. With classic visuals, old chip tune music and tons of classic gameplay, 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 will be the title that brings you back to the days of the NES and PC.

If you’ve seen older point and click games where each action is dictated by various commands such as examine and move, then you’ll know what to expect in 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1. Each story within has a different setting from horror to mystery and even fantasy. Find items, use your wits—and sometimes luck—and solve various puzzles to beat each of the three games in 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1. Will you enter the world of an amnesiac who wakes up in a strange room or will you venture into a dungeon to defeat an evil force? These are just some of the scenarios awaiting you in this classic point and click adventure known as 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1.

Now us remind you again that 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 isn’t just one game but three in one title. However, the three different games in 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 play exactly the same so our review will more or less cover all three titles. There will be times we might criticize one game over another but since 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 is a full package we want to review it together as one. Now then with that little thought out of the way let us continue the review. First thing up is the gameplay of 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1.

Gamers of all generations are used to adventure titles such as Myst or Sam and Max titles. Though in the older days, adventure games required more than just pointing on something and clicking it. In games like 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1, players would be given several choices on the screen—use, move, examine, leave and so forth—which would dictate their actions on an item they touch or a door they look at. If you want to move into another room you need to actually hit open on the door and then move, likewise if you want to use a bottle with something inside it then you hit open and then use. It may seem like a lot of steps but that’s the beauty of 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1, players can truly feel like they are doing action that mimic real life ones.

Though this gameplay concept stretches within all three titles in 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 and that is probably one of the things that can push a lot of people away. Too often if you have to solve a puzzle like defeating a ghost in the Uninvited, you need to figure out what to use on said ghost. While it can be sometimes silly and be a simple as finding a can saying No Ghost—that really is a thing in the Uninvited—other times you might need to throw a spider on a ghost or use a piece of fruit from a plant to help a ghost. The same theme of random puzzles can be found in all three games though Déjà vu seems to be the more grounded in reality title since it’s trying to be a murder mystery in comparison to the horror tale of the Uninvited or the fantasy world of Shadowgate. That’s why our hint to you all who decide to play 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 is take every item and if you’re truly stuck use every item on something till it works, especially in the Uninvited and Shadowgate.

Graphically, 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 looks pretty great if you’re examining it as a retro game. In modern graphics 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 looks pretty mediocre. However, it’s clear Abstraction Games wanted to keep these titles in their original style—though with some clear upscaling and sharpening of some of the visuals—and thus that makes 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 look great for an older anthology of titles. The same can be said of the music which never gets old thanks to the tones we remember best from classic NES titles. None of these games have voice acting though so be prepared to only hear simple noises and sounds when talking with someone or engaging with someone.

Finally, we here at Honey’s Anime decided to examine the levels of each game within 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 and just say why it was good and bad quickly. Déjà vu for us was our favorite title thanks to its murder mystery plot and less confusing gameplay puzzles. Shadowgate isn’t perfect for a fantasy based adventure title but it also offers up an interesting story with some cool puzzles that typically aren’t too trial and error like. However, by far our least favorite game of 8-Bit Adventure Anthology: Volume 1 was the Uninvited which just feels random with its story, puzzle solutions and ghost designs. That’s why we’ll say start off by playing the other two and saving the Uninvited for last.