The MacVenture series and , in turn , 8-bit Adventure Anthology : Volume 1 doesn ’ t play around . Death is part of the game , but the ways in which you die are gruesome , even by today ’ s standards . You are ripped limb from limb , starved to death , burned to death , shot in the chest , and you can even commit suicide by stabbing yourself . When people talk about the NES , these three games are probably the most mature you ’ ll find . What ’ s more is that the games often show , at least in some small part , a lot of these deaths on screen . Even in 2017 a few of these made me squirm in my seat . Goodness only knows how I dealt with them as a kid .
These remakes should all be essential parts of your collection , especially if you love classic adventure games . And if you missed out on any of these , getting them in this package is a no brainer . What ’ s better is that this collection can be had for only $ 7.99 on whatever platform you want to play it on . That ’ s a pretty incredible deal for a bunch of hours of adventure goodness . Sure , once you beat any of the games there really isn ’ t a reason to go back , but each adventure is meaty enough that if you are new to each , you are going to be having quite a fun time . I even streamed the entirety of Deja Vu on our Twitch page and people had a blast trying to help me get through it .
And as this is a remake , the whole thing comes with a number of extras , if you ’ re into that sort of thing . There are a bunch of achievements , including a number of them from getting killed in the various games . You also have the option to toss on some filters to make the game even more retro in its atheistic .
You can warp the monitor for the tube TV feel and you can even set everything to black and white as if you were playing on an old Apple Macintosh . I stuck with the remasterd visuals without any filter as they look gorgeous up on the big TV while playing .
There is very little to complain about with 8-bit Adventure Anthology : Volume 1 . The remastered graphics look super sharp and the controls are smooth and responsive , as even though these games originally came out on computers , back then most didn ’ t use a mouse ! The only quibble that keeps this pack from being truly great has to do with the Uninvited . The game itself is a macabre masterpiece of the 8-bit era , but the sound in this version is nearly broken . When too many thing are on screen it stutters and doubles up on itself and is almost painful to hear . Hopefully this can be resolved in a patch , but it ’ s bad enough to keep this anthology from truly being perfect .
That said , if you like adventure games or are looking to see how things used to be , you really can ’ t got wrong with 8-bit Adventure Anthology : Volume 1 . It ’ s one of the nicest surprises of the year for adventure game fans and I ’ m excited , and hopeful , that the team brings more of these classic games back into the spotlight with additional volumes .
Final Score : 4 / 5