Realms of Chaos (1995) is one of Apogee’s last 2D titles before they went all in on 3D.

It’s pretty good.

At first, it seems unreasonably hard. But you got unlimited lives and the episodes aren’t all that long.

It also has a nice character switching mechanic. You play as two characters: Endrick (a warrior) and Elandra (a sorceress). Endrick is skilled in melee, while Elandra provides range.

One of the worst things about this game is something it can’t help. The default action buttons are Alt and Ctrl. This is fine on keyboards of the 90s, but nowadays, it’s too easy to hit the dreaded Windows key—which boots you out of the game.

Thankfully, Steam allows for button mapping on a gamepad. And somebody out there already mapped it out—using it is just a matter of downloading.

There’s a lot of gotchas in Realms of Chaos. But a little bit of precision and memory allows you to overcome it.

And wow, do I ever wish Apogee continued with 2D games.