Lotus666
07-08-09, 10:03 AM
Written for us by LF in June 2009 (this year, so a recent review)...
La-Mulana is a freeware game created by the GR3 Project, now known as Nigoro. They also created games like Rose & Camellia for those of you who enjoyed that hot-blooded woman's combat game (where you slapped the shit out of each other).
Anyways, back to the game. You play as Lemeza Kosugi, an archaeologist and explorer (who uses a whip... gee, who could that reference), who is son of Shorn Kosugi, who is also an archaeologist and explorer. After you finished teaching your class in Japan, you found a letter from your father stating "I did it! I found La-Mulana!" Along with it was a map and a challenge - to get the Treasure of La-Mulana...
Little do you know, you're falling prey to the Machinations of the Seventh Children...
I really enjoyed this game. It had a brilliant "retro" feel to it (because it basically used a very well emulated Maze of Galious engine, including the really, really, really annoying knockback physics...) along with some Castlevania references and a few others.
What was uniquely special was that your favorite computer in the game was the MSX, a Japanese computer system (that sold like frackin' hotcakes!) and when you got the MSX2 laptop (you start with the MSX Laptop) you could do ROM combinations that when activated gave you special abilities...
for instance: Athletic Land and Cabbage Patch Kids gave you an elongated "flicker" so you could stay invulnerable for a longer period of time.
It's a wonderful action/adventure/puzzle platformer - some of the boss fights were hard as hell, and Hell Temple (the special area you have to go WELL out of your way to unlock) is "mind shattering" difficult. Fortunately, I completely, 100% defeated this game. Got every item, every rom, and even defeated Hell Temple.
My full 100% complete time: 16 hours, 22 minutes, 23 seconds.
Video: 10 out of 10 - It uses an incredibly old architecture that I enjoyed the hell out of... I wish more games would come like this.
Audio: 10 out of 10 - The music is beyond good - one of the main attractions of the game, the music was well-crafted and well utilized. I still have the entire soundtrack on my iPod and I play a few of my favorites from time to time.
Controls: 10 out of 10 - Simple and reconfigurable if you don't like the standard.
Difficulty: 10 out of 10 - It makes you realize just how tough the old games were, where you had to use extended proxy logic in an effort to try to solve every puzzle. By the way, every solution to every puzzle is on a monument SOMEWHERE in La-Mulana, and that assumes you can't figure it out yourself.
Replayability: 5 out of 10 - The only possible replayability you could get is if you're a perfectionist, or if you just loved the flavor of it. Unfortunately, most people will not agree with me, so meh.
Total: 45 out of 50. PLAY THIS!
If you do want to play this, you can download the game and the patch at the Aeon Genesis Translation Site, seeing as they were the ones who translated it from Japanese to English in the first place. Just follow the instructions and you should be good.
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=lamulana
If you want a guide to help you through La-Mulana, I recommend DeceasedCrab's "Let's Play" of it at
http://www.youtube.com/deceasedcrab
He's got two Let's Plays, a quick run-through and the full run with Hell Temple attached.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HNHGtWVJv6k/0.jpg
La-Mulana is a freeware game created by the GR3 Project, now known as Nigoro. They also created games like Rose & Camellia for those of you who enjoyed that hot-blooded woman's combat game (where you slapped the shit out of each other).
Anyways, back to the game. You play as Lemeza Kosugi, an archaeologist and explorer (who uses a whip... gee, who could that reference), who is son of Shorn Kosugi, who is also an archaeologist and explorer. After you finished teaching your class in Japan, you found a letter from your father stating "I did it! I found La-Mulana!" Along with it was a map and a challenge - to get the Treasure of La-Mulana...
Little do you know, you're falling prey to the Machinations of the Seventh Children...
I really enjoyed this game. It had a brilliant "retro" feel to it (because it basically used a very well emulated Maze of Galious engine, including the really, really, really annoying knockback physics...) along with some Castlevania references and a few others.
What was uniquely special was that your favorite computer in the game was the MSX, a Japanese computer system (that sold like frackin' hotcakes!) and when you got the MSX2 laptop (you start with the MSX Laptop) you could do ROM combinations that when activated gave you special abilities...
for instance: Athletic Land and Cabbage Patch Kids gave you an elongated "flicker" so you could stay invulnerable for a longer period of time.
It's a wonderful action/adventure/puzzle platformer - some of the boss fights were hard as hell, and Hell Temple (the special area you have to go WELL out of your way to unlock) is "mind shattering" difficult. Fortunately, I completely, 100% defeated this game. Got every item, every rom, and even defeated Hell Temple.
My full 100% complete time: 16 hours, 22 minutes, 23 seconds.
Video: 10 out of 10 - It uses an incredibly old architecture that I enjoyed the hell out of... I wish more games would come like this.
Audio: 10 out of 10 - The music is beyond good - one of the main attractions of the game, the music was well-crafted and well utilized. I still have the entire soundtrack on my iPod and I play a few of my favorites from time to time.
Controls: 10 out of 10 - Simple and reconfigurable if you don't like the standard.
Difficulty: 10 out of 10 - It makes you realize just how tough the old games were, where you had to use extended proxy logic in an effort to try to solve every puzzle. By the way, every solution to every puzzle is on a monument SOMEWHERE in La-Mulana, and that assumes you can't figure it out yourself.
Replayability: 5 out of 10 - The only possible replayability you could get is if you're a perfectionist, or if you just loved the flavor of it. Unfortunately, most people will not agree with me, so meh.
Total: 45 out of 50. PLAY THIS!
If you do want to play this, you can download the game and the patch at the Aeon Genesis Translation Site, seeing as they were the ones who translated it from Japanese to English in the first place. Just follow the instructions and you should be good.
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=lamulana
If you want a guide to help you through La-Mulana, I recommend DeceasedCrab's "Let's Play" of it at
http://www.youtube.com/deceasedcrab
He's got two Let's Plays, a quick run-through and the full run with Hell Temple attached.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HNHGtWVJv6k/0.jpg