La Mulana has been around for a long time. The Wii was the
first console to get a port but now we can pull our hair out wherever we are
with this portable version on the Switch. It may seem a strange choice but La
Mulana is a perfect candidate for on the go gaming – even if it is still
incredibly difficult.
For those unfamiliar with the game it follows an intrepid
archaeologist as he drops into the legendary ruins of La Mulana. It’s a puzzle
platform game in the purest sense with block pushing and weight placing high on
the agenda. There’s lots of whipping, pinpoint platforming and traps galore. There
are also massive great boss monsters and lots of death.
There’s no getting away from just how difficult the game is.
Especially when you first start it can seem overwhelming and any hints at what
to do are obscure to say the least. Once you break through the initial barriers
things do get much better for players though. It took us about an hour and two
wasted save files to really get going. The third time we started it all began
to click and we would recommend any player to use a guide for the first couple
of areas if you feel you aren’t getting anywhere.
Once we had gathered the warping Holy Grail, bought a symbol
decoder from the shop and got past the first boss it became a much better
adventure. It’s all about getting your head around what you need to do and once
that happens it reveals itself to be an excellent platform adventure. By the
time we reached the second proper area everything was fine and it felt we were
really getting into it.
Level design is strong throughout with areas different enough
from each other in terms of enemy type and design. There are fiendish puzzles
and riddles to solve but the core dynamic is based around placing weights on
pads to make things happen in the environment. Weights can be picked up on your
adventure but it’s normally best to buy a hefty amount at the village shop before
diving back into the depths.
Once you have the Holy Grail you can warp to any discovered
Grail points which makes life a bit easier. We did have an issue with certain
points disappearing from our warp list though – if this is a bug or something
we haven’t worked out mechanics wise remains to be seen. There’s a host of
different equipment and weapons to buy and you need to make sure you are well
prepared to have any chance at all. What makes life even more difficult is that
you don’t really know what order you should be attempting the areas (and you
really do need to get through them in the right order to stand a chance).
Indeed, There is very little signposting at all. The first
time we played we didn’t even work out
that each area needed to be completed and subsequently dived down as deep into
the ruins as far as we could go and had to restart our save file as we just
couldn’t get back to where we wanted to be. It's also slightly annoying that
the game comes with borders either side of it. Making a Switch game and then
not adjusting the port to the systems native aspect ratio is somewhat bizarre
to say the least.
Overall, there’s no denying that La Mulana is both an
excellent platform game and a great addition to the Switch catalogue. However,
it is very tough and obscure at times. It’ll certainly appeal to the Spelunky
and Super Meat Boy crowd but requires a more patient and thought-out
approach. If you stick with it you’ll
find a great adventure game. Many though may well be put off by all the
barriers it throws up for players and that’s a real shame.
Overall 7/10
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