I'll admit upfront that I'm biased as Montezuma's Revenge is my favourite game of all time so I knew I'd like Montezuma's Revenge - Director's Cut. What I didn't know was how much I was going to like it. It's everything that made the original great, only more so. Whether you have fond memories of the original or never played the original and are looking for a charming platformer with fantastic game mechanics, this is the game for you. I give it my highest recommendation.
The game - being an almost identical copy of the original - hits exactly like it did the first time. Simple gameplay, sometimes difficult but - so far - never unfair platforming; all treasures are - strictly speaking - attainable, though some require some work, and the added tutorials are very very fun. The added controller support makes playing it very simple and intuitive, and also deals with accessibility issues, which is great! The boss fight is - especially given the simplicity of the gameplay - really fun, and despite being basically the same layout anf motions every time, the increasing difficulty through more obstacles and enemies makes this a fun but not unfair challenge.
Improtant tidbit: the tutorials are videos to watch, and you CAN play them if you want. It took me some time to figure that out.
The added options of using original 1983 sounds and screen modifications for scanlines, blur and curve are nice to have, but do not add much. Except remove the music as the original did not have music, apart from musical stings.
Downsides:
Some of the puzzles are rather difficult and require a lot of backtracking, if one does not immediately grasp them. Also, there are some parts in which the timing appears to require millisecond precision, which can easily eat up lives.
The main downside to this game, however, is the boss battle overlay. It is okay to inform the player about the fact that they are now entering a boss battle, and this battle will take X rounds, and that it is required to strike the head with the axe, and then to have a countdown, before ACTUALLY starting the boss fight and not having the textbox disappear for several seconds, which can lead to death by pot-on-the-head.
This happens EVERY time the boss is encountered for the first time on a level. Doing this once - great. Make sure that every player is on board with this. Doing it every time, without giving the option of removing or skipping this infobox is annoying, to say the least.
If you liked the original version from your 8-bit system, you’ll live this one! Great puzzles and challenges and it’s a great remembrance from this all-time Classic.
If you’ve never played it, you’ll find and entertaining challenge to practice your skills. You won’t regret it!
I may be biased for this game. Montezuma's revenge was the first floppy game we got on the C64. Great little platformer with no air control (e.g. once you jump, you're not in control until you land)
You go through different screens, picking up treasures and keys to unlock doors to move forward. Nothing fancy, just solid simple gameplay.
Every "level" (set of rooms) starts off very similar, but becomes bigger and more complex.
So what is new compared to the C64 version?
* More room layouts so you rarely see repeats during the same level.
* As a result, levels feel a lot nicer
* End of level boss battle (Still no fighting)
* Checkpoints clearing out your inventory once you reach a certain point, effectively breaking levels into smaller areas, so you don't have to backtrack all the way to find missing keys.
* up/down conveyors
* Trampolines for both platforming and switching conveyors.
* Continue system (so you don't go back to level 1-3 every game over)
In all, I'm quite happy with it. I can't think how they would update it more without risking fundamentally changing the game... Maybe a level editor, maybe.
If you like 8-bit puzzleish platformers, you're very likely to have a good time with this.
