For the last few years, most games I’ve played have given me a feeling of inevitability – as though I will certainly reach the end, even if I play like a brain-dead cabbage. […] By contrast, La Mulana makes it feel like you are changing the outcome through your actions. You can fail, even to the point where you might give up. Since it is possible to fail, it becomes possible to succeed. – [Review on Action Button]
(This classic game from 2005 was later remade by it’s original creators as a WiiWare title. Recently, this new version was released on PC in English on Playism.)
Beautiful game. Played it for days before giving up. Got a little obtuse at parts but I still loved it.
If you, like me, are from the generation just after the one the review describes, then you’re just a tad short of the raw skill required to get the most out of a game like this, and your age is such that you’ve got far too many things going on to be able to put in the practice required to get that good.
For this reason, I’d like to recommend DeceasedCrab’s Let’s Plays of this game. They’re on YouTube, and they permit a brilliantly vicarious experience of the insanity of La-Mulana without requiring you to get a PhD in MSX platformer physics. (DC himself is a wee bit of a jerk in the comments at times, but you wouldn’t know it from his commentary style.)
The journey begins here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEn5huyUcsg
I’ll have to second you on that CK. La-Mulana is a game that I prefer watching someone play rather than play it myself. The required player skill combined with some fantastic level design make this a great spectator game.
I love this game so much I’ll be done Hell Temple shortly. And then, oh and then… 😈