Montezuma's Revenge: Indiana Jones Made it Look Easy

"IF PANAMA JOE MISSES JUMPING ONTO OR OFF OF AN ELEVATED CONVEYOR BELT AND FALLS TOO FAR, YOU LOSE HIM." - Montezuma's Revenge Manual

Looking back over my previous post, I don't think I put enough stress on how difficult this game is. The timing required, for even the simplest of actions, is far more precise than anything my modern sensibilities are used to. Let's look at the first screen again:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Careful Jumps.

The first few games were spent getting used to dying from (what looked like) short falls. For example, in the picture above, walking off the ledge and dropping down to the conveyor belt below will kill you, making it so you have to use the ladder. More surprising, if you climb up too far on the rope and then jump to the next platform, you will die.

I'm surprised he can move his legs at all after his spinal cord  is compressed  into his head.

While this does lead to a comically squished Panama Joe flailing his legs about, the difficulty  also makes what would seem to be simple platformer into a much harder game.

That being said, Panama Joe's weaknesses create situations, like the one above, where you have to make choices in how you get around in the maze. In the screen above, you enter from the left hand side of the screen, and if you choose to continue on this path, you are able to safely jump to the rope and get the key and lower yourself to the ground. However, once you do that, you are not able to make the jump back out the left of the screen, forcing you to go down. I'm assuming at some point I'll be able to get back to the right or left entrances of this screen, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

I would also be sad if I had to stare at these colors for eternity.

After jumping, the next big hurdle for Panama Joe are the enemies he comes across. Some, like the skulls (pictured above) who float around in sine wave patterns, are simply a matter of dodging, and pose little challenge by themselves. Others, like the rolling skull on the first screen, require exactingly precise jumps to avoid. After a couple of hours, I feel more confident getting through the first screen unscathed, but even a slightly delayed or early jump will lead to death. The precision required for these is fierce. Other enemies present their own difficulties: snakes don't move, but are immune to the sword and require a precise jump to get over. Spiders are smaller and easier to avoid than either of them, but can climb up ladders and often appear in nearly unavoidable spots.

Montezuma was also a huge Pink Floyd fan, judging by the amount of lasers he has installed.

Regardless of all these hazards, the biggest obstacle for Panama Joe are the laser gates that decorate nearly every screen. They will instantly vaporize you into a fine dust if you touch them. This alone would be so hard, but once again the timing is precise. When you encounter a single one, it's not too bad. Montezuma may have a tendency to install them right by the edge of the screen, but they're easily avoidable with some foreknowledge.

This screen is a good way to lose all of my lives.

What are less forgivable are the double laser gates, which give little or no room for error. I've had the best success with these by edging Panama Joe slightly forward until the brim of his hat is within the laser, and then book it when I can. Even then, I still end up dying more often than not. This is further complicated by the fact that many screens have multiple double laser gates to traverse, and if you die you will start back at the beginning of the screen.

The lava effect is really gorgeous in motion. The screen is dark because I am missing the torch.

There is also a disappearing floor, but their timing is far more forgiving than the laser gates and they present less of an issue. They often cover lava, which is some of the best graphical work I've seen  with my limited experience on the 2600. There's a lot to be said for using a narrow band of colors when you have a limited palette to work with. Also worth noting, in the above screen shot, is that the screen is dark because I neglected to get the torch power-up first.

I'm really hoping that's the torch and not an amulet: the manual doesn't have pictures.

Speaking of which, the torch seems to be the only true Metroidvania power-up in this game. The sword is temporary: after one kill with it, you need to find a new sword. Keys are depleted after use. The gems only give you points, and often require traversing hazards to get to. The amulet makes you temporarily invincible, but then disappears.

The amount of route planning I've already had to use in this game is also worth noting: there are two paths to get to the torch room: only one of them will provide you with the key needed to get through those door without extensive back tracking.

I still am not terribly enthused about this game: it has a lot of neat proto-Metroid elements, like a large branching map and a rudimentary power-up system, but the difficulty is off-putting and makes real progress difficult to achieve. There is no in-game save or password system, meaning that everything has to be achieved within the span of 6 lives.