Review: La-Mulana EX (PS Vita)

Players take control of Professor Lemeza Kosugi, a professor of archaeology whose family have long search for the fabled ruins of La-Mulana. A mysterious letter from Shawn Kosugi, Lemeza’s father, claiming to have found the ruins is all he needs to set off on a new adventure. But be warned! There’s a reason why the ruins have stayed undiscovered all this time and no-one who’s gone inside has ever come out…

Pros:

• Old school graphics with sleek animations.
• Small file size: 252MB.
• Customisable button layout.  Re bind keys at will.
• Supports a multitude of languages including French and German.
• Change the border art (mask).
• Main story as well as a time attack mode.
• Time attack has many scenarios for you to tackle.  Sorted by difficulty,  you have a pre determined inventory and set goals.  Supports online leaderboard.
• Analogue and d pad support for movement.
• Full Platinum trophy.
• Book that catalogues all monsters slain. Each monster gets its own entry,  displaying artwork, description and health and common drops.
• Email: Recieve game help from the various NPC you meet.
• Laptop is where you access the emails and book entries. You can also do item management and change game options.
• Adventure game set in tombs and caves with a lot of puzzles to solve and enemies to kill.
• It’s very true to the original in every way.
• Explore at your leisure.
• Earn gold and find items from drops by killing enemies.
• Buy new equipment from the many shops.  Some shops are hidden throughout the world.
• Unlock the ability to warp (fast travel) to set points.
• decipher stone carvings to get hints/tips,  clues and even back story.
• Atmospheric game with a great soundtrack.
• Big huge boss fights.
• Unlock new game features as you progress.
• Fun game to play but very tough.

Cons:

• not fullscreen.
• No touchscreen.
• No auto saves.
• No real guidance and you can easily miss an objective or get lost.
• Very slow starter.
• Brutal difficulty.

In Summary,  the game sticks to the original formula,  to the point where they use original Japanese text in menu’s and various screens. Players can expect a good game but a solid game. For this has the mentality to make your experience tough,  no hand holding here. Many will say it’s just Spelunky but that wouldn’t be fair for it is more than that.  With a huge sprawling world, tons of upgrades and tough enemies.  this game shares very little with Spelunky. This is traditional gaming at its best,  enemies can go through walls and platforms,  you are always up against it and for that I admire it so much. It is a perfect fit on Vita and will last you so many hours.  be warned it will punish you for any stupid mistakes but reward you with great adventure and the sense of accomplishment on the puzzles is next level. In short you will love this game,  you will hate this game and at times you will think the game loves hating you!