An incredibly memorable metroidvania. Wanna explore an ancient civilization's ruins? Want to feel like you're constantly treading around in unknown and unfamiliar territory and the fear and excitement that it brings? Then get out of my house and play La Mulana!!

Excellent music, wonderful pixel art, love how different and unique each zone is with their own style and gimmicks, love how they connect together in surprising ways but one thing I love that I particularly wanna point out is how the game really makes you feel like you're exploring somewhere unknown with it's puzzles. The puzzles in La Mulana can be tough to solve and sometimes require some out of the box thinking and hints for a lot of the puzzles are written on stone tablets that litter the ruins. So what do you do as an explorer? Well you write 'em down and keep a little journal of all your discoveries...except you're doing it in real life in a paper booklet or word document and it's so cool going around zones, noticing strange pieces of the environment or blockades and getting your note book out to try and see if there's anything to help you. I know this isn't the first game to do that stuff but it's a really unique feeling that I had with this game that really elevated it to me.

Also I really appreciate that despite how harsh and punishing the game can be to you, it still has a good sense of humour about itself so that it never feels like it's laughing at you sadistically and more that it's trying to sweeten the punishment that you've been handed. Whatever I've talked a lot about this: La Mulana is amazing. Play it.