Review: La-Mulana EX (Vita)

Posted on April 16, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PlayStation Vita

Developer: Pygmy Studios

Publisher: Rising Star Games

Genre: Archeological Ruins Exploration Action!

# of Players: 1

MSRP: $19.99

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Official Site

Score: A- (90%)

“Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games…”

Yeah, I see you looking at those handsome La-Mulana EX screens and that exciting trailer and thinking “Oooh, a new ‘Metroidvania’ game to play and beat in a day or two!” Ha. La-Mulana EX laughs at your brimming overconfidence. Let me be the first (or perhaps last, as this review is a bit late) to inform you that going into this game with your dreams of adding a fast notch to your speedrun belt will have you lose that belt and perhaps your Vita right out the nearest window or under a speeding bus or some other method you choose to remove that handheld from your possession.

No, the game isn’t “bad” by any stretch of the imagination. Not at all. It’s just going to be one of the toughest games you’ll play if you’re not willing to read the digital manual and pay close attention to the basic to advanced techniques you’ll learn. In fact, what’s here will hopefully make you remove the word “Metroidvania” from your gaming vocabulary, as it’s a meaningless description that’s also a bit lazy in how it fails to actually describe a game as deep as this one. Continue reading →

La-Mulana EX Vita Code: We Have A Winner!

Posted on March 7, 2015 by geelw

As my scratchy throat woke me up to get it some more tea with honey, and I kicked and almost tripped over the box I put the names in when I got up (Memo to self: next time, make sure the box in on a table and not the floor!), I’ve decided to pick a winner for the La-Mulana EX Vita code. The funny thing is, one of the names I wrote popped out of the box when I kicked it and I was going to declare that person the winner (hey, I was kind of half asleep!). But I decided to redraw the winner just to be fair… and actually picked the same name again. Not easy to do when you pick facing away from the box the names are in while in a dark room with your eyes shut. Anyway, congratulations go out to:

Nate V.! (applause)

Check your email, mister!

As for you non-winners, listen up (and put down those torches!). Stick around if you happen to:

a) likes indie games and could use an instant mini-backlog
b) are a Star Wars fan who likes oddball collectibles

I have a couple of interesting giveaways in the works soon you may want to be a part of. No spoilers here, but it’ll be fun to see what happens…

Want a La-Mulana EX Vita Code? I’m Sharing My Pain With One of You

Posted on March 4, 2015 by geelw

If you happen to have a PlayStation Vita and haven’t picked up La-Mulana EX yet, you’re missing out on a few things:

Your character dying while getting attacked from all sides by cheap enemies.
Your character dying during a boss fight with something over ten times your his size.
Your character dying after you missed a pinpoint jump because you panicked and jumped again to certain doom (oops!).
Your character dying because you’re really not that good at these retro action/platform games but keep playing them anyway.

Get the picture? Okay, I’m only partially kidding. This game is hard as heck AND I’m not as fast on those buttons as I used to be. Pygmy Studios’ handheld port of this excellent throwback to the MSX days is out now and I have a spare code to give away. If you want it, just post in the comments below and I’ll RANDOMLY pick ONE winner. You need a Vita as well as access to the North American PSN shop, as that’s where the code needs to be redeemed. I guess that’s US and Canada entries only. Unless there’s a secret Canadian PSN shop I don’t know about. Let’s see now… it’s Wednesday, correct? Let’s shoot for a contest close of 11:59PM on Friday. I’ll pick one of you guys or gals at random and shoot you over your code. Get it? Got it? GOOD> Now, go enter already! No need to post an essay or reason you want to win at all, folks. Just an “I’m in!” gets you a chance. Good Luck!

La Mulana EX: Rising Star’s “Hidden” Treasure Headed to Vita Soon

Posted on February 27, 2015 by geelw

I’d almost forgotten La Mulana EX was incoming on the Vita, but thanks to Rising Star Games hitting my inbox with this trailer, I’m reminded that this is a game that needs to be played. Of course, at my advance age, I’ll probably keel over from the old school difficulty curve the game sets up right from the first stage. But at least I’ll go down fighting, grrrr. Anyway, I need to bug Rising Star about that release date, as the banners on the site say it’s been out for a while, but I don’t see it anywhere on the US PSN shop. Eh, I’m in the middle of about twenty other things anyway, so perhaps that’s a good thing for now. Too many distractions means less work getting done, not more. At this point, I’m all for human cloning, provided I can have my double tinkered with so he types five times as quickly as I do (and uses more than four fingers).