$14.99La-Mulana Ancient Ruins That Keep Their Secrets
A tough retro action-adventure where every puzzle, trap and guardian guards one big mystery worth solving.
Is La-Mulana worth it?
La-Mulana is worth it if…
- you like puzzles that expect you to take notes and connect clues across a huge map
- you miss games that explain nothing and trust you to figure everything out
- you enjoy retro action with stiff, committed controls and real stakes
- you want a long, stubborn challenge that makes solving it feel earned
Screenshots
A ruin that keeps its secrets
The ruins of La-Mulana hide the Secret Treasure of Life, said to be the beginning of all civilization, and they are in no hurry to hand it over. You push toward the innermost depths through a sprawling, interconnected world, where a stone tablet you read in one corner may only make sense hours later, somewhere entirely different. Nearly everything is a clue: murals, inscriptions, oddly placed details in the background. The further down you go, the harder the mysteries get, and the guardians protecting the ruins do not take their job lightly. It is a game built on observation and memory, where discovery itself is the point.
Old-school by design
This is a remake of one of NIGORO's first games, built deliberately on "that old-time feeling": the kind of game the creators wished they could still play, only bigger. The controls and difficulty are not new school. Jumps are committed, enemies hit hard, and the game never holds your hand or marks your map for you. What you get instead is a total head-to-head with a game that respects your attention, paired with a soundtrack and pixel art that make the ruins worth lingering in. It has been frustrating and delighting players for nearly a decade, and it is not about to soften up.
How hard is it really?
How hard is La-Mulana, honestly?
Hard in every direction at once. The action is punishing, with traps and monsters that can end a run quickly, and the puzzles are the real wall: many are cryptic enough that people commonly play with a notebook full of tablet text, or alongside a hint guide. The game gives no hand-holding at all, and some players find the later stretches more tedious than fair. But that is the deal it makes: if you enjoy being stumped and working it out yourself, the payoff is real. Solving its hardest riddles is the kind of thing people remember for years.
Do you need a walkthrough to finish it?
Not necessarily, but plenty of people use one, at least for the occasional nudge. The puzzles often separate a clue from the place you use it, sometimes by hours of play, so going in completely blind means lots of backtracking and scribbled notes. A middle path works well: keep your own notes, and only look up a hint when you are truly stuck. The game is at its best when the answer is yours.
What kind of game is it, in one sentence?
A 2D metroidvania where the platforming and monsters are only half of it: the other half is a giant, interconnected puzzle box about archaeology, where reading a stone tablet in one area might unlock a door on the far side of the ruins.
