Montezuma's Revenge

The Good
Montezuma's Revenge is rarely credited for being as innovative a game as it was. A platform/adventure, there are obvious Mario-esque elements first tried out in this game. The levels were sprawling and fun to explore and the graphics were very good for the time.

The Bad
The controls were extremely difficult; however, what platform game from this era moved well?

The Bottom Line
The dawn of platforming.

The Good
I liked the way the levels are designed. This is not a form of game I'm familiar with and I found that the levels got very hard very fast. This is not a game I could rush into, I had to stop and think my way through them and plan ahead.

The Bad
The penalty for getting something wrong is losing a life. You start with five but it's very easy to lose them all and be put back to the beginning. This is typical of an old game of this type but it's very frustrating nevertheless

The Bottom Line
I haven't played many games of this type and, after a while I remembered why. The puzzle element sucks you in and it's fun for a while, but having to continually replay the early levels because you mistimed a jump in a later level turns the game into an exercise in endurance and perseverance.

The Good
Very solid title for 1984 year. It's possible to run it in 16-color mode but it was not so straightforward (I think machine in DOSBox needed to be setup as PCjr, no Tandy/EGA support). But it's worth it, in 16-color it looks so much better than in CGA. The game was quite revolutionary, 100 interconnected screens, between which you can move freely around. I think it was first such title. Gameplay was fun, albeit the game is a bit hard.

The Bad
I stated it in 'Good' section already. The game can be a bit hard. I tried to setup controller, it was quite sensitive, no problem to die every moment. Plus, sound was only PC speaker. Pity that the game didn't use PCjr 3-way sound.

The Bottom Line
Challenging arcade title, first of its kind, which has its place in gaming history. If you're patient and don't mind a bit harder difficulty, it's really recommended. Personally I kept it in my archive to play it on HTPC on big TV with controller.