La Mulana

The game's plot stars an Indiana-Jones-esque archaeologist named Lemeza Kosugi whose quest is to explore the set of ancient ruins known as the Ruins of La-Mulana, solving its numerous puzzles along the way. The game is an action-adventure 2D platformer that plays like a "metroidvania" game--you are given an area to explore open-endedly, with paths that can open up as various powerups and other items are obtained. The game's development and manual are notable for their criticism of the easiness of recent games. Thus, the game was developed according to a premise of bringing "tension" to the player's experience. (Of course, this is done within reason, excepting the bonus dungeon known as Hell Temple.) La-Mulana's style is loosely based on the MSX game Maze of Galious, and a good part of La-Mulana's content is a tribute to the MSX computer system in general. Also, all ROM items in the game are Konami games, and Konami ROM Combos can be done with them. In the game, the development team is refered to, sometimes, as "Kobami". La-Mulana was developed by a group of three Japanese indie developers called "GR3" (now known as NIGORO). The name "La-Mulana" is derived from reversing the Japanese (effectively reversing the syllables) of the name of one of the developers, Naramura.