Welcome to our review of Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan, a true ode to the platforming genre.
Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is an 8-bit action-adventure platformer featuring thirteen stages and is our love letter to the classics. You play as Sydney Hunter, an explorer who gets trapped inside a Maya pyramid while he is out exploring the region.
Sydney soon discovers that Kinich Ahau (the Maya sun god) and Kukulkan (the feathered serpent god) have broken up the sacred Maya Haab calendar into seven separate pieces, has taken four precious idols, and are hiding them throughout the pyramid. This all comes during the time of Wayab; the five unlucky days of the year. This has caused great chaos, and time to freeze if the Haab calendar isn’t found and put back together in time.
The local Maya now ask Sydney to go out and find all seven pieces of the Haab calendar, reclaim the important idols, defeat the Maya gods, and bring peace and balance back to the Maya civilization. In doing so restoring time to continue…
Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is a platformer that will remind you of the best platformers out there. If it was not this unknown as a title, you would often hear it being spoken in the same breath as Mario or Kirby. This game just works and despite its very retro feeling has a few modern touches too.
The platforming genre has also been done and done before, so either you make a great game or you get lost in the shuffle. Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is exactly that, a great game that risks getting lost in the shuffle due to a large amount of games already out there in the same genre, but let me tell you, it is very well worthy of spending your hard-earned cash on.
Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan does platforming right to such an extent, that you can fully immerse yourself in the great game mechanics. The jumps feel perfectly balanced and never feel out of touch. I remember some platformers just last year that had horrible controls, but not here. everything makes sense.
Your weapon(s) and the item(s) at hand, can be used by a single button press and as easily switched between too. The ability and the premise of having multiple uses for attacks, it is quite a pleasure to play. The first added weapon, for example, is a harpoon/spear-like weapon. Intended for underwater use, it does a great trick to take out enemies from a little away.
It just feels like this game was made by a gamer with pure love for the genre.
Graphically, you are getting a ton of action in a pure retro setting. Tons of collectibles setting it apart from the very oldest platformers and the added shop adds another layer of options. Can’t find a key but have enough cash? You know what to do!
In conclusion, Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is possibly one of the best platformers I played in a while. I can only recommend this highly to all platform lovers out there!
