Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition from eastasiasoft, Normal Distribution, Handcrafted Mystical Games, and Mission Critical Studios is a remake of the 1984 multi-room platformer. Learn more in our Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition review!
The 1983 classic multi-room platformer Montezuma’s Revenge returns in 2.5D glory, and now Pedro’s adventure is bigger than ever with 100 tricky rooms to explore! For its 40th anniversary, what was once an unfinished game is now resurrected to match the full vision of creator Robert Jaeger. This time you can choose between male and female explorers, Pedro or his sister Rosita, to delve deep into the dangerous ruins and hunt for treasures untold!
Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition from eastasiasoft, Normal Distribution, Handcrafted Mystical Games, and Mission Critical Studios, is a remake of the 1984 multi-room platformer. This updated take brings the classic back in 2.5D, offering players the choice between Pedro or his sister Rosita as they explore a labyrinth filled with gems, swords, traps, and danger.
Gameplay
The core loop remains faithful to its roots. You move from room to room inside the sprawling ruins, collecting gems for points and grabbing swords to survive encounters. The gameplay mechanics are basic: if you have a sword in your inventory, touching an enemy removes the threat. If you don’t, then the enemy removes you. That simplicity may appeal to fans of old-school arcade design, but it won’t be for everyone.
This is why, unfortunately, the experience quickly shows its limits. Characters are surprisingly fragile, and even a fall slightly higher than their own height results in instant defeat. Modern platformers have conditioned us to expect mobility, flexibility, and forgiveness, so the constant fall-related deaths feel more frustrating than challenging. It becomes one of the most discouraging aspects of the entire game.
Exploration also loses its charm. Instead of feeling like a rewarding journey through a mysterious ruin, it often turns into a sequence of stiff platforming segments where every small mistake will cost you dearly. Even within the first few minutes, the experience struggles to hook you, which is rarely a good sign.
Fortunately, the Extend Gameplay option available on the Game Over screen softens the blow. You can continue indefinitely without restarting, and this feature is genuinely helpful, preventing the frustration from escalating too quickly.
Presentation
Although this is a remake of a classic 2D platformer, the visual identity feels closer to an early 2000s CD-ROM game. The environments and animations are serviceable, but lack the refinement you’d expect from a game launching in 2025, not to mention the WordArt-style menus don’t leave a strong impression. The soundtrack is fine on its own, but with only a handful of tracks, repetition quickly sets in. Sound effects fare worse, coming across as sharp and unpleasant. I actually recommend lowering them significantly in the settings to improve your experience.
Trophies
This is a simple but time-consuming trophy list. The list is split into a single Silver trophy and 11 Gold trophies for you to work on. You’ll earn trophies by completing nine levels from the game, and by dying up to 24 times in a single playthrough, which is easily achievable thanks to the Extend Gameplay feature. This one is from eastasiasoft, so it’s a Cross-Buy release, and that means you will be able to download the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game, and each one will have its own Platinum trophy for your collection.
Conclusion
This anniversary edition brings Montezuma’s Revenge back to life, but the experience shows its age at every turn. The fragile characters, basic gameplay mechanics, and uneven pacing make the journey more frustrating than fun. Fans of the original may still find value here, but newcomers are better served looking elsewhere for their retro platforming fix.
Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $14.99 purchase lets you download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions, each with its own trophy list. Even with the two Platinum trophies, the asking price is difficult to justify considering how dated and frustrating the overall experience can be.
Disclaimer
This Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by eastasiasoft.
