"After the fiasco at the Honey Shop, Monty needed a rest. He had always wanted to visit the Pyramids…so off he flew.
After hours of looking at sand…and rocks…and more rocks…and, oh look a scorpion…Monty got fed up with the tour guide and so, completely ignoring the no entry signs he slipped through an interestingly old looking door, which unfortunately slammed shut behind him.
Before him rose the Pyramid in all its glory….”I wonder what's inside it” he thought out loud, “Only one way to find out”, and so off he went, not knowing the dangers and delights that lay in store.
Guide Monty in his quest to plunder the treasure and escape from the Temple of Lost Souls.. Collect ancient artefacts and gemstones to open up hidden areas avoiding the traps and deadly inhabitants along the way.
Get rich and get out…or stay forever trapped as one of those poor lost souls."
Andy Johns (former employee at Electronic Arts) makes ZX Spectrum games in his spare time with AGD (Arcade Game Designer).
“Monty’s Honey Run” was Andy’s very first game using this game engine and we was shockingly impressed with the attention to detail and awesome gameplay. Andy’s Monty games are good.. Really good, you would easily be fooled into thinking these are in fact official releases. Unfortunately the Gremlin Graphics we know and love are long gone now, but at least with Andy’s tribute Homebrew, we can continue to play Monty Mole platformers in 2017. ;-) You can read more about “Monty’s Honey Run” from our previous post, but today I am here to talk about Andy’s latest ZX Spectrum game, “Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls”, which is the much awaited sequel.
The new sequel is very different to the first offering, the red earth and lush greenery of Monty’s Honey Run was a refreshing change to the original Monty games and Temple of Souls has even more to offer. Set in Ancient Egypt (possibly close to the great Pyramids of Giza) your mission as Monty is to collect ancient relics and gemstones within a huge maze, deep within an ancient temple. Once you have collected all your treasures you must then find your way back out of the temple and escape unharmed. This sounds like an easy task, but alas, this is certainly not the case. On your travels you will find there are many things that will hinder your progress. Ghosts haunt the passage ways, scorpions and snakes shroud the temple floors. There are also many deadly Indiana type traps to avoid, such spikes springing up from the ground, ceiling boulders pounding the ground. This is not a nice place to visit, and poor old Monty is stuck in the middle of it all again.
Just like Honey Run, the games graphics are beautiful and highly detailed, but also very different. The yellow/blue contrast sets the scene perfectly with yellow depicting the great temple architecture, while the deep blue portrays the darker shadier rooms. Very well thought out. You can tell Andy is becoming more confident with the AGD engine, coming up with new ideas and designing more complicated room layouts. Every effort has been made to improve over the previous game. You may also notice that Monty himself has had a graphics upgrade. The classic looking Monty from the original games and Honey Run looks even more mole like and we love it!
When we reviewed Honey Run back in January, I mentioned that my only gripe was the lack of ingame music. Temple of the Lost Souls is also without music. After talking with Andy and a few other people on the AGD Facebook page, I have found out that this is not something that can be added very easily. It is possible, but not without a lot of work and a greater knowledge of how the insides of AGD works. If you download and play many other AGD made games you will notice that nearly all of them lack ingame music. Again this is not something that effects the game and really doesn’t bother me anymore. This is a fantastic game, and gameplay is what counts.
So what are my overall thoughts on Temple of Lost Souls? I’ll be honest, I really can’t find any faults in the game, maybe a little difficult, but then without some degree of challenge it wouldn’t be that much fun would it? It certainly makes me want to keep coming back to try and get that little bit further. Andy has mentioned that the game is completable, and someone already has managed to do just that! David Saphier was the first person to complete the game, not only that, he completed the game on real hardware and then again through emulation!
Andy’s game will run on any good ZX Spectrum emulator or real hardware. Grab the download below.
Website: BubblesoftGames