Villordsutch reviews Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls on the ZX Spectrum…
Monty Mole from Gremlin Graphics was huge star on the 1980’s gaming scene. Wanted: Monty Mole rocked the 8-bit gaming world as a wee stubby mole, designed by Peter Harrop, wandering through the British Coal Mines (set during the 1980’s Miners Strike) snaffling coal to keep himself toasty. A cluster of sequels continued along this theme officially ending with Monty making his escape across Europe – in Auf Wiedersehen Monty – gathering cash to buy the Greek island of Montos, where he planned to retire. There was a rather poor Impossamole follow-up from Core (creators of Tomb Raider and Rick Dangerous) but that’s better left forgotten. Well now nearly thirty years on Monty has come out of retirement.
Created by Andy Johns, this in truth is his second Monty game of 2017 with his first being Monty’s Honey Run, released back in January, in which we witnessed the ever-troubled Mole search through numerous screens for his jars of honey that had been reclaimed by the Bees. Now in this latest release Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls we find our earth-dwelling lawn botherer taking a well-earned break on an the Egyptian holiday, but as expected it soon goes all to cock.
After wandering through the wrong door Monty is tasked with finding the numerous flashing relics strewn throughout this rather vast game, and to find the gems which will unlock the doors to secret passages that have been sealed for centuries. Only when he has gathered all the relics and gems can he make his way out of this Temple of Lost Souls.
Andy Johns has achieved something quite wonderful with the look of his latest Monty Mole release. Monty’s Honey Run was great, however here it’s clear he has put real work into everything from the sandstone of the temple to the ever so subtle redesign on Monty. As a fan of the Monty Mole series, except …is Innocent and of course Impossamole, this to me is the natural progression from Auf Wiedersehen Monty. This is the release I would expect thirty years on, keeping it faithful to the source material and honouring the memory of Monty.
There are of course a couple of issues that are a minor pest, but these aren’t a reflection on Andy Johns effort, more in truth – from what I can glean – due to the limitations of the software used to create the game. The collision detection can at times be outright unfair, this due to the software detecting blocks not graphics and there is an issue with the lack of music throughout the game. The music was an negative point during Monty’s Honey Run and again whilst following the progress of the games development, it became apparent that implementing music – using the game creation software – it isn’t as easy as A.B.C. and then there’s the problem of also finding a musician to compose the music.
Even with these two minor negatives – within the game – they barely spoil how great this is, yes you may find it a tad frustrating at first timing the jumps, but you’ll soon work your way around this. As for the music, can I recommend going to YouTube and placing the music from Auf Wiedersehen Monty on repeat to fill that void.
Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls is a great game to carry on the torch of the Gremlin Graphics unofficial mascot. Long live Monty Mole!
Update: Andy Johns has recently updated Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls with better collision detection and added music from David Saphier.
Rating: 8/10
@Villordsutch
Monty and the Temple of Lost Souls is available to download for free here, you can also play it online now here or if you prefer it as an official cassette release you can purchase it from bumfungaming.com.
Originally published February 22, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
