Is this platformer a diamond in the rough?
“Teppo and The Secret Ancient City” is an exciting adventure where players take on the role of explorer Teppo, searching for the legendary stone fortress hidden in the Amazon jungle. Meeting the mysterious Tanaca Wanax, the last chief of the unknown tribe of elected allies, Ugha Lulala, players will discover the incredible and fantastic history of a highly evolved ancient civilization, superior to that of the Mayas and the Incas. With the help of unknown technologies from space visitors, including magical diamond-shaped stones that can open a portal to access parallel worlds, players will have to overcome obstacles and challenges to reach the fortress and open the first portal. A mystery and discovery filled adventure for fans of exploration and archaeology.
Teppo and The Secret Ancient City is a throwback to 90s platformers where you collected jewels, flicked switches to open up new paths and backtracked to the new area before finally finding the exit. You will need a good majority of the jewels to finish the level and certain ones can only be nabbed through using items like your boomerang.
Each level is quite long and you will get slightly confused by all the backtracking to try and find your way to the next unlocked area. If you die, you just go back to the nearest checkpoint but this too may mess up where you thought you were going, so caution is essential if you don’t want to get lost in the maze of the level structure. Enemies and traps will hinder your progress at every turn and losing health can happen rapidly, so again. Caution.
The visuals are a nice nod to old-school platformers too and while it doesn’t have anything original on display, it has a certain charm to it. The framerate was solid and I didn’t encounter any glitches along the way. The soundtrack has a classic early 90s platformer vibe, as do the in-game sound effects.
The Verdict
Teppo and The Secret Ancient City is a nice homage/throwback to old-school platformers. It’s challenging and the backtracking can become confusing over the course of the level, but it’s still impressive overall.