Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is a Retraux Metroidvania Platform Game by CollectorVision Entertainment Games. It is the fourth game in the Sydney Hunter series.
Sydney Hunter is doing a survey of the topography in Central America one day, when he spots a Mayan Pyramid in the distance. Feeling compelled to investigate, Sydney heads right for it. He climbs to the top, steps inside, and is trapped when the door shuts behind him. With no other options, Sydney decides to go and explore this ancient ruin.
While he's doing this, the Mayan deity Kukulkan steals the Mayan Calendar "Haab" and scatters it throughout multiple temples in the pyramid, hoping to stop the end of the cycle, and the resulting five days of bad luck that are supposed to come of it. Problem is, by doing this, Kukulkan has put time at risk of freezing for all eternity. So, now Sydney needs to confront the Mayan Pantheon, defeat them, and reassemble Haab before it's too late.
The game was released on September 12th, 2019, on Steam for personal computers.
Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan contains examples of:
- 100% Completion: Finding all the Crystal Skulls and Yellow Diamonds, collecting all the Power-Ups, and purchasing all the health upgrades and food offering for the bird to unlock it magic.
- Amphibian Assault: There are large frogs in the game that attack by spitting water at Sydney.
- Attack Animal: One of the abilities you can unlock by feeding the green bird is having it attack weak enemies.
- Battle Boomerang: Sydney finds a boomerang in the third temple. He can use it to break down walls and hurt enemies.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Kukulkan and Kinich Ahau. Kukulkan broke the Haab Calendar and scattered the pieces throughout the temples, and Kinich Ahau opposes Sydney at every turn by sicking other Mayan deities on him. Of course, then we find out that part of the reason he wants to freeze time is to cover up what he did to Kukulkan's daughter.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Some of the enemies include giant stag beetles.
- Boss Rush: Before facing Kukulkan (and Shadow Sydney if the requirements have been met), Kinich Ahau makes you fight all five previously defeated Mayan deities one-by-one.
- Call-Back: When Sydney first gets stuck in the pyramid, one thing he hopes not to encounter is another "Sacred Tribe". He says he still has nightmares about his last encounter.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Sydney Hunter (character name) and the Curse (and the noun) of the Mayan (phrase).
- Crystal Skull: There are many scattered throughout the game. They're needed to open the doors to the temple.
- Death Throws: Whenever Sydney loses all his health, he assumes the typical pose and falls down off the screen.
- Dem Bones: Ah Puch, the God of Death, is a skeleton.
- In the later levels, there are plenty of living skeletons that come to life once you get close to them. There are three types.
- White skeletons, which just move back and forth.
- Yellow skeletons, which move back and forth, breathe fire, and disperse flames throughout their immediate area upon death.
- Red skeletons, which move back and forth, breathe fire, disperse flames upon death, and drop fire everywhere they go.
- In the later levels, there are plenty of living skeletons that come to life once you get close to them. There are three types.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Most of the bosses in the game are the Mayan Gods, not just Kukulkan, but others like Chaac and Ah Puch.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: The Haab Calendar was split apart by Kukulkan and scattered throughout the temples. Sydney needs to find them and reassemble Haab within five days to undo the curse and keep time from stopping forever.
- Giant Spider: The spiders in the game are just a head shorter than Sydney.
- Head Hat: Some of the Mayans wear animal skulls on their heads.
- Hub Level: The Haab Pyramid.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: One way Sydney can recover health is by eating pineapples. In fact, purchasing meals from merchants in the pyramid will extend Sydney's Life Meter.
- Life Meter: Located in the top-left corner of the screen, it's made up of a chain of hearts.
- Living Lava: The Lava Beast, which holds one of the pieces of the Haab Calendar.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: There are plenty of bone doors in the game that require a skull key to open them up.
- Retraux: The game is presented in 8-bit format.
- Rewarding Vandalism: You can break vases all throughout the temple to collect all the gems therein.
- Save Point: These take the form of statues with a cauldron in front of them. Lighting a fire in the cauldrons allows you to save the game as well as restore Sydney's health.
- Shout-Out:
- In the first temple, you can converse with a Mayan who wonders why the Merchants selling things for money don't just break the pots containing all the gems they want. His final line is "Knowing is half the battle.".
- When you give the Ka'ak Tablet to Bit'Hed, he'll activate another gameplay element. Floating disappearing and reappearing square block platforms.
- Before growing Kukulkan to the size of a house, Kinich Ahau tells Sydney he's about to die a Suda51 death, and then shouts "Kukulkan Strikes Again!!!"
- Side View: Like the ones before it, this is the view of this game.
- Spikes of Doom: Plenty located throughout the ruins. One touch from them is enough to end Sydney.
- Translator Microbes: Parodied. When Sydney first enters the pyramid, he tries talking to the locals, except he can't understand their language. Once he gets the Shell of Wisdom, he can hear their words in perfect English. He thinks this means the shell works, except the Mayan near the beginning of the temple of Chichen Itza reveals it's just a regular shell, the Mayans can speak English fluently, and that they just like messing with outsiders.
- You Dirty Rat!: The first enemy Sydney Hunter encounters are rats. They can be defeated with one strike of the whip.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kinich Ahau says this word-for-word to Kukulkan before petrifying him after Sydney beats him.
