Paganitzu, an Apogee game that is less famous than the Commander Keen series, but not less fun to play. The sounds are very bad if you play it without any utility, but VDM Sound will fix it. The graphics are nice and either is the gameplay. As in every Apogee game there's a good story behind Paganitzu. You are Alabama Smith and you are walking in Aztec pyramids.
Inside these pyramids are a lot of traps, animals that will try to kill you and other creatures that will kill you so you have to start the level again.
As we know from Apogee Software, they make a serie of three games and release one of them in shareware. Same with Paganitzu. The first part is "Romancing the Rose", followed by "The Silver Dagger" and "Jewel of the Yucatan". Each game can be played on itself, but it is nicer to play all three, so you known the full story behind this game.
Reviewer: Dos-Games-Online Paganitzu, or “Temple of the Gods” in the ancient Aztec language, is an entertaining little puzzle game that is part of a series of similar games. The first in the series is the Castle Zhagwar. Paganitzu also has a similar counterpart called Chaganitzu. Both games were written by Keith Schuler. Paganitzu was released in the very early nineties by Apogee Software, Limited after the development by Schuler at Trylobyte. It is a side scrolling game that plays from the bird’s eye or top down perspective. It is a single player game and encompasses elements of other types of gaming genre, such as action, as well as some adventure style puzzles.
There are a total of three slightly differently themed episodes in Paganitzu, each starring the action hero Alabama Smith. Alabama took obvious inspiration from Indiana Jones, both in name and gaming style. Alabama Smith will take part in Romancing the Rose, the Silver Dagger, and Jewel of the Yucatan. The most basic goal of the game is to navigate Alabama through these levels to reach the end of the game. To do this, however, the gamer will have to utilize both his brains and his reflexes, since Alabama will face both hostile enemies as well as complicated puzzles. While the physical enemies are stereotypically what would be found in caves: bats, snakes, spiders, etc., the mental barriers will likely prove to be a much bigger challenge. There will be a lot of backtracking and trial and error activities as the user tries to create the correct combination of button pushing, lever pulling and movable block positioning to reach the exit of each area. If the gamer is cautious and watchful, he may be able to locate some of the game’s hidden rooms and treasures, further increasing his score and opening himself up to some brand new adventures.
The makers of Paganitzu received their break in the gaming world by creating board game conversions, and some of the puzzle elements in this game are reflective of this background. The user, however, will also have to deal with many reflexive acts and will have to be on top of his game to deal with the pesky enemies that always harass poor Alabama. Overall, the game does a nice job of combining numerous gaming elements and blending them into a very playable little game. The only real downfall to the game is its lack of replayability, since the conscientious gamer should be able to recall most of the puzzle solutions on subsequent plays, and the plot is linear. For a once around go, however, Paganitzu is a pretty good time.
