Buy Aztaka

I enjoyed Aztaka. The graphics, music, and setting were all quite good.

Overall, the game play was good, too, so long as you don't use your spear to attack anything. Attacking with your spear is slow, clunky, and nearly pointless once you get the air attack. Because of how worthless the spear attack is, two skills were also useless and I never once used them in the game after trying them out the moment I got them. They are just too slow and too difficult to even activate, let alone use effectively if they did decent damage or didn't leave you completely vulnerable.

Jumping was surprisingly responsive and is the most effective means of attack in the game later on in most situations, even trumping magic for most enemies.

The magic system was unique and I rather enjoyed the difficulty it added. However, you will not want to use two of the spells too often later in the game, as they have a tendency to crash the game at random.

Stability is a severe issue in Aztaka. It crashed regularly for me, sometimes when doing nothing but walking along, but usually when trying to use the two attack spells you don't start with. It will just freeze for a few seconds, then go to Not Responding(in windows 7) and finally just give up and die. Save often.

It is somewhat short, but I enjoyed it and am not sorry to have bought and played it.

Short Verdict: It pains me to do this, but I have to give this game thumbs down. Aztaka is an action platformer with a lot of RPG elements that takes place in the Aztec civilization. You play as an Aztec who's trying to recover artifacts for his leader, while being helped by the magic of someone who's been transformed into a humming bird. While it has a lot of potential, the execution falls short and the gameplay ends up being almost no fun at all. Unless you really wanna play a game revolved by Aztec culture and can get over the awful controllers, don't bother playing this one. I wish Citeremis could get a nice team of devs to really be able to bring their ideas into a fun game to play.

Pros:

• Nice atmosphere, and great, fresh Aztec theme
  
• The BGM is good, too
  
• A lot of character customization, since this platformer has strong RPG elements, like levelling up (you and your bird friend), allocating skill points, equipping items that improve your stats etc.
  
• You'll also get money, buy/sell stuff from/to peddlers, complete (main and side) quests--in sum, all you need in an RPG
  
• Beautiful hand-drawn world

Cons:

• First and foremost, the gameplay sucks. And that's the downfall of this game. Jumping is annoying, attacking with the spear (the basic attack) is very clumsy, magic takes too long to recharge to be able to compensate for the terrible spear attack, hit area is a bit of a mess and there's no invincibility window after being hit, which might lead to an almost instant death when you face an enemy running around like crazy. Basically, it's not fun to fight and move around, and that's what you do 95% of the time.
  
• No controller support. It would change the gameplay a bit, but it is doable, contrary to what some argue.
  
• Equipment/inventory interface is really confusing, making shopping and equipping a task a lot harder than it should be.
  
• While I think the humans' graphics were passable, monsters (and their animations) are very ugly and do not really match the beautiful background
  
• No map? Really? That was especially annoying in the first cave, where you fall down to lower levels from time to time.

Bought on / for: I got it really cheap from TG, so no much harm done.

Slow-paced side scrolling action/adventure game that fails to do anything interesting, except the refreshing Aztec setting.

Finishing the game, I have left with mixed, yet largely positive, feelings.

In Aztaka, you are the chosen warrior of the Tenochthitlan, or something. See, it's an action RPG platformer based on Aztec mythology, of which I admittedly am not an expert on. Because of this special setting, every name and event feels unique and at the same time rather confusing, for it can be difficult to remember who is who when you're dealing with a culture with a complicated spelling vastly different from yours.

You are actually playing two characters: the chosen warrior of the gods and a cursed wizard of sorts who is in the form of a hummingbird. Warrior handles the fighting and surviving, while the wizard-bird can cast protecting and attacking spells and get taunted by the antagonists. Both gain levels and become stronger by equipping special stuff.

Action part is the combat, of which there is a lot. At the beginning, combat is very clunky: your only attack is to thrust forward with the spear. You can also roll around and jump, but those do you little good, when the enemies do damage by simple touch and there's no invulnerability time involved with either. Combined with the fact many of them are evasive, jumpy or have blocks makes fighting some enemies a pain. But it gets better! Once (maybe two-three hours in the game) you will learn an upward strike to attack enemies in the air and even better, a jump strike, making your jumps damage enemies in return. This makes the combat tremendously simpler and more enjoyable.

There's also magic part to combat. You basically choose a spell and click on the boxes that appear to complete the incantation: missing one will ruin the spell. During this time the game is slowed down, so you simply have to be fast to avoid getting hit. The more complicated the spell, the more clicks are required. It's quite alright a magic system for a platformer.

So there is also a platforming part. This couples with the magic system, that also incorporates a use of magical energies that are dropped by enemies and used to interact with the world. For example, in the beginning you can grow branches into certain trees (it's not exactly a freeform ability), opening a route onward. There are four energy types, all of which have their own special powers in addition to their world interaction: for example, the green life energy doubles effectively as a bandage. Along the way you'll learn more skills akin to other platformers, like double jumps and wall jumps. Aztaka actually has one of the most powerful wall-jumping abilities I've seen, used many times to get to some hard-to-reach places.

Finally, there's the RPG aspect. You earn experience and levels by killing monsters and doing quests. At the same time you can increase your health and mana by finding bonus artefacts. There are 3 attributes per character and each level grants you one point to allocate. All the attributes are useful, though I found Agility to be a bit vague (the more you have, the more you'll inflict critical strikes). You may also increase the stats by quaffing stat-increasing potions, dropping randomly from enemies and you can even buy them later on. You'll also get a skill point every level. For the warrior skill points are very useful, but for the wizard it could have been useful to know that the spells become more expensive the more skill points they have.

It's not a true RPG though. There are no decisions to make, only a story to follow and the dialogue advancing without your concern. You can (and will) return to earlier places to look for missed loot and quest opportunities though. Sometimes, you might even be lost on what to do next: then the quest screen usually helps.

Music and graphics are fine and fit the setting. I did experience some fatal bugs along the way: some sprites would turn into black boxes, and shortly afterwards the game would crash (my card is AMD Radeon 5700 series, run on Win7 64-bit). This was mostly inconvenient, since restarting the game would fix the problems for several hours.

All in all, Aztaka is an alright platformer. It also reminds me of The Battle Of Olympus and Zelda II games on Nes. I played the game through on brutal difficulty (I suppose that's the most difficult one) and got 14 hours of game time along the way, dying quite a lot due to bad early decisions. After learning the jump attack skill I advanced a lot faster, and I reckon that's when the combat became more entertaining than a chore. So I'd wager to prepare for a slow start. The end game was very fast and easy because you can avoid any enemies by jumping over them, and the warrior becomes practically immortal before facing the final boss.

Too bad Aztaka has no achievements and that seems to be final. I could have squeezed a few extra hours out of it, but I doubt I'll return to it now. As a one-time quest, especially if received from a bundle or on a decent discount, it's certainly worth a buy and play-through. Just give it some time, bear with the clumsy combat of the beginning and try not to lose yourself within the quirky Aztek names.

It pains me to give this a game a thumbs-down, it really does, but after 10 hours in, there is just so much fundamentally broken about this game that I can only recommend that people give it a wide berth until the developer finally sorts out the myriad problems with it.

It's a shame, really, because the game's handdrawn graphics are astoundingly beautiful, the soundtrack is wonderful, and its setting is startlingly original. Seriously, how many games do you see set in Aztec-era Mexico?

For the first 10 levels, you tend to be tolerant with the game, because the bugs don't manifest themselves, progression is fairly linear, you expect the somewhat sloppy combat system to improve as you gain skills, and it's just so damn beautiful. The problem is that after that, things start going downhill very quickly.

The game has a hair-tearingly annoying autosave system that saves after each level, and also records quest errors and bugs that cause you to fall into an infinitely deep hole. The combat is atrocious, and eventually devolves into using somersaults to scrape past powerful opponents in a desperate attempt to maintain some kind of combat strategy. Quest texts are misleading and often lead into dead ends, which you often cannot find your way out of without much backtracking, trial and error and - in some cases - a walkthrough.

Compounding these problems is an appallingly bad energy system, which requires you to go hunting for various types of 'energy' to pass certain obstacles. Some - the green 'vital' energy and the white 'divine' energy - are fairly regular occurrences - the others, like the gold 'elemental' energy, force you on an arduous wild goose chase with only a vague idea of how to find said energy.

And that's not to mention some of the possibly worst design decisions ever to be committed to a game - I will simply say "monkey cave" and "gap", which will probably evoke similar traumatic memories in fellow players.

I've just finished playing this. It took me about 11 hours to finish the game, which I suppose indicates that this is a relatively short game. However it was very enjoyable. The art style was charming and helped to immerse you in an Aztec world. It was interesting to have many unfamiliar names which I had no idea how to pronounce (could have wished for some narration). I think that there is a lot that could be done to make the game better, but even as it is I thoroughly enjoyed it! You need a little bit of patience, to be somewhat observant, and to enjoy older sorts of sidescrollers to like this game. It doesn't hold your hand, so one of the most refreshing things was that I was able to explore everything for myself.

The screenshots don't do this game justice, for how addictive and immersive it is.

An average side scroller with non-linear gameplay. I like the power ups and abilities scattered throughout the game that enable you return to places that were out of your reach previously. I also like the optional alternate quests that earn you gifts.
Unfortunately the moves are rather limited and you can't defend yourself against attackers; you have to attack, time their attacks and move away to dodge. So far all I can do is poke at enemies with a spear which gets repetitive fast. Edit: The combat improves somewhat later in the game, still rather boring though.
When you return to a place, all the enemies will have re-spawned and you get to kill them again... did I mention it is repetitive?
I can't get how the protection and attack spells work. I click on myself or the enemy and all that seems to happen is the enemy movements slow down, I still take the same amount of damage using protection spells & it doesn't look like they take any damage when I use an attack spell. Edit: You have to click on the spell icons that appear on yourself or the enemy in quick succession to complete the spell. Also, dragging and dropping energy on yourself to heal gets difficult when you're fighting off enemies. That bit clearly wasn't well thought out.
Another quirk is that it only saves at fixed locations which are spaced far apart. This is annoying since the game crashes frequently (I'm running Windows 7) forcing me to start over. 6.5/10

This is actually a pretty decent game--a nice slow paced casual adventure. It's mostly a platformer game, but includes some basic RPG elements. A unique story with complementary music, very intuitive controls, and a good amount of leveling skills keep it interesting. On the downside, there isn't a whole lot of action, fighting is one dimensional, and casting spells is a little awkward. The sale price is a good bargain--there's definitely 10+ hours of gameplay here.

I remember playing this game for a short while back when it was released. To be honest, I never really gave it a chance. It looked boring. So I recently decided to give this one another try. And guess what ? It's a lovely game. The graphics are detailed and the animations are fluent. It looks great in motion. The sound fits the theme and the gameplay is a combination of platforming and role playing, a genre that is rarely seen these days. You level up your character by killing enemies and completing quests. During the game you will find (better) items and gain spells to aid you in your quest. They will also help you complete some small puzzles in order to find certain items. The combat is, so far, also simple and fun.
I really can't believe I didn't give this one a proper chance back then. What a wonderful game !

[Rating: 80/100]

If you're at all into Aztec mythology, or even cool sidescrolly platformers, check Aztaka out!

This game was pretty fun up to a certain point. But unfortunately as you get further into the game, you get where it takes like... ten minutes to kill a single guy and it's just like... REALLY? You want games which treat your time and attention with reverence, not attempting to waste them, yknow?

From the screenshots you would expect Aztaka to be platformer with some rpg elements, but it is more a sidescrolling action rpg with some platforming. So I was really surprised when the game didn't support a controller. I really dislike the controls. They are clunky and you need to jump with the W of WASD. The game just isn't fun to play. It's too bad because the game looks great.

a very interesting and engoyable game

Aztaka boldly combines classic side-scrolling mechanics with basic rpg features like questing, loot, and action oriented combat. The graphics are very stylized so it won’t lose appeal over time. Unlike other side-scrollers that use puzzles to wall off progression. Aztaka uses a very in-depth and intertwining quest system to guide you through the game. This game also includes a gear check, so if you happen to rush ahead without getting proper gear you will get stomped by the natives of Aztaka. Aztaka’s combat system and stupidly difficult jump puzzles may act as a deterrent for some gamers, but if you stick with it, the game rewards you with a decent storyline and epic boss fights.

Its an okay game. I enjoy playing it.

I want to like this game, but it's simply not fun. The gameplay is slow and boring, and the story isn't compelling enough to make it a good adventure game.

Wasn't fun. Skip it.

The controls in the game, esp for casting, are just frustrating.

This game has great gameplay and I like the visual style. It's a platformer where you can find upgrades that increase your moveset. It might drag on a bit at times but for the most part I had a great time playing it.
So why can I not recommend it? Because near the end of the game, you encounter a chasm that's too wide to jump even with all your powers combined. The only way to get past it is to be very lucky, you're basicly dependend on enemies appearing at the exact right moment. Note that this is not a matter of right timing on your part.
Edit: I've been told that you can get past the chasm reliably. But do be prepared for jumping puzzles that may seem impossible at first glance and don't have an intuitive solution.