Quest for Quintana Roo

Some older games stand the test of time. They are the true classics. While they may not all be playable today, they are still memorable. That makes it harder to look at the games that time forgot. Looking at Quest for Quintana Roo, I can understand why this one was among the forgotten.

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Quest for Quintana Roo gives players control of Yucatan Sam. Yeah, he's just a bargain basement Pitfall Harry. He's going into an Aztec temple to find a vault leading to a long lost treasure. Unlike the Pitfall games which were straight platformers, this one is an adventure game. There are plenty of items to find and critters to avoid. There's also the issue of diminishing air supply whenever Sam's inside the temple. While that all sounds impressive for 1984, there were two major reasons why Quintana Roo is largely forgotten. The first is that the controls suck. Sam seems to get stuck on just about everything. Hell, it's a pain in the ass just getting into the temple. The other issue is that the game is very slow and VERY boring. Sam moves at a snail's pace (when he's not getting stuck on everything, that is). Dodging enemies becomes very annoying. I lost patience with this game in record time.

Visually, the game looks rather impressive for the time. The environments are very detailed. The first glimpse of the Aztec temple probably impressed a lot of people back then. The characters are a bit more basic, but they still look better than people would've expected from the time. The sounds are typical for the time and work. It's just a shame such good aesthetics went toward such a poor game.

Quest for Quintana Roo is one of those games that deserved to be forgotten. It didn't do enough right to be a classic, and it didn't screw up enough to become infamous like E.T. This is a forgotten relic that should just stay buried.