Mulaka

 Switch
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 61
  3. Negative: 10 out of 61

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. jad_giovanni
    Mar 6, 2018
    9
    It is an excellent game that is worth playing. The cost-benefit ratio is good, the graphics are beautiful and it is very interesting to know about a culture that was unknown to me. The levels are based on real locations, apparently. The puzzles are too easy and the combat is hack and slash in some moments and insignificant in others.
  2. blogdelgamer
    Mar 9, 2018
    9
    Great Game for the price!.
    Te cultural background and history that this game has is incredible and beautiful, i say it as a Mexican!. and also the game itself is great, and although the graphics are not detailed as other games, they are fine.
    Easy moves and controls, and good boss battles. This have Zelda and okami influence!, so if you like those kind of adventure games, you surely    Great Game for the price!.
    Te cultural background and history that this game has is incredible and beautiful, i say it as a Mexican!. and also the game itself is great, and although the graphics are not detailed as other games, they are fine.
    Easy moves and controls, and good boss battles.
    This have Zelda and okami influence!, so if you like those kind of adventure games, you surely will like this one.    … Expand
  3. JJTX
    May 8, 2019
    5
    I really wanted to like Mulaka. It has an appealing aesthetic, a unique setting, good music, interesting characters, and a very Zelda-like design. Unfortunately, it fails when it comes to combat. There is no “Z-targeting” system or anything similar, so landing hits on enemies is sometimes a crapshoot. There is a distinctive “three souls” health system, but in order to refill any of yourI really wanted to like Mulaka. It has an appealing aesthetic, a unique setting, good music, interesting characters, and a very Zelda-like design. Unfortunately, it fails when it comes to combat. There is no “Z-targeting” system or anything similar, so landing hits on enemies is sometimes a crapshoot. There is a distinctive “three souls” health system, but in order to refill any of your life bar, Mulaka (the player character) must stop in his tracks and perform a five-second dance, wherein he is totally vulnerable to attack. I finally gave up after repeated attempts at a particularly challenging boss fight, wherein I was stun-locked after multiple enemies ganged up on me and pounded the life out of me, and every attempt I made to use my life-refill potions was interrupted by another blindside attack. Then, the giant boss itself stomped on me and literally clipped me out of the map, costing me another “soul”.

    I applaud the developers at Lienzo for what they’ve attempted here, especially because it introduced me to a real-world culture that I previously knew nothing about. I just can’t recommend the game to everyone, because it lacks polish and smart design in the most essential gameplay mechanics.    … Expand
  4. Katxarpa
    Aug 13, 2018
    8
    Really liked the game, pretty simple and straight to the point. Can't really expect a AAA experience from this one but still gets you through some original experience, even though there are some other cliche sections. The historical story adds some points to the game.
  5. luiscarlospando
    Dec 28, 2018
    4
    Got this game to support Lienzo who happen to be based on the same city where I live. On this review I'm gonna leave aside the cultural aspects of the game and I'm gonna focus on the video game aspects of it. The one positive thing I can say about Mulaka is that I really like the artistic approach they took for representing the Tarahumara culture, the low-poly style really fits the theme.Got this game to support Lienzo who happen to be based on the same city where I live. On this review I'm gonna leave aside the cultural aspects of the game and I'm gonna focus on the video game aspects of it. The one positive thing I can say about Mulaka is that I really like the artistic approach they took for representing the Tarahumara culture, the low-poly style really fits the theme. I don't know if this style was chosen from a technical perspective though, but it fits really well. Although the artistic style is very simplistic, I noticed the game suffers from some frame drops here and there, which is kinda odd, maybe the game wasn't optimized for the Switch at all.

    The game received way too much praise for what it really is. I felt it like an unfinished/unpolished product, the controls were clunky, the main game play mechanics started to feel boring very soon, the music was very repetitive and really not good at all, the puzzles were very basic, almost with no real challenge, Mulaka's voice gets really annoying after a while and finally... The invisible walls, oh boy, the invisible walls... They appear out of nowhere every time, which denotes a very poor level design. Mulaka, as a video game, never felt fun at all.

    For a first attempt and for a studio the size of Lienzo I think Mulaka is justifiable, but the game is bad, no question about it. I really hope Lienzo learns from their mistakes and I really wish their next endeavor results in a better way.    … Expand
  6. BorisThe_Spider
    Nov 21, 2022
    5
    Despite this being the first 'big' game of the studio, it doesn't feel fun at all. It has some major problems with the battle sistem and the art designs feels kind of repetetive, not so creative nor interesting. It's a good first try, but still a clunky experience.
  7. SuperkenGaming
    Mar 3, 2018
    6
    Mulaka is an 8 hour long action adventure game set in northern mexico where you play as Mulaka, a shaman that sets out to gather abilitites from demi gods and rid the land of these creatures terrorizing his people..
    This game is a bit all over the place, up and downs in terms of quality and delivery, but overall is a really enjoyable and hard to put down experience..
    Mulaka is a game all    Mulaka is an 8 hour long action adventure game set in northern mexico where you play as Mulaka, a shaman that sets out to gather abilitites from demi gods and rid the land of these creatures terrorizing his people..
    This game is a bit all over the place, up and downs in terms of quality and delivery, but overall is a really enjoyable and hard to put down experience..
    Mulaka is a game all about map cleaning and gathering..
    There are 7 levels here all with the same goal
    Gather 3 gems to unlock a gate and move onto the next area…
    Though these 7 levels are not equal in their quality…
    My favorite levels and the majority of these levels are set in a small open world..
    and when I mean small, I mean like really really small yall
    not much exploring to do here at all which is a shame
    You have an ability know as Sukuruame vision that will point you in the direction of nearby collectables and locations of these gems but will also show oyu the health of enemies you run into along your way…
    Mulaka does a great job of spreading out its enemy encounters…
    There are enemies running all over the map, but engaging in combat is only required usually only when theres a reward at the end of the fight..
    Though if youd like you can grind enemies for their Korima as there is a light rpg element sprinkled in here as youre able to upgrade your health, magic, and spear..
    Your spear is used for flying enemies and hitting targets to unlock new paths and your magic is used for animal transformations that are used for unlocking certain paths…
    Youll run into many collectables throughout your journey that you cant reach until you unlock a certain demi gods transformation as the story progresses..
    Youll be able to turn into a bird to fly, a bear, a snake, and a jaguar..
    And youre able to call on these tranformations during battle…
    Or you can stick to just using your spear and filling up a meter for a finishing move…
    Comabt here is definitely challenging.. it never feels like button mashy busy work..
    youre constantly enagegd especially later on in the game as youre dealing with multiply enemy types..
    youll be switching between light and heavy attacks dodging and rolling and using different forms to take these enemies out..
    And to help you in combot there is a light crafting system here where you gather a material and it goes towards automatically crafting a potion for rage, health, a bomb or shield..
    and learning to master using these tools takes some time as your charcter has to do a dance that feels like it goes on for 5 hours to call in health or a shield… and these dances can be interrupted and annoyingly will use up the consumable even if you don’t get its full effect…
    The length it takes for your tools to hit you with some health or a shield is one of the most frustrating things about this game.. but it isn’t thee most frustrating thing.. that award goes to this games platforming
    As hinted earlier, not every level here is an open world styled map cleaner section..
    There are a few levels in here whos focus is promairly platforming and every one of them is awful..
    Mostly thanks to the games magic system..
    There are definitely some frustrating moments here as this games paltofmring feels floaty and unpolished on its own.. but the worst is one of the last levels of the game youll be climbing a watertfall as you switch between 2 different animal forms…
    This is made difficult by the fact that your magic is being drained while youre in form, so you have to try and angle your character right to pick up refills, but its mostly made frustrating because of how unresponsive changing into the jaguar is.. it rquires a prompt of pressing two action buttons.. one of the buttons on its own turns into bird form.. so as you can guess, mashing buttons trying to get this to work leads you to having less magic to get through a section.. which means a tonsof failing, hoping you land in water so you can respawn at the top and not have to make the climb again from the bottom…
    This of course could’ve been fixed with tranformations being tied to an action plus trigger command for example instead of two actions, but with patience its doable, and the section isn’t as long as it seems while youre doing it
    My biggest complaint though is just how inconsistent these levels are…
    the world ultimately feels so small and empty with only a puzzle or 2 to do in each, and they feel smaller and smaller.. Theres not much going on in this world at all..
    Until you finally open the gate to move on.. this is when you have to take down that levels boss…
    Each one feeling completely different from the last and are some of this games best moments…
    They break up the pacing of item collecting and enemy slaying and putting your combat and item timing to the test… The boss battles here are thankfully more fun than difficult and feel just as big and as important as the main levels themselves.    … Expand
  8. StarVenger
    Apr 27, 2018
    4
    I have to wonder if the people who gave this game a 7+ played the same game I did. This is an 9-10 hour game that I wished was over by hour 2. Almost everything about this game mechanically is irritating. Potions take 2 minutes to drink, so oftentimes you start to drink one and get knocked out of it. Irritating flying sequences with orbs placed at heights where you have to start yourI have to wonder if the people who gave this game a 7+ played the same game I did. This is an 9-10 hour game that I wished was over by hour 2. Almost everything about this game mechanically is irritating. Potions take 2 minutes to drink, so oftentimes you start to drink one and get knocked out of it. Irritating flying sequences with orbs placed at heights where you have to start your bird transform at a certain height, and catch air currents just right or you'll be too high or too low to hit the orbs after 3 minutes of flying already and have to do it all over again for the ninth time, to 90's style invisible walls that prevent you from going places you can clearly get to, almost everything about this game screams low budget trash. It's one of the most irritating games I've ever seriously tried to finish. By about the third or fourth from the last level almost every few minutes I seriously debated on just youtubing the ending so I could play something less annoying, like pounding nails into my fingers.… Expand
  9. AltmullerGU
    Mar 1, 2018
    0
    I Don't know if it was my copy, but the game crashed every minute. And there were some graphical glitches, I downloaded it again and there were still problems. And the problem is not my switch I have tons of games such as: BOTW, Troll and I, Super Mario Odyssey, Doom, Skryim, XC2.
  10. destinyfan1
    May 1, 2018
    7
    A game with a unique art style with fun bosses,and action
    The problem is that the combat get's repetitive quick,but that can be helped by changing into an animal and the small open world's are a missed opportunity
    Some of the enemies look a little bit to weird,the same goes for the npc's ,but i guess that's the style of the game But then again serving for a village is fun another    A game with a unique art style with fun bosses,and action
    The problem is that the combat get's repetitive quick,but that can be helped by changing into an animal and the small open world's are a missed opportunity
    Some of the enemies look a little bit to weird,the same goes for the npc's ,but i guess that's the style of the game
    But then again serving for a village is fun
    another annoying point are the stupid invisible walls that block freedom
    The puzzles are never a challenge,and there are so few in the game,there are even more negative points in the game like
    - climbing waterfalls is annoying af
    - empty worlds ,with enemies her and there
    I could give easily a 6 or a 5 ,but the overall combat,originality in this game makes it still a fun game
    conclusion:
    it definitely has fun moments,but the design of the game ,is just a let down,with to much annoying stuff to buy at full price
    wait for a sale.    … Expand
  11. apa-sl
    Mar 16, 2019
    6
    It has potential. I was pumped for it after seeing the trailers (world settings, art style, story behind). But while playing it there was something missing. Did not managed to finish it yet (went to my fav adventure games or things like Mario+Rabbits, Zelda, puzzle games).
  12. AllySky
    Oct 13, 2018
    7
    A rather decent game with a variety of abilities, enemies and bosses, as it tries its best to stay fresh through out the game. However there are some bugs, questionable item placements, and it at times feels rushed. It could have been better, but honestly feels like any other average game.
  13. Rdgmonster
    Mar 11, 2019
    8
    Buen estilo de arte, se valora mucho que es un estudio sin mucha experiencia por lo mismo no se puede medir con la misma vara, muy buen juego, logro lo que promete que es entretener, bien.
  14. mokr90
    Oct 1, 2018
    9
    Amazing game, it totally exceeded my expectations!! The graphics are quite good, with a lot of colors, but low details, although doesn't affect the experience. Mechanics are very good, I only would like that while you are flying, the camera stick only move the perspective instead the bird movements, but it works fine. Also, what I really hated was the time that tooks to use the potions! ItAmazing game, it totally exceeded my expectations!! The graphics are quite good, with a lot of colors, but low details, although doesn't affect the experience. Mechanics are very good, I only would like that while you are flying, the camera stick only move the perspective instead the bird movements, but it works fine. Also, what I really hated was the time that tooks to use the potions! It is full of elements of one of the several Mexican culture. Battle with bosses are great!
    Another thing I missed was a map of every level.    … Expand
  15. lalo1138
    Oct 31, 2018
    10
    It is a very nice game, it has a very charming artstyle, and the setting and culture is just straight up beautiful. Short but very pretty.
  16. 519MaLoNeY
    Sep 29, 2020
    8
    So I wasn’t initially planning to even type something out about Mulaka, was just gonna rate it 7/8 n hope anyone who enjoys open world adventure games with no hand holding comes across this game at some point...I’ll make this uncomplicated & clear of any BS k...it’s essentially a game LIKE BOTW (NOT in terms scope & the legendary legacy Zelda has stitched into the fabric of our verySo I wasn’t initially planning to even type something out about Mulaka, was just gonna rate it 7/8 n hope anyone who enjoys open world adventure games with no hand holding comes across this game at some point...I’ll make this uncomplicated & clear of any BS k...it’s essentially a game LIKE BOTW (NOT in terms scope & the legendary legacy Zelda has stitched into the fabric of our very existence since the 80s) BUT...
    Mulaka is a game from “indie” game devs that are doing something very risky these days amongst most devs/writers or ARTISTS, who believe in their vision SO deeply...they know it won’t be accepted as what it truly is. So to those who won’t give it a chance because it’s not giving you anything for your usual short term focused games, JUST RELAX! ...chill rtfo n get comfy because this is an AMAZING story told through a fully independent game environment! Don’t know what to do? Can’t figure out where you’re supposed to go at all? NONE OF US PLAYING DO EITHER...and that’s the focus of a game that’s making you discover your OWN ways of experiencing THEIR story.
    You eventually make it through the “game” while at the same time you’ve experienced a profound cultural history, while your personalized storyline developed n unfolded. THAT’S what this game is!
    PS. To the person who actually took the time to type out your OBVIOUSLY only a couple hours experience playing...your gross. Seriously. Lol. There’s so few epic & totally independent adventure games for you to be that way.    … Expand
  17. ThePSButton
    Jun 5, 2020
    5
    Mulaka es un juego muy bonito y entrañable. Su narrativa inspirada en los Tarahumaras es preciosa y el final del juego tiene un mensaje muy interesante.

    El diseño y variedad de enemigos también es uno de sus puntos fuertes. Desgraciadamente en cuanto a la jugabilidad va de lo regular a lo pobre. Tiene algunas mecánicas interesantes, pero en general en su apartado técnico se siente de    Mulaka es un juego muy bonito y entrañable. Su narrativa inspirada en los Tarahumaras es preciosa y el final del juego tiene un mensaje muy interesante.

    El diseño y variedad de enemigos también es uno de sus puntos fuertes.

    Desgraciadamente en cuanto a la jugabilidad va de lo regular a lo pobre. Tiene algunas mecánicas interesantes, pero en general en su apartado técnico se siente de baja calidad.

    La dirección de arte es buena, pero el diseño de niveles es promedio y el título como tal no es tan entretenido.    … Expand
  18. soahknam
    Jun 7, 2021
    8
    It is an interesting game, with good gameplay and original story, it was fun but short.

    Story: 8
    Gameplay: 8
    Music: 8
    Visuals: 7

    Personal Score: 8 GOOD !!
  19. Dangusse
    Apr 25, 2023
    4
    i was really liking it, but it softlocked on the 6th area because i was more easily able to access a snake puzzle without defeating the arena that was supposed to come before it than i was the intended route. the magical stone came out of the well, then went back down again and won't come out because the snake puzzle is completed and can't be reset. there was also an issue where the firsti was really liking it, but it softlocked on the 6th area because i was more easily able to access a snake puzzle without defeating the arena that was supposed to come before it than i was the intended route. the magical stone came out of the well, then went back down again and won't come out because the snake puzzle is completed and can't be reset. there was also an issue where the first time i ported to this level, it just went back to level 5, and both map slots for 5 and 6 went to the same place until i reset the game.

    before this, i was going to give the game a pretty good rating. it has acceptable combat, nice music, interesting enemies, decent level design, and challenging bosses, but it lacks the level of finish that would lead me to restart the entire (probably almost done) experience to get back to this point. there is also a big issue with aiming the spear, that the reticule is often covered by the player's body, and the game makes us attack about 75% of the time we are trying to harvest a plant (which we have to do way too often, always from the same patches of moss)

    even having purchased this game drastically discounted (for 2 dollars), i find it disappointing and am unable to get a refund.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

84
#84 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Gaming Age
    May 7, 2018
    67
    It’s a shame, then, that such an interesting story and such fantastic designs are kind of wasted on a game that’s basically your standard action-adventure. Sure, you’re exploring a brightly-coloured desert with enemies based on creatures you’d find in northern Mexico, but at the end of the day, you’re just hacking and slashing and throwing spears and, er, magicking at them.
    Read full review
  2. Nintendo Insider
    Apr 8, 2018
    70
    Mulaka’s strength as a game comes from the painstaking effort that has been made to sufficiently portray the culture of the Tarahumara people, and, as such, there is much joy to be found in exploring the sun-baked region and learning from those that inhabit it.
    Read full review
  3. Vooks
    Apr 2, 2018
    80
    Despite its flaws in some aspects, Lienzo's passion shines through in every aspect of Mulaka. It's far from perfect, and not everybody will be able to look past those flaws, but those who can will find a diamond in the rough.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »