Another superb tribute to Ultimate‘s isometric adventures, this one called Melkhior’s Mansion. It was created by BitGlint Games and could be described as an “isometric Atic Atac“, although there is definitely more to it than that.

Melkhior’s Mansion does use many of the sound effects from Atic Atac, so it is instantly reminiscent of that game. The game has four playable characters (Sir Stamperlot the Knight, Zouch the Witch, Lester the Old Man, and Princess Ashby), and the gameplay is about killing the “Evil Entities” guarding the mansion, and finding a way to escape. So this is a heavy Atic Atac tribute…

What Melkhior’s Mansion does offer, that Atic Atac doesn’t, are different missions for each playable character. With varying difficulties. The easiest is the Knight’s quest – find three parts of a big, magenta key, then escape. More difficult is the Witch quest, which involves finding five runestones and placing them on a pentagram to seal the portal to the Underwurlde. The Old Man’s quest requires that you kill five Evil Entities, and the Princess’s quest – the hardest – involves breaking the spell that has imprisoned Melkhior, by killing some nasty Clagmyres, and using their sludgy remains on four Dinoki Statues.

There are numerous items to find as you explore, but you can only carry three at once. The last item you picked up also determines what you fire. So if you last picked up some salt, then you’ll fire salt. Firing certain special items at the Evil Entities will kill them (like the spanner in Atic Atac killing Frankenstein’s Monster – it does the same in this game). Some items are time-limited, shown by the timer next to them in the inventory. There are four coloured keys scattered randomly around the mansion too, and each of these will open a corresponding gate, if carried. The three item limit on the inventory is tough, but you have to get used to carrying only what you think you need at the moment.

There are podiums, where you can view a map of the rooms you’ve visited, which is semi-handy (it might have been better had it shown where the guardians are, or other important items), trapdoors (fall down a level), and occasionally special rooms (like the library).

The game has some great little touches, like the reflections in mirrors, the fall animations, and the dancing characters on the title screen.

I think Melkhior’s Mansion definitely edges Viva Mortis, in terms of sheer fun and playability. They’re both similar games, with similar aims, and are both worth playing by anyone with a fascination for Ultimate‘s great adventures.

Melkhior’s Mansion even goes a step further by introducing unlockables, like extra colour palettes to run the game in. Which definitely elevates this already excellent game to legendary status. It also has online scores, but only if you ask for them.

To be honest, I think Melkhior’s Mansion is my favourite Ultimate homebrew tribute game so far, and it’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The game was first released in 2023.

More: Melkhior’s Mansion on itch.io