Released in 2015 by author Adam Strange, Viva Mortis is a brilliant tribute to the classic isometric Ultimate games.

You play as Mortis, the overworked minion of Death, who must find and retrieve his five missing runes.

Exploration will reveal rooms that faithfully replicate the styles of Sabre Wulf, Knight Lore, Atic Atac, Pentagram and Nightshade. Which will no doubt put a smile on the face of most players.

Another fun feature is the Piñata. A multi-coloured paper donkey can be found in some rooms. When you hit it it will break and give Mortis the power to kill anything he touches for a short while. Which can be very useful.

Unwelcome surprises include: large holes in the ground that suck you towards them. You can run to escape their pull, but if you enter the hole you’ll fall down into the dungeon and will have to find your way out. Some enemies will also chuck bones at you.

Viva Mortis can be played with ZX Spectrum Next enhanced graphics, or original ZX Spectrum graphics (before you say “and complete with colour clash!“, there is no colour clash, because the graphics are monochrome). I’ve shown both styles here.

I enjoyed playing Viva Mortis a lot. It’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac, and I highly recommend giving it try.

More: Viva Mortis on itch.io