IT REALLY WAS REAL! The "I saw this so long ago I thought I hallucinated it" thread

Let's see if ya'll can help my friend find a videogame they remember from childhood.

ok, so: it was a sort of pixel metroidvania-esque game from either the 80s, 90s, or early 00s. the colors were somewhat muted compared to a lot of old games, but i remember the player character looking more vibrant than the rest. i think the PC used a whip, and i recall that it was some sort of temple-diving experience? i have distinct memory of trying to jump across holes being guarded by ceiling spiders, or entering a room and immediately getting set upon by a snake trap across the other side.

 

I’m not at all sure, but I think Cave Story was something like this? It’s on the latter end of the timeframe given, I think, but the aesthetic is ringing a bell there. Definitely don’t quote me on this though!

 

La Mulana?

 

I read a book once about two girls finding an old tiara that was a piece of tech, it had a large three-sided stone on it that could be removed and replaced with one of a different color. Each stone had a different power: healing, teleportation, time travel etc. It was called The Atlantis (something). One of the powers was "seeing" where you'd go, you would scope out a location and quickly switch the stone with another one to teleport. That way you could visit somewhere without being there in body. They used this to visit an underwater ruin with a large hole in the floor, in the hole was a creature of some kind but they left before seeing what it was because shit was scary. There was also an angel? Or being who called himself an angel and he's upset that the tech is in the hands of two teenagers who dont know how to use it. I think the book is also the first in a series, I only owned the first one. I'd LOVE to find the title of it, it had some incredibly interesting ideas.

Also the Atlantians were probably aliens.

 

La Mulana apparently isn't it, but it's definitely closer/in the right vein.