Mysterious Cities of Gold to be unearthed in November

Written by Geoff Kelly — October 15, 2013 at 20:01

Fresh off the success of its recent Kickstarter campaign, Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths is being localised into English and will soon be coming to the PC and numerous other platforms.

Secret Paths is based on the sequel to a highly successful joint French-Japanese 39-episode cartoon that was shown in a number of countries worldwide during the 1980s. Also known as Esteban, Child of the Sun, or simply Golden Dreams, the original show followed the adventures of the Spanish orphan Estaban, joined by Zia the Incan girl and Tao, a descendant of the Mu. Esteban's search for his father lead him to the New World and a search for the Seven Cities of Gold, and the three children were joined or hindered throughout their journey by a host of friends and antagonists.

The sequel began airing in France at the beginning of the year, this time as a solely French-produced cel-shaded 3D production, and an English version of the series in currently in the works. This TV sequel is what the game is based upon. Secret Paths retells the same story, which follows the same primary cast of characters as the 1980s original – Estaban, Zia, and Tao. However, their adventures now take them to China.

The game is played from an isometric perspective, utilising the same style of 3D cel-shading as the new television series. It is an environmental-based puzzle and stealth game, in which the player controls all three characters. Switching between them, you must utilise each character's individual skills to work together and solve the puzzles in each area while collecting additional items. It is definitely aimed at younger children, so do not expect any mind-bending environmental puzzles here.

Developed by Ynnis Interactive and Neko Entertainment, the game was originally to release only in French on Wii U and 3DS. However, the developer recently ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to secure additional money to port the game to PC and fully localise the game into English. The optimistic estimated release date is now November 2013 for PC, iOS, Wii U, and 3DS. More information can be found on the game’s Kickstarter page, and pre-order ‘slacker backing’ is still available via Paypal.