Google’s new adventure game takes a top-down trip through ancient Mesoamerica

There is a new educational game about ancient Mexico. The game, The Descent of the Serpent, can be played in your browser or through the apps on your mobile device.

There is a short video that plays at the start of Descent of the Serpent. While visiting a museum, a large artifact is stolen by Tezcatlipoca, the Lord of the Smoking Mirror, and a living statue is asking for your help to recover 20 icons that are included on the artifact. The statue says they will send you back in time to ancient Mexico.

Four cute animal disguises will be used for your characters that all have roots in Mexican culture. You can also play as Xolotl, the dog, Xbalanque, and the owl, if you choose to.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

The game, which was made in partnership with Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology, plays like a simplified version of The Legend of Zelda. You can collect the missing icons by walking through lush environments. When you pick up one of the icons, the game will give you a brief history about what it is and point you to an exhibit on the internet if you want to learn more.

In Descent of the Serpent, you will have to dodge crocodiles and monkeys in order to get to the other side. Getting hit on the game's easy difficulty stuns you for a while. On the challenge mode, if you take five hits in a row, you will be sent back to the beginning of the level, so you will have to be careful. Most people should stick with the standard difficulty, I don't know if this is a game that is better by being more difficult.

There are more games being used.

The latest educational web experience from the Arts & Culture group is Descent of the Serpent, which is similar to a collaborative jigsaw puzzle app and an awe-inspiring opera blob. Descent of the Serpent is part of a trend of games being used to teach History.

I might finish The Descent of the Serpent on my own. I want to spend more time with my wolf buddy because it has been fun learning more about a culture I am not familiar with. I might have to make a song with the blob opera after I finish.