It's the year 1926. Earnest Evans is in Mexico, traveling towards a tomb via boat. He asks the boatman how much longer it's going to take, and is told that they'll be there soon. The boatman asks Earnest if he's really going to find what he's looking for in this place, but as he keeps talking...

...Earnest suddenly spins around and whips out the end of the boatman's cigarette in the blink of an eye. Earnest tells him to mind his own business. If it's there, he'll find it! He's Earnest Evans, a treasure hunter from the United States. Two weeks ago, he learned of the existence of a 1000-year old Coatlicue statue here in southern Mexico. The boatman exclaims that they've arrived. Up ahead is the entrance to the tomb...

The first level takes place in the tomb. Head right and you'll find the first enemies: tentacles. These tentacles will flail madly, but are no match for the whip. Destroy them and then head up a small hill, where you'll encounter several bats. Again, these are really weak enemies that can be taken out quickly. Keep going right and you'll have to jump over some spikes, which will rise out of the ground as you jump.

You actually have a choice of route here. If you want to skip part of the level, you can use the whip to latch on to a hook, and catapult Earnest upwards. Otherwise, head right and crouch so you can fit through a gap. You'll then see a rope, jump onto it and then head down where you can either go left or right. If you want to get some more life, head left and jump over the spikes.

There are a lot of tentacles waiting past the spike pit, destroy them all and head left to see some meat. As you move towards it, a wall of spikes will drop down and start moving towards you. Take the meat and crouch in the corner where it was, the spikes will luckily stop and destroy themselves before they get you.

Go back to the right and you'll come across some porcupines that aren't that difficult to defeat. Keep going right and crouch through another small space. There's a spike pit below and a rope to the right, jump onto it and climb up, then jump left and there's another rope you can climb up. Head to the left, but watch out for more of the angry porcupines who populate this area.

Head left and you'll come across a tougher enemy: a skeleton who wields a spinning scythe. There are only a couple of these enemies in the level, but they're tough to destroy due to how much health they have. Keep heading left and you'll have to jump over a few platforms, destroy the tentacles that are around here. If you fall off you'll land back near the start of the level. Keep going left.

You'll come across more porcupines, kill them and you'll arrive at a wall with a rope next to it. Head up the rope and you'll see a platform with a key on it, make sure to collect this key as it's needed to open a door later on. Once you've got the key, head right by jumping from platform to platform.

Eventually you'll see some tentacles in the ceiling. Destroy these and head right, there is a larger platform which has a skeleton on it. This guy is a difficult to beat as the previous one, so use hit and run tactics to deal with him without losing too much life. Once the skeleton is deal with, head over to another platform which has a potion and some bats nearby. Kill the bats first.

The reason you want to take out the bats first is because it can be tricky to avoid the potion -collecting this puts Earnest to sleep! It lasts for a few seconds so just wait it out. After that, jump across and kill a couple more tentacles, and you'll see a door. As long as you collected the key earlier, this door will open. Head in and quickly go right, as some arrows will drop down from above. The statue is on top of a shrine, collect it...

...and the boss appears. This boss is a skull surrounded with a green flame, which floats around a ring. The ring releases pink fireballs which don't do much damage, but the skull will do more damage if you collide with it. Aim for the skull and whip away, after taking enough hits the boss will die, but it's not over yet.

You've now got to get back to the start of the level, as lots of boulders chase after you. The small ones aren't much of a problem, but the larger ones are and can send you flying if you get hit! Make your way to the left and downwards to finish the level.

NOTES

The boss room has a couple of references to Raiders of the Lost Ark, namely the arrows which drop drop from the ceiling (although in the film they shoot out of the walls) and then the boulder chase (there's only one boulder in the film, though). One thing that Indy didn't do in Raiders of the Lost Ark is thrust his arms up into the air and hold that pose for a few seconds for no reason when collecting the treasure, and then having to fight a flaming skull protecting by a ring.

Once you've gotten into the boss room, don't collect the statue just yet and instead climb up the left wall...

...to reveal that the arrows that come down when you get close to the statue are just floating in place.