Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is a great game that blends smooth action/adventure gameplay with nice puzzle solving parts.
User Rating: 8.4 | Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy GC
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy starts out following Sphinx, a brave and strong Demigod who is guided by Imhotep, a very magical and kindhearted guy who helps you in your quest to restore peace to the land. Mummy, formerly a prince, gets thrown headlong into the action when his jealous and seemingly evil brother turns him into a mummy. As long as Sphinx can keep finding Canopic vases with part of the mummy’s soul inside he is able to maintain a non-living life. He is thereby able to go right under the nose of the evil Set, survive traps that he wouldn’t be able to were he alive, and use them to his advantage. The story doesn’t seem to have much depth at first but the twists and turns in the story make for an interesting and compelling storyline You will find yourself drawn in emotionally by the characters and continuously surprised along the way. Gameplay The gameplay is simple but still works very well. Throughout the game whenever you come upon a new ability or function to use it usually tells you how to do it. For example in the first level when you approach some rocks it pauses the game for a second and tells you which button you use to pick them up. This works well for teaching you the controls but it can be a bit frustrating when it teaches you something more than once. The game has a lot of similarities to The Windwaker. For example, in the top right-hand corner of the screen it has all your buttons laid out and it tells you what each button does. Also, when you acquire ability items you can choose a button to assign them to. Another similarity to Windwaker is that the dialogue is in the same style. When someone is talking to you they make hand gestures and other motions, writing appears on the screen and the characters interact with you as though you’re talking to them. In reality the only thing you ever say is “yes” or “no”. In the course of the game you will receive capture beetles. You can assign them to one of your buttons and use them to capture monsters. This will help you solve some of the puzzles in the game because a few of the monsters (once caught) can be released to blow up boulders or burn down gates. The real fun of the beetles is to try to capture all of the “monsters” (all your enemies are considered monsters) and give them to the museum in the city. You also have the option of selling them for gold scarabs (used as money in the game). The action in the game is very smooth. There are so many different enemies in the game with different attacks and different fighting styles that it never gets boring or repetitive. The Sphinx is armed with the Blade of Osiris, which you acquire during the first level and the shield of Osiris, which you get not too long after that. The sword is pretty basic, if you press the attack button it will do a slash attack and if you hold it down you’ll do a kind of 360 degree slash attack which is useful when you’re being attacked by more the one enemy. If you jump and then attack you’ll do an overhead attack. This is used on big creatures and puzzles. Later on, when you get the double jump, you can do the slam attack, which is a downward strike. The shield isn’t a necessity for winning battles but it can be a big help against some monsters and useful in a lot of other situations. Another gameplay element is swimming. It is used most often as transportation from island to island. When you’re swimming on the water you can do the breaststroke or to go faster you can do the crawl. You can also dive under and swim around for about thirty seconds before your underwater gauge depletes. Another cool element is the blowpipe, which will help you throughout the game with some of the puzzles. There are five kinds of darts. The standard dart activates targets. The acid dart melts metal chains. The ice dart freezes certain enemies. The bouncing dart hits targets that can’t be reached by the standard dart. And finally the ka dart, which can be used only when you’re standing on a ka ankh, firing point. It is used for transporting yourself to another point. When you are playing as the mummy the controls are pretty basic because you don’t have any attacks. The mummy’s abilities are lighting himself on fire and electrocuting himself. “Fire Mummy” is able to burn down wooden barriers and light torches. “Electric Mummy” can activate otherwise inoperative machinery. Other mummy transformations are triple mummy, paper-thin mummy, smoke mummy and bat mummy, all of which add varied and sometimes humorous gameplay styles for the mummy. One slight problem that bothered me sometimes was that the save points throughout the game were quite varied in how far apart they were. As the mummy you can only save it at the very beginning of each level so if you’re stuck somewhere or have to turn it off you’ll be forced to start back at the beginning. As the Sphinx there are more save points but if you miss one or hadn’t saved for a while a game over can be quite frustrating. Graphics The graphics are nice to look at and all of the animations look really well designed. One of the points it really shines is the mummy’s design. Each twitch of electric mummy, each little “ow” and patting himself down of fire mummy, all his facial expressions, the excited expression after he completes each level, the frightened expressions, the sad expressions, they all just bring the character to life (although he’s not quite living) and gives you a laugh or three along the way. The Sphinx isn’t quite as expressive but that is a part of his character. Against even the biggest and baddest bosses he keeps a quiet and determined face. The monsters in the game are also really well designed and look really cool. You don’t have much time in battle to just layback and watch but if you capture them you can get a closer look at them in your inventory. The landscape and graphics blend really well into the game. The water ripples nicely as you swim through it, if you’re paying attention you’ll notice the Sphinx’s footprints in the sand as you’re running through the desert and the way things like chains hanging from the ceiling swing one way or another if you jump into them. Most of these things you’d expect from newer games but sometimes it’s the little things that turn a good game into a great game. Sound The sound for the game is really good. The music fits the game well and each setting has music that matches the setting nicely. The music for the mummy who is inside the bad guy’s castle is creepy and ominous but when you get on fire, the music changes to a more upbeat and faster paced sound. The music for Sphinx has an Egyptian feel to it and changes depending on the setting and situation. The music is great but most amazing is the sound effects. The sounds are so original and varied and specific to your character and setting, it makes you want to turn the volume up so you don’t miss anything. The sound is one of the games outstanding features. Overall the game is great. If you can get past the couple of tedious points and the fact that there’s not much replay value there’s nothing else wrong with it. I totally recommend this game to everyone, most especially to fans of puzzle-solving action and action-adventure games. Copyright 2004 Taylor Migner
