Metroidvania games are usually my favorite genre in gaming, next to platformers. So to my surprise that another one was released a couple of months ago developed by Way Forward (the same company behind the well acclaimed Shantae series) and I went to check it out. With the amount of Metroidvania games that have been released (Return Of Samus being the champion of those that came out this year), The Mummy Demastered is surprisingly very good.
Licensed, developed and based off of the recently released movie of the same name, you take control of an unnamed agent sent to an area in England to eliminate the threat of Ahmanet, the antagonist. Upon reaching there, something is up as things go south in a bad way and you have to eliminate Ahmanet by yourself. The game begins.
Right off the bat, the Metroidvania aspects are immediately shown here. You start off with a weak submachine gun and very little health as you run, gun and jump your way through the forest, sewers, graveyards, ancient tombs and your very own headquarters to thwart the antagonistic schemes of Ahmanet. And as you progress, there will be some areas that you can't reach (yet). The Mummy Demastered feels more like a combination of Gucamelee, Shadow Complex and Axiom Verge in terms of gameplay without the major story behind either one of them (minimal or complex). You start off by shooting bats, spiders and birds before shortly dealing with zombies, mummies, medieval soldiers, zombie piranhas and rats. Each enemy has a seemingly easy pattern to evade though.
Scattered throughout the many areas in England are various supply boxes with new weapons for the unnamed agent to use. You'll take control of either a heavy assault rifle, shotgun, harpoon gun, cluster rocket launcher, flamethrower and a plasma beam cannon (should be able to find them all) along with 3 various types of explosives (regular grenade, incendiary and C4) required to access certain areas that are barricaded. Also scattered around are health packs to increase your health and ammo belts to increase the amount of ammunition you can carry. Along with that, there are several destructible statues with scrolls and Egyptian antiques that give you special abilities to reach areas that you were unable to in the first area such as jumping higher, running faster and quick dashing to break weak walls.
They are 5 bosses in the game and, suffice to say, all of them (with the exception of at least 2 tricky ones) are generally easy to take down with relative ease, although the aiming in the game is not as fluid as Super Metroid or Shadow Complex. To be also quite honest, The Mummy Demastered is relatively easy to get through even with that minor setback. In case of low health, just walk into a safe zone and then run back out to make the enemies respawn and kill them to replenish your HP. However, death is not cheap. Die anywhere in the game and your unnamed agent becomes a zombie under Ahmanet's control. You take control of a second agent, but you lose all of the equipment that you acquired upon your death. All you have to do is locate the zombie agent, kill it and reclaim all of your equipment. It's not an easy feat to get your stuff back and it shares as a warning to be extra careful. Early on in the game it will be a tad bit difficult, but as you obtain more health packs and unlock more abilities the game becomes a breeze, especially near the end.
Way Forward are well known for their retro style games and this one is no exception. If anything it more resembles a DS-style game which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even the soundtrack has a DS-style to it, amid very forgettable at best. From the way the surroundings are designed to the dialogue. However, there is no skip option when you die to a boss. You have to read the same dialogue over and over and over until you finally beat it. It truly is a kickback to games of old but in the modern age of gaming, skipping dialogues for bosses would've been very nice to have.
The Mummy Demastered, while short and relatively easy, is still a good Metroidvania game in its own right. Sure, it's not gonna be memorable as Super Metroid (and what else can come close to being as iconic as Super Metroid) or any other modern releases like Gucamelee (2013), Strider (2014), Shadow Complex Remastered (2015) and Axiom Verge (2016), but if you are a fan of Metroidvania games, you can't go wrong with The Mummy Demastered.