Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy Review

[Eliwood8]

About 15 years ago, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy released on GameCube, PS2, and Xbox to average reviews and little fanfare. It's surprising, then, that the game would get a new life on the Switch, but the recently rebranded THQ Nordic has been happy to repackage and re-release any and all games from the THQ library, and that includes the more middling titles. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy isn't all bad on the Switch, but the intervening 15 years of game development advancement means there's a lot left to be desired in this third-person adventure game.

 

In ancient Egypt, a warrior named Sphinx searches for the legendary Blade of Osiris to battle a mysterious evil that has been gaining power. Meanwhile, young prince Tutenkhamen is celebrating his birthday when his brother starts behaving strangely. Soon enough these two protagonists' paths cross and they must work together to prevent an evil god from amassing power. The Egyptian setting may feel like it's been done before but Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy imbues it with enough original charm that the sandy temples and anthropomorphic animal inhabitants are plenty endearing. The actual plot is little more than a by-the-numbers good and evil story though, and the game even introduces a handful of more interesting threads but then abandons them to maintain a fairly basic storyline, which is especially unfortunate given the cliffhanger ending that has received no resolution in 15 years.

 

 

Originally created right around the heyday of third-person adventure games, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy combines the typical blend of dungeon exploration, combat, and puzzle solving that largely defines the genre. What makes this game unique is the way it largely splits up combat and puzzle solving between its two protagonists. Sphinx has the sword and gathers other helpful items that can be used in combat, while the Mummy is defenseless but essentially immortal (one of the perks of being undead) and can even be set on fire or charged with electricity to solve puzzles. The Mummy's portion of the game does a fair job of finding interesting puzzles with these mechanics which require studying the environment to understand how to properly move forward, though by the end of the game they end up feeling virtually the same every time—simply find a switch that lets you build a pathway over hazards like pits or water. It's repetitive, but decent enough to keep the Mummy's sections of the game engaging.

 

Sphinx's half of the game is far less solid, though. As the warrior his gameplay generally requires more dexterity, but the game obnoxiously avoids some basic control conventions, things that were common even in 2003. The lack of lock-on targeting is keenly felt, especially when you're fighting small, fast enemies that tend to scurry behind you. The fact that two or more enemies can easily stunlock you in a cycle of damage only makes it more obnoxious. You eventually get a shield (which isn't terribly useful) but Sphinx could really use some sort of basic dodge ability since sometimes enemy attacks just feel inescapable. The platforming aspects of the game don't feel great either, as Sphinx has a terribly weak jump (thankfully you eventually get the ability to double jump) and a finnicky camera system means it's hard to get a good angle on where you need to land, making it all too easy to miss the platform or worse, a moving rope. The camera has a real problem smoothly following you at times, because it can very easily get caught on walls or other objects, leaving you with an awkward perspective of the action. All of these factors make controlling Sphinx feel clunky, which would have been mildly annoying in 2003 and completely uncomfortable to play today.

 

 

Which does raise the question: why wasn't the game more thoroughly modernized for this re-release? The game may not be unplayable in its current form, but there are significant areas that could have been improved, such as the long gaps between save points—a simple autosave system safety net would have made many of the harder portions of the game far less tedious. Re-releases can be a nice way for more obscure games like Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy to find an audience, but the game's flaws are only more noticeable in 2019.

 

Perhaps proving the point is the updated graphics—the only area of the game that was really changed for this re-release—which look great on a modern TV. The game's cartoony art style has also aged fairly well, particularly with the main characters whose loping movements are charmingly goofy. The environments feel a bit bland since it's all just stone and sand, but at least the characters and creatures have plenty of personality. The soundtrack is also a bit of a surprise delight, with plenty of fun (if somewhat generically Egyptian/Middle Eastern) songs, though you'll want to turn up the volume to actually hear the background music as the default settings make it a little too light.

 

 

For an adventure game, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy isn't too long. You tend to circle the same environments repeatedly as you unlock new dungeons and areas to explore, but even so the roughly 11-hour length might sneak up on you. There are side quests to occupy your time—most importantly, collecting Golden Ankh fragments to increase Sphinx's health—but the game still ends up feeling a bit sparse, and even doing every side quest won't add too much time or replay value.

 

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy was a charming GameCube title that quietly flew under the radar, and re-releasing it for the Switch seems like a good idea to help this mummy-based adventure uncover some new fans. Leaving so much of the game unchanged from its 2003 origins, however, will undoubtedly leave modern gamers cold. The rough edges of yesteryear are only more pronounced when played today and, despite some fun puzzles, the clunky combat and platforming found throughout the game leaves something to be desired—specifically a more thorough remastering. Fans of 3D adventure games will likely still appreciate the game's quirky charms, but anyone else probably won't mind leaving this one buried.

 

Rating: 6 out of 10 Mummies

[blcdude1]

25 minutes ago, Eliwood8 said:

Which does raise the question: why wasn't the game more thoroughly modernized for this re-release?

This is one of the side-effects of remasters replacing remakes.

 

I imagine it's all a matter of money: it's probably a whole lot cheaper to reuse the existing assets while upgrading the audio and visuals than it is to rebuild the entire game anew. I understand why companies do this, and it's less of an issue with more recent remasters, but in the case of older games, it does make make some design decisions all the more apparent and dated.

 

As an aside, while this game is $30 on Switch, the PC release is available for $15. Companies continue to apply the Nintendo Tax.

[Eliwood8]

Yeah it's pretty par for the course with re-releases, but unless the game is already a well-regarded classic I'd hope the developers would put more effort into updating it. THQNordic seems happy to just churn out re-releases of any IP they've acquired, though.

[blcdude1]

Which isn't too bad for Sphinx & The Cursed Mummy.

 

I distinctly remember, this game launched around the same time as Beyond Good & Evil. Both of these games wear their Zelda-inspiration on their sleeves and both, quite  frankly, under-performed commercially. I remember that both games were down to $20 within a few weeks of release, and I personal bought both at that $20 price point. Beyond Good & Evil was easily the better of the two, but Sphinx was still a fun romp.

 

If nothing else, it brings the IP to a new audience; though it does the now-defunct Eurocom no good. I remember seeing interviews with them, they had high hopes for this IP, especially considering they generally dealt with licensed products. They were hoping for a big, original hit with Sphinx, and it just didn't turn out that way.