Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy (PS2 Review)

Gamers are a jaded lot. On one hand, you can hear them constantly demanding for new gaming genres and unique playing experiences. However, when it comes time to put their money where their mouth is, you can usually see them picking up the sequels to previously released games from years gone by or falling into the hype machine to be ground up like hamburger because they have followed the trail of bread crumbs left by the mass media. Then, after a few months, they return to their soapbox to clamor on about the failings of the industry since all of the few unique titles have disappeared from the retail shelves with extremely poor sales.

 

2003 had a tremendous amount of new and original titles released that simply did not go anywhere in the sales department. Two of the biggest would have to be Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil. Both of these received critical acclaim from media sites across the spectrum and were serious Game of the Year contenders that did incredibly bad during the holiday season. But these weren’t the only outstanding or original titles to be snubbed by the consumer. EyeToy: Play had some success, but disappeared into a wisp of smoke quickly. Namco’s I-Ninja was another highly rated title that didn’t get the respect it deserved by the masses. Even games that had big marketing campaigns behind them, like Disgaea, Disaster Report and Primal were left sitting on store shelves while the multitude of numbered sequels outsold them in droves.

Another game that had a big push that went nowhere was Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. THQ had a tremendous amount of development difficulties bringing this game to retail. First, the game went through numerous title changes during its creation, which always makes things difficult for average gamers to keep track of a title’s progression through the development cycle. Secondly, THQ released a demo of the game well before many of the programming issues, mostly camera problems, were ironed out which probably helped to scare away many of their promising sales. Finally, Sphinx was released during the same two-week period that SOCOM II, True Crime: Streets of LA, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King all came to market. With these three things going against it, there is no surprise that the game quickly slipped into oblivion. However, the really important matter is did gamers miss out on a diamond in the rough or just another so-so release. There is only one way to find out, just read on brave explorer and see what you may have missed out on.

If you aren’t familiar with the story background, let me give you just a small taste so I don’t ruin the interesting storytelling ability of the game. This is a tale of ancient Egypt not told in the history books. Long ago, there was the formation of the Egyptian Universal Empire that joined multiple worlds by means of Solar Disc portals, similar to the portals found in Stargate SG-1. However, the Empire fell upon hard times and the magical crowns that held the portals together were scattered and lost. The civilizations on the many worlds became separated and the memory of the other worlds has faded with the passage of time. The legend says that there are two opposing forces trying to recover the crowns and unite the Empire again. Osiris, a force of all that is good and righteous, is seeking to repair what has been sundered while Set is looking to reunite the crowns for his own evil intentions. Now it is up to Sphinx, and the young Tutankhamen, to bring the portals back under the control of the forces of light before they can be used to rain darkness and destruction upon the many worlds on which they exist.

For players fed up with over-simplistic puzzles or seemingly unnecessary backtracking to find out-of-place items to put into even more out-of-place statues then you are in for a delightful treat. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy will tax your brainpower with little to no hints at all for how a gamer is to progress though the many levels. Although this may be refreshing for the gamer who thinks outside of the box, it may become frustrating to those players used to cookie-cutter styled games of this nature. Personally, I found this to be a refreshing challenge and looked forward to being able to sit down and have to actually work my way though all of the beautifully designed levels.

The motif setting of ancient Egypt is recreated to a tee. The use of various vibrant colors, along with all of the lavish backgrounds, really helps to mentally transport the player to a land lost in time. Everything, from the stone pyramids to the vast desert environments, brings a gamer into a unique mindset and keeps the interest level peaked throughout the entire adventure. Levels are chock full of tiny tidbits to enchant even the most jaded player and progression through the different environments is logical and calculating. Eurocom and THQ get an A+ for their effort. Between the shimmer of the desert heat and the water effects, you might be wondering if you haven’t actually gone back in time to experience what it was like to live in the time when gods walked the Earth.

As good as the visuals are in Sphinx, the audio portents are on the opposite side of the spectrum. The language of all the characters is nothing more than a collection of grunts and twittering, with their actual conversations being displayed in text boxes. With the elaborate character design, one would imagine that THQ would have completed the package and gave their creations some wonderful personality through the spoken word. Even though this is a minor complaint, in this day and age of gaming, it is one not easily forgiven. Furthermore, players are subjected to the bare-bones stereo/mono selections instead of meeting the current Dolby Pro Logic II minimum standards of today. Neither of these are the death of Sphinx, but it would be nice to have a gaming company give players all of the available options when they give a title such an extravagant media push.

Even though Eurocom did a great job in repairing the very broken third-person camera from what I experienced in their earlier demo, there still are difficulties in keeping track of your surroundings and the multitudes of baddies that Sphinx will face as he works his way through the game. This does present some minor frustrating controller-tossing moments, but on the whole, there is little to complain about compared to other games of this same genre. The overall learning curve is delicate and gamers will be able to handle the more challenging creatures and ingenious environmental layouts as they progress through the game at its designed pace. The actual length of the game is more than acceptable, and players will have over 20 hours of playing time to enjoy their trip into ancient Egypt.

Playing through Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy I was under the impression that I was playing two separate games at the same time. Most of the time, you are assuming the personage of Sphinx, a young budding hero in search of saving the world from the dark grasp of evil. Just like most modern-day characters, his arsenal of moves and abilities is quite impressive. Not only can he take on multiple creatures with his trusty weapon, but also has the ability to capture enemy monsters with special beetles to be used in aiding him in his quest. He also can swim, climb and jump right from the start of the game with additional abilities to be acquired as the game progresses.

However, just when you start to get into the flow of how Sphinx moves and grooves his way through the game, you get to take an intermission break and discover how to win friends and influence people with your other persona, the Cursed Mummy. The boy king, Tutankhamen, meets with some evil of his own and is changed into a shambling undead creature. His main goal is to recover the fragments of his soul that have been sealed away in Canopic Vases so that he can once again return to the land of the living and challenge the evil Akhenaten for the right to regain his lost throne.

Although Sphinx is the powerhouse of the tag-team combo, I would have to say that it is the levels with the Mummy that are the better of the two. Since he has already been killed, and is the walking undead, there is nothing available to render the bandaged hero unable to continue. In fact, you get to put the Mummy through his paces by using environmental hazards to your advantage to open inaccessible areas. For example, you come upon a switch behind a wooden barrier, it’s time to set your character aflame and have him burn away the obstacle. The Mummy’s mannerisms and reactions to being squashed by large rocks, set on fire and even electrocuted are wonderfully hilarious and put the title over the top where the fun factor is concerned.

Both Sphinx and the Mummy acquire addition abilities as the game moves forward, so there is some backtracking through previously explored levels to acquire a 100 percent completion, but this is less like work and more of a reward for sticking with the game compared to other titles that I’ve played. There also is a decent scattering on mini games within the different levels, including some rather extensive side quests, to keep this game actively spinning in your gaming machine for an extended period of time. However, there are no other real reasons to keep on playing once you have completed your quest, as nothing new gets unlocked when you complete the title the first time through, nor is there any online mode at all.

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy brought a pleasant surprise to this gamer’s experience. Having relied on the unpleasant experience of the incredibly difficult camera in the demo, I was expecting the worst and got blind-sided by something rather interesting. The Mummy still does a great job of stealing the show from the true main character, nevertheless, you aren’t forced to trudge level after level with a substandard game when Sphinx is center-stage. The intricate level design, along with the stunning graphics, brings the best to the table anyone could hope for from a sleeper title. Although this will in no way surpass such grand platformers like Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter, you certainly could do much, much worse when looking for something fresh and challenging. 

Difficulty: 8

Control: 9

Audio: 6

Visuals: 9

Replayability: 5

Overall: 7.9