Movie: The Mummy (2017)

Game: The Mummy Demastered (2017)

Summary: In the most technical sense the movie and game follow a similar plot. Princess Ahmanet has been resurrected as a mummy and wants to end the world as we know it. The monster hunting organization Prodigium run by Dr. Henry Jekyll is duty bound to stop her.

Differences: The utterly failed first attempt at beginning Universal's "Dark Universe" starts with the strong premise of someone accidentally releasing Princess Ahmanet from her ancient prison in modern day Iraq. That's basically where the similarities end for both mediums. The movie goes on from there with some confusing rubbish plot that fails to utilize its best realized element, Sophia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet. The game on the other hand goes with bare bones plot of the player as a Prodigium agent sent to take down Ahmanet by any means necessary. The game was made by Way Forward Studios and is designed like a typical Metroidvania title that encourages exploration, earning or finding new abilities, and backtracking. A neat game mechanic used here is that when your character dies, your new player character has to defeat the reanimated corpse of the old agent to get their weapons and health back. The giant boss fights are fun too.

Verdict: The Mummy (2017) epically fell on its face with a slip-shot script and stopping its plot dead for a long period of time to info dump about Prodigium. Sophia Boutella's Princess Ahmanet is barely present for the proceedings which is a real shame. The Mummy Demastered on the other hand is a stripped down Metroidvania title that doesn't reinvent the wheel but is a load of fun and succeeds admirably where the film fails.

Movie: 1.5/5

Game: 4.5/5

As a game, Mummy Demastered is void of originality. It is 70% Metroid, 20% Castlevania and 10% Contra. As reference points you could most certainly do worse and to be honest, this game does a great job of emulating its influences. WayForward knows how to make retro-inspired games, as a matter of fact that's their bread and butter: Duck Tales Remastered, Double Dragon Neon, Contra 4, Mighty Switch Force, River City Girls, etc... The studio has made a name for itself remastering, imitating, and making sequels to classic 8-bit and 16-bit games.

The other thing they are known for is making solid franchise games, which is unique in itself because generally games based on movies/cartoons are frankly not known for their quality, as a matter of fact in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, as a general rule, your best bet was to avoid them at all cost (Capcom/Konami ones excluded). Their successes in that realm include Aliens Infestation, Adventure Time, Scorpion King: Sword of Osiris, and now The Mummy Demastered. The movie itself might have been a massive flop and the nail in the coffin for the Universal Monsters Universe that had been planned before release, but for WayForward it was just another opportunity to flex their Metroidvania muscles.

It's a short game 5-7 hours depending on how many secrets you go after, but that is perfect, because you do not have time to get bored and sometimes short and sweet is exactly what you want in world riddled with 100 hour + AAA games. Solid level design and gameplay, satisfying shooting and weapon upgrades, as well as power upgrades, combined with 16-bit pixel art that will remind you of the best Metroid and Castlevania GBA entries.

Liked:

• Lovely 16-bit Pixel Art
• Fun Giant Boss fights
• Super fun weapons (shout-out to plasma gun and Flamethrower)
• Perfect Length, Never Gets Tedious
• Satisfying sound design and music
• Scratches that Metroid itch.

Disliked:

• Very straightforward, you always know where to go and even secrets are barely hidden, however, it also prevents the game from veering into backtracking hell and becoming a slog. A happy medium would have been nice.

8.2/10

I reached the end credits in The Mummy Demastered today and I can see why it captured people's imagination, there's much more detail than expected in a licensed tie-in and it does throw a few novel twists on the Metroidvania genre - but I found those twists to be its downfall. The momentum-based long jump is clever, and my inner game designer appreciates that some puzzles can be solved early with perfectly timed jumps, but jumping puzzles and knockback are a bad combination. I had a lot of frustration, and I don't think the fact that momentum carries between rooms is intuitive.

The unskippable cutscenes also grated on me to no end. Ammit was a massive struggle until I managed to reach a bandoleer and health upgrade. That fight drags on for way too long. Going through three phases of foreplay only to be annihilated when you're no longer given anything to grapple onto is a huge waste of time, I was clocking 10+ minutes a run. This seemed to take me significantly longer than average, and I also found it to be a very challenging game - which isn't a sentiment I found to be prevalent in the critical reception. Maybe it's the simple fact that I never played much 2D Metroid.

Overall, it's certainly ambitious and I had fun exploring... but too often I wanted to game to knock it off. Constant enemy gauntlets combined with the bizarre decision not to restore your health at save points turned the game into a frustrating grind - and while I appreciate creating an internal logic behind fast travel, not being able to jump directly in and out of the lower areas of the map gets annoying. Too much is self-indulgent, overdesigned, and determinedly bucks conventions that exist for good reason.

Finishing the game should mean I liked it, but frustration is the biggest sentiment I'm taking away - and past a certain point I think I mainly continued due to sunk cost fallacy. Compared to Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, which I also played recently, Mummy Demastered attempts a much more innovative spin on the Metroidvania genre; but I had more fun with the former, hands down. Their spin on Souls - losing all of your upgrades and abilities on death - can create situations where it's nearly impossible to reach your corpse late in the game. The game loves enemy spam. Infinite spawners are a constant, unwelcome companion.

Tension was definitely created, but it wasn't the right sort of tension. With no way to fully refill health outside of new upgrade packs, grinding was the only way to keep my health bar topped up - and that tedium was completely gratuitous. At times, it would have been faster and easier to just die outside the save room and then kill my ghost - which is an absurd place to be in. Don't pretend HP is a scarce resource when it isn't.

I really detest the lack of basic QoL. So much of my time felt like I was doing contrived things to avoid being sent into hades by the overly-punishing death mechanic. Games shouldn't be a chore, and this one was for me. Despite the significant effort that went into the game, it's obviously a labor of love, I can't recommend The Mummy Demastered to anyone who doesn't have a high tolerance for contrived difficulty.

Mummy Demastered (Nintendo Switch)

Opening Act: 6/10

Players are dropped into the opening chapter relatively rapidly and learn the game mechanics of their player who is a member of Prodigum an organization that stands against evil (apparently with a para-military arm that you are part of). As you move through an area previously explored by a now wiped-out squad you’ll learn the gameplay mechanics and after a few surprises during your investigation you will get introduced to the game’s combat system.

Gameplay Loop: 9/10

The game plays like other metroidvanias

1. Explore to defeat monsters, find items, and defeat bosses
2. On occasion you will acquire a weapon or new ability that will expand your ability to explore even more areas
3. Repeat the loop until reaching the end of the game

Despite the gameplay loop being simple metroidvania mechanic the game gets high score 9/10 here because back-tracking is not heavily required and the exporation feels pretty natural. Weapons and larger health bar acquired along the way also make backtracking more fun if you do decide to go exploring for those additional health upgrades and other items. Bosses can also be challenging but have learnable patterns, so if you memorize this and can play the game reasonably well, it should go smoothly.

Hand and Friendliness: 3/10

The game does require precise inputs and platforming during exploration and bosses.

Story: 5/10

The story is loosely based on the Mummy film from 2017 where the Mummy invades London, but the game plot is simpler and more straight forward than the movie and the two are only loosely related. So, if you have never seen the movie that won’t affect your gameplay experience at all, but it could be fun playing the game and later catching up on the movie just for the fun of it.

Sound: 5/10

Soundtrack has creepy and tense ambient feel in most areas and feels appropriate. Gun sound effects are appropriate and sound good as well. One draw back is that boss music will sound and feel repetitive and has a really short loop, and could get annoying. Especially if you are taking your time with the boss (doing lots of dodging etc), For those situations you can dial back the music in the sound settings though. Overall good sound experience.

Overall Experience: 6/10 = Recommended (Worth the time)

Overall the game plays great, and feels like “Metroid with more guns”, it’s inexpensive, and doesn’t take too many hours to play through. It’s memorable and fun, highly recommended if you like the metroidvania genre of games.

1. The game doesn’t function
5. You may like it better than me
6. Recommended (Worth the time)
7. Highly Recommended (Fun)
8. Must-play (Fun plus unique)
9. Game-changing for the genre/Legendary/Enshrined
10. It feels like the 1st play through of A favorite game…