Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (2003)

I picked this up to bridge the gap between finishing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, and the release of Link's Awakening. I'm not exactly sure why I became interested in the game, but after such a behemoth like FFXII I needed something nice and relaxing to play, and a 3D platformer was the perfect medicine to my gaming fever.

It actually popped up on Gamestop.com as a used game at my local store, so considering I'd have a week to try it out, I went for it, and got a nice discount to boot!

What followed was some terrific platforming from THQ Nordic, and as I close in on the ending of the game, I can easily say that Sphinx is definitely one of those hidden gems from the days when the likes of Jak & Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Prince of Persia, God of War, and the rest of the swaths of 3d games were king. Of course, the question is, "how did it age?"

I don't care about graphics, but I'll throw it out there first and foremost - the game looks great. Nothing to complain about there.

I do care about sound design, and the music in Sphinx is excellent. I do wish, however, that some voice acting was added into this remastered release. One thing that struck me as odd was just how silent and uncomfortable the cutscenes are without any sort of sound effects.

Banjo-Kazooie had garbled sounds for voices, and it worked - if you mute the game during conversations, you experience uncomfortable silence akin to a blind date gone awry. It also was what I consider to be a huge source of the charm found in the Banjo titles.

Speaking of charm, despite the aforementioned audio (or lack thereof...), there is still loads of charm present in the cutscenes and overall atmosphere of the game. The game's antagonists are your typical slap-sticky goofballs, the closest comparison I can draw is with Jafar and Iago from Aladdin. But the NPC animations and the wigglyness of the movement all wraps up a very fun game that harkens back to the charm of the Playstation 2 and even Nintendo 64 days of gaming.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, you find yourself controlling not one, but two protagonists with different abilities: Sphinx, and Prince Tutenkhamen, who has been turned into a mummy. They exist on the same timeline and so, as you control Sphinx and gradually find parts of Tutenkhamen's soul, you are transported into the Castle of Luxor where you will uncover new information and tools, which are transported back to Sphinx to further his expedition.

What separates Sphinx from other 3D games of its day are the level of complexity in the puzzles. The overworld is fairly large and contains different structures set in a fictional version of ancient Egypt. As you learn new tools and acquire new abilities, you can explore the levels deeper, find secrets, do side quests, and of course, progress the main storyline.

Combat is one of the very few areas of Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy where the game suffers. It does feel at times like the combat was added as a mere afterthought, which is unfortunate, because most of this issue comes from the poor camera angles.

The lack of save points in logical locations also should have been addressed by implementation of either a) more save points, or b) auto-saves before transitioning into another room.

Minor issue aside, this is a terrific port and I'm glad THQ Nordic allowed me to experience this in a modern, portable way.

I give it 5 Bags of Popcorn and 2 cups of soda.

Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy isn’t a forgotten masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean it deserves to be forgotten. Taking a lot of cues from Zelda, Sphinx is a solid action-adventure title with some interesting ideas, yet seems to be lacking the vital ingredients to make it a truly memorable experience.

The sections where you play as the Mummy are fantastic. He is a delightful creation – the character animation has a real slapstick charm and the puzzles are well executed. The Mummy is invincible, most of the puzzles requiring you to cause him bodily harm (set him on fire, electrocute him, flatten him, etc.) to progress. There is a great running joke that when the Mummy completes his task he begins to proudly stride away before collapsing to the ground dead. It’s a great gag and the game could have done with more of this darker humour or really any personality at all.

Unfortunately the Mummy sections only make up roughly 30% of the game. For the rest of the time you will play as Sphinx. Sphinx is your generic silent protagonist Link knock-off, and his sections mostly ape Zelda with mixed results. Due to the Egyptian setting most of the environments are vast desert landscapes or cavernous temples. These look great, but other than the small city of Abydos, which sits atop an electrified body of water, they tend to lack variety and blur together. The sense of scale, particularly of the temples, is nice but doesn’t feel as lived-in or atmospheric as a great Zelda title. It doesn’t help that all the NPCs are bland and forgettable.

The combat is a mixed bag. You’ll mostly be doing the same 3-hit combo again and again, interspersed with the occasional jump attack. These work well enough for the most part, but due to the lack of a lock-on feature or evasive roll, it can feel kind of clunky at times. There is no voice-acting, which seems at odds with its cartoonish design, but considering how painful a lot of voice-acting for these types of games can be, it is probably a blessing.

Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy is one of the few original IPs developed by Eurocom and it is obvious they poured their hearts and souls into it. They have made a few decent licensed games (Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds) as well as a bunch of others that look terrible and don’t interest me enough to ever bother checking out. Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy isn’t a great game, but it is one I enjoyed a lot and still felt compelled to finish. I don’t regret the time I spent with it, and if you are looking for a solid title to waste some time with you could probably do a lot worse.