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Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy (PS2)
6 years ago
So I have heard about this game before playing it, but I never played it when it came out back in 2003. I did however find a copy of it for very cheap at a thrift store so I got it. I just recently played through it and I want to talk about it. Especially if you wanna download it on Steam or on the Switch. =U
So the game is basically Legend of Zelda like. That's not really a bad thing as there are many games like Zelda. However this game has enough different about it to not make it carbon copy and to make it stand out.
Visually, even on the PS2, the game has aged pretty well at least in my opinion. The playable characters and NPC's have a nice design to them, not too realistic but not too cartoony, there is a nice balance. Heck there are even some anthro animal characters. >w> The environments also look pretty nice. Now there is an Egypt theme to the game and visual direction so a lot of the areas are sandy, stone, pyramids and temples, so in that regard the game can get a little bland in the visuals.
The game is also a decent length, maybe about 8-12 hours on a first playthrough. Since I was going for as much 100%ing as I could I got around 15 hours.
Overall if I were to give the game a superfluous number rating I'd give it a 7/10. So if you don't want to hear my gripes you can stop reading and accept the 7/10 score.
The game has issues, some of which weren't an issue for games of a similar nature on the consoles before it. (Mostly N64 since that is where most of my knowledge is. >_>)
1: THE SAVE SYSTEM. So this game, despite being Zelda-like, has save points akin to a classic RPG game. So let's say you save at the first save point in the game with one health Ankh remaining. (this game's version of Zelda hearts) After the save you go through a few cutscenes, get the sword, continue onto the next area only to die in the first battle getting a game over. Well those few minutes of gameplay, all gone, you have to repeat all of what you did after the save point. So all throughout this game you have to be VERY wary of this and either risk continuing on or backtrack all the back to the nearest save point. The game may not be that hard but it has it's share of BS, like...
2: THE SWORD COMBAT. You have a basic 3 hit combo, most of the time, sometimes the 3 hit combo doesn't work right and I am not sure why. =U Also after the first or second attack you can hold the attack button and your character does a spinning attack, but I never felt this to have much use at all. Also when you acquire the double jump you get a slam attack that is triggered after doing a double jump, once again this doesn't have much use. The reason being most of your attacks do basically 1 damage or MAYBE 1.5 or so as sometimes enemies die quicker, but again I couldn't figure out exactly what causes this. Most enemies will also be knocked over at the end of the 3 hit combo and when they are on the ground they have invincibility frames until they have fully stood up. Also most of the time you swing your sword in a diagonal arc from the bottom left of the character to the top right of the character. Well if you are dealing with smaller enemies this causes you to miss a lot as the attack goes right over the enemy. It's also worth mentioning that there is no lock on feature like in Zelda Ocarina of time, so a lot of times you have to just hope you attack the enemy. =U Not being able to lock on is also an issue because off...
3: THE CAMERA. A LOT of games have an issue where the camera will get stuck on walls, this game is no exception to that. The big issue is it gets stuck A LOT and I felt like I was fighting the camera as much as the clunky sword combat. =U It's also worth mentioning enemies can attack you from off camera. There is a "center camera" button but if the camera is stuck not much can be centered there. >_> Now it's not the worst camera I have experienced, but it certainly could have been better.
4: PLATFORMING: Now at a base level the platforming and jumping around wasn't too bad. The biggest issue I have is that you do NOT have a shadow directly under the character. This was something that Super Mario 64 had and if that was here I feel I would have fallen in MUCH less pits. Since there are many times where the depth perception is difficult to deal with I would often times either over or undershoot a floating and moving platform.
5: NO TURNING BACK MOMENTS. If there is one thing that is VERY annoying to me, especially in regards to achieving 100%, is when a game can lock you out of certain things. At various points in the game you play as the titular "Cursed Mummy." During his sections you can find some of the game's currency, this particular currency being ENTIRELY unique to the Mummy's areas. Getting this money can be fairly tedious so I didn't go well out of my way to collect all of it. WELL. There is a shop that only takes that money, and if you don't have enough you cannot buy all 2 of the Golden Ankh Pieces the shop sells. (Golden Ankh Pieces basically being heart pieces from Zelda) So if you have done the final Mummy section and don't have enough money to buy the upgrades well you are 100% screwed and cannot get these upgrades. Secondly once you collect the final "macguffin" the game tells you that if you take it to this one place there will be no turning back. Fair enough warning and certainly not ignored. But when they say you won't be coming back they are serious, after collecting everything I wanted to collect I went into the final area, saved before the door to the final boss and sure enough I was permanently stuck there at that save. I pity anyone who saved with one hit left because there is no way to heal in the final area either, and saves don't heal you. >_>
There are also certain sections that really "grinded my gears" and made for some miserable moments. There was one area where you had to carry a statue to a location to weigh down a switch. You CANNOT jump while holding this statue, and the switch is up a cliff. Nearby there are two moving pillars, they are moving up and down in a piston-like fashion. So what you need to do is to wait for Pillar#1 to be as low as it can be and throw the statue onto the pillar. If you're too close it won't work, if you're too far it won't work. Oh, and there is an infinitely respawning enemy nearby that will make you drop the statue if it hits you, so there's that too. >_> Even when you do get the statue onto Pillar#1 you now need to throw the statue onto Pillar#2. Here's the fun bit, the pillars are not in sync with each other so you have to wait for the right moment to throw, otherwise you miss and have to repeat step 1. >_> Oh yeah, this wonderful little section has to be done TWICE and is required for progression!
Now as much as I am harping on this game I did ultimately enjoy my experience. It's just there were certain things that if changed, altered or added it could have made this game so much better. So if you do choose to get this game just go in aware that it is not perfect and has some issues that may hinder the experience. It is $30 on the Switch eShop so if you want to get it be sure it's worth that price to you. Having played it I'd personally say no more than $20 but that's me. =U
So the game is basically Legend of Zelda like. That's not really a bad thing as there are many games like Zelda. However this game has enough different about it to not make it carbon copy and to make it stand out.
Visually, even on the PS2, the game has aged pretty well at least in my opinion. The playable characters and NPC's have a nice design to them, not too realistic but not too cartoony, there is a nice balance. Heck there are even some anthro animal characters. >w> The environments also look pretty nice. Now there is an Egypt theme to the game and visual direction so a lot of the areas are sandy, stone, pyramids and temples, so in that regard the game can get a little bland in the visuals.
The game is also a decent length, maybe about 8-12 hours on a first playthrough. Since I was going for as much 100%ing as I could I got around 15 hours.
Overall if I were to give the game a superfluous number rating I'd give it a 7/10. So if you don't want to hear my gripes you can stop reading and accept the 7/10 score.
The game has issues, some of which weren't an issue for games of a similar nature on the consoles before it. (Mostly N64 since that is where most of my knowledge is. >_>)
1: THE SAVE SYSTEM. So this game, despite being Zelda-like, has save points akin to a classic RPG game. So let's say you save at the first save point in the game with one health Ankh remaining. (this game's version of Zelda hearts) After the save you go through a few cutscenes, get the sword, continue onto the next area only to die in the first battle getting a game over. Well those few minutes of gameplay, all gone, you have to repeat all of what you did after the save point. So all throughout this game you have to be VERY wary of this and either risk continuing on or backtrack all the back to the nearest save point. The game may not be that hard but it has it's share of BS, like...
2: THE SWORD COMBAT. You have a basic 3 hit combo, most of the time, sometimes the 3 hit combo doesn't work right and I am not sure why. =U Also after the first or second attack you can hold the attack button and your character does a spinning attack, but I never felt this to have much use at all. Also when you acquire the double jump you get a slam attack that is triggered after doing a double jump, once again this doesn't have much use. The reason being most of your attacks do basically 1 damage or MAYBE 1.5 or so as sometimes enemies die quicker, but again I couldn't figure out exactly what causes this. Most enemies will also be knocked over at the end of the 3 hit combo and when they are on the ground they have invincibility frames until they have fully stood up. Also most of the time you swing your sword in a diagonal arc from the bottom left of the character to the top right of the character. Well if you are dealing with smaller enemies this causes you to miss a lot as the attack goes right over the enemy. It's also worth mentioning that there is no lock on feature like in Zelda Ocarina of time, so a lot of times you have to just hope you attack the enemy. =U Not being able to lock on is also an issue because off...
3: THE CAMERA. A LOT of games have an issue where the camera will get stuck on walls, this game is no exception to that. The big issue is it gets stuck A LOT and I felt like I was fighting the camera as much as the clunky sword combat. =U It's also worth mentioning enemies can attack you from off camera. There is a "center camera" button but if the camera is stuck not much can be centered there. >_> Now it's not the worst camera I have experienced, but it certainly could have been better.
4: PLATFORMING: Now at a base level the platforming and jumping around wasn't too bad. The biggest issue I have is that you do NOT have a shadow directly under the character. This was something that Super Mario 64 had and if that was here I feel I would have fallen in MUCH less pits. Since there are many times where the depth perception is difficult to deal with I would often times either over or undershoot a floating and moving platform.
5: NO TURNING BACK MOMENTS. If there is one thing that is VERY annoying to me, especially in regards to achieving 100%, is when a game can lock you out of certain things. At various points in the game you play as the titular "Cursed Mummy." During his sections you can find some of the game's currency, this particular currency being ENTIRELY unique to the Mummy's areas. Getting this money can be fairly tedious so I didn't go well out of my way to collect all of it. WELL. There is a shop that only takes that money, and if you don't have enough you cannot buy all 2 of the Golden Ankh Pieces the shop sells. (Golden Ankh Pieces basically being heart pieces from Zelda) So if you have done the final Mummy section and don't have enough money to buy the upgrades well you are 100% screwed and cannot get these upgrades. Secondly once you collect the final "macguffin" the game tells you that if you take it to this one place there will be no turning back. Fair enough warning and certainly not ignored. But when they say you won't be coming back they are serious, after collecting everything I wanted to collect I went into the final area, saved before the door to the final boss and sure enough I was permanently stuck there at that save. I pity anyone who saved with one hit left because there is no way to heal in the final area either, and saves don't heal you. >_>
There are also certain sections that really "grinded my gears" and made for some miserable moments. There was one area where you had to carry a statue to a location to weigh down a switch. You CANNOT jump while holding this statue, and the switch is up a cliff. Nearby there are two moving pillars, they are moving up and down in a piston-like fashion. So what you need to do is to wait for Pillar#1 to be as low as it can be and throw the statue onto the pillar. If you're too close it won't work, if you're too far it won't work. Oh, and there is an infinitely respawning enemy nearby that will make you drop the statue if it hits you, so there's that too. >_> Even when you do get the statue onto Pillar#1 you now need to throw the statue onto Pillar#2. Here's the fun bit, the pillars are not in sync with each other so you have to wait for the right moment to throw, otherwise you miss and have to repeat step 1. >_> Oh yeah, this wonderful little section has to be done TWICE and is required for progression!
Now as much as I am harping on this game I did ultimately enjoy my experience. It's just there were certain things that if changed, altered or added it could have made this game so much better. So if you do choose to get this game just go in aware that it is not perfect and has some issues that may hinder the experience. It is $30 on the Switch eShop so if you want to get it be sure it's worth that price to you. Having played it I'd personally say no more than $20 but that's me. =U
However, a recent re-release I can recall with missable stuff is Tales of Vesperia, there's certain sidequests that are missable especially the post game dungeon, which is baffling to me. Cause that locks you out of extra content especially for the re-release, which has MORE post game content.