A non-mobile movie tie-in video game is a pretty uncommon sight these days, let alone one that's a critically well recieved Metroidvania from WayForward of Shantae fame. I love me some Metroidvanias, so I picked it up for $14 when it was on sale this Halloween. I finally sat down and finished it yesterday and it was a very alright game Xp . I finished it in just under 4 hours with no deaths.
One of the main draws of this game is the fairly unique death mechanic. Because you're not a named character and just some faceless agent, when you die you are DEAD, as far the story is concerned. A new agent has to come in and take your place, and the old dead agent is now a victim of the Mummy's curse and you'll need to take them down the next time you go through that area. Maybe I was just trying not to die a bit too much, but I didn't really think the game was particularly hard, as I managed to do a no-deaths run of the game my first time through despite never seeing any footage of it before playing it, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm far from the best at Metroidvanias despite how much I like them. The death mechanic is neat, but I can only really give a hearsay description of it having never experienced it myself Xp . However, on a related note, because you're a faceless procession of soldiers, the game doesn't have any named characters or actual characters of any description. The story is basically non-existant short of a very bare-bones "go kill evil Mummy" plot. It's serviceable, but it's another mark against this game in an era where there are so many good Metroidvanias out there with excellent narratives.
The game plays like a WayForward take on Metroid. You don't have a melee weapon like Shantae's hair (the only Shantae game I've played is the first one that was on DSiWare that I thought was pretty bad, for the record), but you have a rifle with unlimited ammo that you can fire in 8 directions. The only issue with this is that your rifle bullets are kinda weak but also very small projectiles, and given that the spaces you're in are quite cramped, the enemies are often fairly small and/or quick as well as decently tanky, and fighting enemies is a real pain quite often. The most difficult part of the game isn't the bosses, it's the really annoying (but fairly low number of) enemy types throughout the game. Like Metroid has missiles for more damage, you can find new guns to use that use ammo enemies drop, and those guns are generally way better than your infinite-ammo peashooter. The combat is alright, but I thought it was just okay considering all the other great 2D run-and-gun action games out there that have such less frustrating enemy design and placement.
The world design is a bit odd, but I think that has to do with how your character moves. The corridors you go down feel really claustrophobic, but not in an anxiety-inducing way, but more in a "these are annoying to navigate" kind of way. You're constantly hitting your head trying to jump around because of how tall your character is, and the placement of platforms in some of the larger rooms had me retreading them quite often to go back up and do it again because I bumped my head on the ceiling. You can find extra bandoleers (I guess your soldier just wears dozens of them eventually? XD) just like missile tanks and extra med kits just like energy tanks around the world to increase your max ammo (for all weapons) and health (by 99, exactly like Metroid), but this game has no hidden walls that I could find. If you can see a room to get into, you can get into it. You dont' need to spend time whacking at every wall you see hoping it'll be hiding a secret, which is kind of a nice change of pace in a Metroidvania for once. The level design becomes more managable once you get a few power ups, but even then its still quite frustrating because of the nature of those power ups (you never get a wall-jump or a double-jump, unfortunately :/ ).
The last thing I wanna mention is the Switch port of the game. This game runs pretty badly on Switch. It's a quite nice-looking pixel-art design, but all the moving backgrounds combined with the moving enemies on screen make the framerate stutter like CRAZY very often, which is a bit of a problem in an action game like this as you can imagine. It's never a problem with bosses, as screens don't usually scroll in most boss fights, but it makes the annoying enemy types that much more annoying when your button presses are lagging behind a stuttering framerate. Regardless, the fact that the enemy types are so annoying, the platforming can be so irritating, and there is actually NO WAY to heal your health other than picking up drops from enemies or picking up another med kit/E-Tank, means the difficult of the game feels more artificial than legitimate. The game WANTS you to die because it wants you to see the neat death mechanic, but it doesn't feel its doing it in regards to legitimate challenge so much as it is purposefully clumsy game design.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. The Mummy: Demastered isn't a bad game, but it's a very underwhelming game for the gaming ecosystem it exists in. As a 4-hour Metroidvania on the same system that sports Hollow Knight, it is a really tough sell at its normal MSRP of $20 when you factor in its clunky design, bad port job, and non-existent story. You can do a lot better with your $20 on Switch if you're looking for a Metroidvania or really a good indie game in general. This game is an interesting novelty as a good movie tie-in from 2017, but not a game that is a must-play by any standard other than that.
One of the main draws of this game is the fairly unique death mechanic. Because you're not a named character and just some faceless agent, when you die you are DEAD, as far the story is concerned. A new agent has to come in and take your place, and the old dead agent is now a victim of the Mummy's curse and you'll need to take them down the next time you go through that area. Maybe I was just trying not to die a bit too much, but I didn't really think the game was particularly hard, as I managed to do a no-deaths run of the game my first time through despite never seeing any footage of it before playing it, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm far from the best at Metroidvanias despite how much I like them. The death mechanic is neat, but I can only really give a hearsay description of it having never experienced it myself Xp . However, on a related note, because you're a faceless procession of soldiers, the game doesn't have any named characters or actual characters of any description. The story is basically non-existant short of a very bare-bones "go kill evil Mummy" plot. It's serviceable, but it's another mark against this game in an era where there are so many good Metroidvanias out there with excellent narratives.
The game plays like a WayForward take on Metroid. You don't have a melee weapon like Shantae's hair (the only Shantae game I've played is the first one that was on DSiWare that I thought was pretty bad, for the record), but you have a rifle with unlimited ammo that you can fire in 8 directions. The only issue with this is that your rifle bullets are kinda weak but also very small projectiles, and given that the spaces you're in are quite cramped, the enemies are often fairly small and/or quick as well as decently tanky, and fighting enemies is a real pain quite often. The most difficult part of the game isn't the bosses, it's the really annoying (but fairly low number of) enemy types throughout the game. Like Metroid has missiles for more damage, you can find new guns to use that use ammo enemies drop, and those guns are generally way better than your infinite-ammo peashooter. The combat is alright, but I thought it was just okay considering all the other great 2D run-and-gun action games out there that have such less frustrating enemy design and placement.
The world design is a bit odd, but I think that has to do with how your character moves. The corridors you go down feel really claustrophobic, but not in an anxiety-inducing way, but more in a "these are annoying to navigate" kind of way. You're constantly hitting your head trying to jump around because of how tall your character is, and the placement of platforms in some of the larger rooms had me retreading them quite often to go back up and do it again because I bumped my head on the ceiling. You can find extra bandoleers (I guess your soldier just wears dozens of them eventually? XD) just like missile tanks and extra med kits just like energy tanks around the world to increase your max ammo (for all weapons) and health (by 99, exactly like Metroid), but this game has no hidden walls that I could find. If you can see a room to get into, you can get into it. You dont' need to spend time whacking at every wall you see hoping it'll be hiding a secret, which is kind of a nice change of pace in a Metroidvania for once. The level design becomes more managable once you get a few power ups, but even then its still quite frustrating because of the nature of those power ups (you never get a wall-jump or a double-jump, unfortunately :/ ).
The last thing I wanna mention is the Switch port of the game. This game runs pretty badly on Switch. It's a quite nice-looking pixel-art design, but all the moving backgrounds combined with the moving enemies on screen make the framerate stutter like CRAZY very often, which is a bit of a problem in an action game like this as you can imagine. It's never a problem with bosses, as screens don't usually scroll in most boss fights, but it makes the annoying enemy types that much more annoying when your button presses are lagging behind a stuttering framerate. Regardless, the fact that the enemy types are so annoying, the platforming can be so irritating, and there is actually NO WAY to heal your health other than picking up drops from enemies or picking up another med kit/E-Tank, means the difficult of the game feels more artificial than legitimate. The game WANTS you to die because it wants you to see the neat death mechanic, but it doesn't feel its doing it in regards to legitimate challenge so much as it is purposefully clumsy game design.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. The Mummy: Demastered isn't a bad game, but it's a very underwhelming game for the gaming ecosystem it exists in. As a 4-hour Metroidvania on the same system that sports Hollow Knight, it is a really tough sell at its normal MSRP of $20 when you factor in its clunky design, bad port job, and non-existent story. You can do a lot better with your $20 on Switch if you're looking for a Metroidvania or really a good indie game in general. This game is an interesting novelty as a good movie tie-in from 2017, but not a game that is a must-play by any standard other than that.