Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy

"My two best friends"

My previous experiences with THQ have been everything but fun. The company came across as some sort of sick joke, picking up every kid-oriented license imaginable (from Rugrats to Toy Story) and turning them into a test of gaming endurance. While they certainly haven't given up on that avenue, THQ has been doing much better lately with newer and fresher material, and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is testament to this.

Graphics:
Ugh. Stupid load times. The Wind Waker presented a whole world without even so much as a hitch in fluidity, but Sphinx gives you load time after load time. I hate to complain, but it really broke up the flow of the game. Setting this aside, the graphics are amazing. While textures and models are excusable at best, the animation is some of the best I have seen in a game. Take the time to watch the different walking animations for the mummy; you will be impressed. The framerate also holds up, but several obvious glitches make themselves known throughout. What new franchise doesn't have a few of those?

Sound:
Some games can get away with no voice acting, but others can't. In Sphinx, the lack of voices really hurts the overall quality. It leaves the game feeling empty. Everything else in this department is wonderful, though. The music score is very dramatic and perfect for the Egyptian, fantasy settings. I am surprised how much work went into the soundtrack. Some songs are only played once in the entire game, yet they were given the same care and attention as the more prominent melodies.

Gameplay:
I love a good adventure game, and that's exactly what Sphinx is. It plays very much like the Legend of Zelda but does enough to set itself apart. The biggest difference is that this game splits into two parts: playing as Sphinx and playing as the Cursed Mummy. While Sphinx's sequences are more open and action-oriented (and take up the majority of the plot), it's playing the mummy where the game truly shines. This is pure puzzle genius, some of the most creative work you'll see in a platformer. The game also seems to know exactly when you are getting bored with an area, because it evenly dishes out new access to other parts of the world. Despite a rather slow start, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy offers an engrossing balance of gameplay.

Controls:
What I love most about this game is that you can jump. The 3D Zelda games have resorted to the auto-jump feature, so it's nice to see this freedom return in a similar adventure. The button mapping, on the other hand, makes no sense at all. The game likes you to use the D-pad to cycle through menus and options and use the Y and B buttons in places where the A button makes much more sense. Needless to say, confusion results. The most irksome thing about the game, though, is how the characters are only programmed to grab onto certain ledges. You never know exactly where you're suppose to make the next jump. Sometimes I'd completely overlook the solution to a puzzle, because I didn't think I could grab a ledge.

Frustration:
Sphinx relies statues to save game progress, but these are placed at inconvenient intervals. There would be times when I died and hadn't saved for a while, and I would have to repeat almost an hour of gameplay to catch up (including a boss battle). Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is also filled with a lot of cheap enemies, monsters that go through periods of immunity when nothing hurts them. It's so irritating.

Lasting Appeal:
Sphinx can be beat in about 14+ hours. Not extremely long but sufficient. It leaves you wanting more, if anything. There are some additional mini-games and fetch quests and item collecting to do, but because of the "save point of no return," there's really not much left once you reach the end. It would be kind of fun to go back and play the Mummy's levels again since they're so darn clever, but that means trudging through a rather tepid beginning.

Overall:
This is one of the most well-balanced games I've ever played, from the way the world is set up to the random switches between action adventure and brilliant platforming. The game has some serious technical issues, but it still feels like a lot of care went into crafting something original but altogether familiar. It's a shame we will never see a sequel, though the ending sets one up. This game didn't do very well, and it's all your fault. While you were playing Halo, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy came and went. Rest in peace.

Points:
+ Platforming adventure
+ 2-character story
+ Great balance
+ Clever puzzles
-- Tedious load times
-- Save points
-- Selective ledge grabbing

Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/04, Updated 10/07/05