The Mummy Demastered

Product was provided by WayForward and Universal Studios

Nintendo Switch Version

There’s a Clocktower level with Medusa Head like Crows……..Nuff said. Go out and buy this right now!!!

Well that’s atleast what I would like to say without giving much more context to this masterpiece of a game, but that’s why you’re here for my review because you want the context right? Well with al things being said; this game is a certified masterpiece that was actually heavily influenced by DoctorM64’s brilliant AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) that was unfortunately taken down by Nintendo prior to Metroid Seamus Returns was announced. Given that this was very heavily influenced by that said game there are 2 other games which this game also draws inspiration from: Castlevania, or more specifically Symphony of The Night, as well as Contra 4 (also made by WayForward) and surprisingly Demon/Dark Souls. Now I know many of you are wondering how this is even possible and I’m just gonna say because it is. This game has the perfect blend of Metroidvania style exploration with the run and gun action of Contra that just simply….works and works so well that this game ranks up there with those amazing games.

The plot of the game flows alongside the movie however you wont find any of Tom Cruise’s likeness in the game as he doesn’t allow his image or likeness in any medium other than movies for some reason. So that being said you play as one of the soldiers of the organization Prodigium that is tasked with looking into and eventually stopping the devastation that Princess Ahmanet is causing leading up to an eventual fight with the God of Death. You are tasked with exploring the marked areas on your map which looks Point for point similar to Metroid and Castlevania that is complete with all the nooks and crannies that series vets love and also has a set of collectible medallions (50 total) that can be collected leading to something special should you collect them all. The different weapons and abilities you gain are very much akin to Metroid and Symphony of the Night in that they different abilities grant you either increased mobility and maneuverability (such as the running speed increase that’s point for point similar to Metroid hyper boots upgrade) or increased ammo capacity, health, and even damage resistance . This game takes all the right cues from the franchises that it is inspired by to give you a complete package. Ammo as well as health are gained in the same fashion as they are in Metroid by defeating enemies and gathering the red orbs for health and ammo icons for the respective weapons for more ammo. When you gain a new weapon, relic, or upgrade: the music played harkens back to Metroid’s which is a delight to hear.

Now lets talk on something I said that may have you curious, I said before that this game is also drawing inspiration from the Souls series by From Software and now I’m going to say why. When you die, and trust me you will die a lot, you lose all items, weapons, relics, and abilities that you have gathered. Let that sink in……Now this may seem like a bummer but here’s the clincher, your dead agent then becomes possessed by Princess Ahmanet so when the game reloads from your last saved checked point (which are thankfully very forgiving and very near where you died) you are given a new agent with nothing other than what you started the game with and are tasked to go out and kill the former agent in order to not only see them off but also to gain back everything that you had up to that point. This is the first time that I have ever seen a MetroidVania ever pull off this feat which to me was truly a marvel of a mechanic and perfectly fits into the narrative plot of this game. Now here’s another thing that I find cool, if that dead agent or any of the other enemies kill you then you will have to face not only the current dead agent but also any other dead agents that appear should you continue to die and they are marked on the map too.

Now when it comes to controls the game utilizes a majority of the buttons on your controller, I reviewed the Nintendo Switch version, So that means Y is your shoot, X cycles through your 3 standard weapons, A is your dodge roll mechanic (well at-least until much later in the game), B is jump, R uses grenades, and ZL & ZR allow aim locking (8-way shooting). The game gives you a standard rifle akin to the basic rifle found in Contra 4 as well as the basic blaster that you start off any Metroid game with which has unlimited ammo but is relatively weak, exploring more into the game will net you more and more weapons that can be used for different situations and gameplay styles ,however, you can only carry 2 guns in addition to your standard rifle but these guns can be switched at any gun outpost that you find along the way allowing you to change them as you see fit along with what style of grenades would you like to carry.

Now lets talk about the music of this game…..MANNNNNN its great!! Now let me put that in perspective..is this an OST that will have people praising it in the way we do Metroid, Castlevania or NieR? No not at all. It’s not on that level where it’s defining a genre, what it is doing it is setting a very atmospheric tone for every level that your in and also adding to the fact of the realization that you are alone and that anything….ANYTHING can and will kill you. The music is a good blend of Castlevania (especially the Clock Tower level with its throwbacks to old school Castlevania) and Super Metroid and honestly that’s all I need to say. It sets the tone and maintains it, not over achieving and not underwhelming, its just right.

So with all that being said many want to know about the boss battles and are they any good: yes they are and they are very creative however there is an issue that I ran into on the final boss that I feel broke the game as it made the boss stop attacking while I wailed on him until they died (something I’ve reached out to the devs to correct as they are looking into it). The boss battles while keep you on your toes as they hit hard. All of the boss have 2-5 different levels of attack patterns and you can tell how close you are to beating them by the shade of red they start to turn: most bosses will turn a shade of reddish purple when they are near death and when they do they will ramp up their attack patterns to try and kill you as quickly as possible and this is something that I like because at no point do you ever fill like you will cake walk the bosses as they always deliver on challenges.

The Wrap-up:

Now with all the praising that I’ve done with this game, I must speak on the negatives………hold up…….I don’t really have any to complain about lol. In all honesty I really enjoyed this game through and through and aside from the game being a bit on the short side I cant complain about it at all. Sure it could’ve had a better system for weapon management and the map could be better and yes the timing of this release more the likely will be overshadowed by the release of Super Mario Odyssey in the next few days but I personally appreciate it for what it is; a masterpiece of a game made by a Masterpiece of a team at WayForward in a tribute to the classics that paved the way for this genre. Thank you WayForward for this game and I hope you continue making greatness like this. For 20$ you get solid gameplay, good soundtrack , decent if barely there story, multiple endings, and an awesome collectathon amount of side quests so all in all you cant go wrong at all.

This game gets the “Kasanova Seal of Approval”= Buy this Game \