Review - THE MUMMY DEMASTERED - A great Controidvania!

The Mummy Demastered has some of the best pixel art you've ever seen.

I'm not sure I ever saw a movie successfully ported to a video game.
(I'm not talking about successful cartoon and anime ports, which are legion!)
The first that comes to my mind is Die Hard Trilogy(summer 1996), and it was still kinda average.
This game is the opposite.
The Mummy was a very subpar movie, and yet this - arbitrarily adapted - game version is great!
I hope you're a hardcore gamer though...😅
(P.S: can you tell me about other movies which got nice ports?)

WHAT IS IT - A BAD MOVIE ADAPTED INTO A GREAT GAME!

Like most games made by Wayforward (mainly the Shantae games), The Mummy is a successful mix of Young Indiana Jones(Megadrive, 1994) and Super Metroid(Super Nintendo, 1994).
....
"wait... isn't Young Indiana Jones one of the WORST games ever made?"
....
Just kidding, it has NOTHING to do with Young Indiana Jones, except... The difficulty.
You might want to take a look at the paragraph about that later.
I scared you for a second though, huh?😝

A convenient way to light all candles at the same time! Nice trick, bro!

Anyway, let's say instead it's a mix between Contra, Metroid, and Castlevania.
Yes, three early 90s games, which is an appropriate comparison given the 16-bit pixel art and old-school side-scrolling/shooting gameplay.
Super Metroid for the necessary exploration to find gear upgrades to unlock some areas, Contra for the shooting part, Castlevania for the platforming and upgrades......and Young Indiana Jones for the rather high level of difficulty.

What they mean by ''worse than death'' is turning into a zombie yourself!

Story is a really overused and cliché dark horror setting.
An ancient "evil force" has awaken underground, and bla bla bla it wants to conquer the world bla bla and you have to save the world bla bla bla okaaaay it's always the same story since the very first video games.
It feels childish but it works better in a game than in a movie, actually.
And anyway, it's not that important for such games, right?
After all, do you care for the Metal Slug stories? he he

Save station! Gotta love my save station! (click here😂)

On a side note, I recommend you to watch the first "Mummy" movies with Brendan Fraser.
Although not masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, they're still way more entertaining than the one with Tom Cruise.(Get the first movie on Amazon, it's the best!)

You play as a soldier for the monster-hunting Prodigium organization, and your goal is to follow the evil Princess Ahmanet, exploring tombs, forests, sewers, and even London streets!
On your way, you'll have to fight her hordes of minions and numerous mini-bosses while collecting as many upgrades and weapons as possible, before eventually defeating her in the final battle! 

I told him to get to da choppa! But I guess he was too slow.

The game begins when the Prodigium sends you to investigate the recent disappearance of one of your units.
Time for you to start exploring the first area of the game, the forest!

But be careful...
If you die, you'll become one of her minions!
(I'll let you find out by yourself the reanimation mechanic, which is cool but also quite time-consuming, unfortunately.)

TIP!

You can get two different endings according to how you survived the last escape from the collapsing tomb!

GAMEPLAY - CONTROIDVANIA (Contra-Metroid-Castlevania)!

Now you understand why this game makes us think of Castlevania...😉

If you love Metroidvanias, you WILL love this game.
This game takes all the elements of successful Metroidvanias and mixes them very well, making The Mummy Demastered one of the best and addictive Metroidvanias of the past few years.

The exploration-based adventuring feels always rewarding, either because it makes the story progress, or because you find some upgrades which will give you access to a new zone.
It's very well balanced and you never have to play very long before unlocking something new, which encourages you to explore even further!
You won't get bored and might even want to finish the game in one run!

This is a huge "100% map" made by "Demajen", on Steam! Very useful to find the weapons! Thank you, sir!

As in most similar games, you get a big map where you see sections you already explored.
The game is unfortunately way too short for its greatness, but the map is still VERY necessary if you don't want to get lost.

You'll start the story with a very nice automatic rifle, but soon your arsenal will get bigger, including grenades, a VERY powerful flamethrower(you NEED it, believe me), and more!

I didn't count the monsters types but there are a LOT of these critters, so take your time to learn their patterns, as some of them can be particularly annoying! (the game should have a "no-bats" mode...)
 

Hey, do you mind? I'm trying to do my pull-up exercise here!

Despite the unavoidable backtracking in such games, the game doesn't feel like it repeats itself much, and the diversity makes the whole experience very interesting.

Only my personal opinion, but I think that the monsters IMMEDIATELY re-spawning is a design mistake. It would have been better if they re-spawned after a few minutes, at least, or after we explored 10 other areas, for example.

The second boss... It almost made me rage-quit... Get ready for a LONG fight.

Another severely lacking feature is the double-jump. Maybe the biggest design mistake, actually.
More than reaching higher areas, the double-jump would have been useful to be more precise when you jump.
After playing a few hours, I realized that the ONLY times I got hurt in this game was when I failed my jumps.
The Mummy Demastered is VERY platform-oriented and that might frustrate you a lot eventually.
Also, flying enemies being the most annoying thing in the game, being able to double jump over them would have made the game 200% more enjoyable, without being necessarily much easier.
I know that lots of people hate double-jumping though. What do you think? 

PETA DOESN'T PROTECT THESE SPECIES
The freaking chihuahua with wings.	The blind crow, dive-bombing the s*** out of you.	The cute German shepherd zombie with rabies.	The flying fuc**** skull from Doom.
The giant beetle who wants to treat you like its dung.	The dehydrated mummy trying to suck the juice out of you.	The skeleton with Parkinson's disease. Very hard to predict his moves.	The deadly jumping green spiders. Kill them with fire.

 

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT, REALLY?

As mentioned earlier, this game feels a bit like Young Indiana Jones on Megadrive, where all enemies try their best to murder you in all possible ways.
(Do yourself a favor and DON'T play this game, by the way. Or make somebody else play it and make fun of him.)

The more I play it, the more I think Wayforward developers are actually extremely vicious.

Many times, enemies are placed in hidden spots where you expect them the least, so that you simply can't avoid being hit.
Other times, they're placed exactly where you're going to jump, and when they damage you, there's this HORRIBLE "knock back" mechanic which makes you fall AAAAAALL the way down an entire level.
(speaking of which, I've seen this occuring occasionally in some games since I was born, and this has to disappear and never come back.)
This just happened to me 20 times in a row, because of skeletons throwing bones at me.
They think I'm a dog or something?

Is that Iggy Pop summoning a giant spider? Gee, I don't think I ever saw a spider that big since Earth Defense Force 4.1!

Funnily enough, bosses are EASIER than common enemies.
The first boss - a huge spider - is pretty easy compared to skeletons or bats.
Just a few easy patterns to remember, and don't forget to use roll to avoid the boulders!
Most bosses use predictable patterns, which make them doable, but also the least interesting part of the game.
Regular enemies, on the other hand, are often totally unpredictable.
The worst case being ALL flying enemies who change their course suddenly.
Have fun avoiding them.

Come on, I know we can sort this out peacefully!

Speaking of fun,
there's a part in which I wasn't fast enough to jump on some broken platforms, so I couldn't avoid falling into the water.
Then some piranha halved my health in two bites.
And then, when I finally came out of the water, a bat coming out of nowhere finished me off.
It was moving so fast I couldn't even target it correctly...
Oh, I get it, so this is Australia Simulator, huh?
The country in which everything wants you DEAD.

And finally, like I said earlier, the infinitely respawning enemies will make you go crazy.
The too high difficulty is the only reason we won't grant to The Mummy Demastered the title of "Megahit".😞

TIP!

How to beat the second boss? Easy, just shoot at it during 45 hours non-stop. I tried and it worked! *sarcasm mode off*

GRAPHICS - METAL SLUG-LIKE

London streets background made by Thomas Feichtmeir! Check out his work, he's incredible!

Some of the best pixel art we've seen since a long time.
It's almost on Metal Slug level, which is one of the "benchmarks" for 2D art. he he
The Mummy Demastered is a very atmospheric game and you'll want to just take a break sometimes to admire the artistic backgrounds, which could be used as nice wallpapers too!

An English gothic church, again  by Thomas Feichtmeir, A.K.A "Cyangmou"!

Animations are even better, and the realistic way every monster behaves will creep you out!
Not mentioning the nice water splashing effect or the satisfying weapons fire!
Again, like the more recent Iconoclasts, a CRT filter would be a very nice addition.
 

MUSIC & SOUNDS - RETURN OF THE DARK NEWRETROWAVE

The music sounds like the overused Neoretrowave genre which has been exploding on Youtube since a few years.
(NOT "chiptune", like the developer himself claims, funnily enough)
The whole OST does sound very good though, and reminds us a bit of one the best comedy horror movies of the 80s, Return of the Living Dead.
(Edit: wow, I had no idea that thing was re-released on bluray! I'll definitely get it, as the old DVD looks quite grainy...)
It helps to tune down the stress level quite a lot, which is good in such a hard game.
You can get this great soundtrack on Amazon. Perfect to drive at night around graveyards.😎

If you think the music is too "fun" sounding and want to make it super creepy, we recommend you to turn it off and play in the background the PS1 version of Doom 1 OST, which is nothing like the PC version.

Much more chilly, eh?😋 Thank me later!

APRIL FOOLS? DON'T BE SO SURE...

Finally, I'd like to show you a nice picture of Wayforward's April's Fools' day joke:

Not gonna lie, I did fall for it.😂

RATING BOX

	(VERSION TESTED: 1.02 - 02-20-18) Publisher: WayForward Developer: WayForward Release Date: 24 October, 2017 Genre: Metroidvania, Shooter, Platformer 1 PLAYER  Difficulty: Hard
GRAPHICS: 94%
VERY beautiful and convincing pixel art. Every level is a marvel to gaze at. Animations are all masterfully done.
MUSIC: 86%
Sounding a lot like the trendy Newretrowave genre, it fits the setting very well.
SOUNDS: 82%
Monsters are too quiet to my taste, but weapons sound effects are top-notch.
GAMEPLAY: 91%
Satisfying shooting and top-notch controls, which makes the map exploring part very fun and addictive. Some very annoying enemies which cause the game to be frustratingly difficult at times.
OVERALL RATING: 88%
Rewarding, atmospheric, unique. (not unique for its gameplay, but atmosphere!) Despite its short length and unbalanced difficulty, The Mummy Demastered is still one of the best Metroidvanias of the decade. Do NOT overlook this game just because the movie sucked, you'll regret it later!

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