Hooked Gamers - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

August 13th, 2008 by KingWilly

Also available on: PS2, WII

Mummy, Mummy, Mummy (cntd.)

Which brings me to my next minor gripe – the visuals. Overall, they aren’t too bad, but way too small. I know it’s a DS and the screen is small, but a slightly closer view would have worked better. It was difficult to see where your guns are pointed or which direction your kicks and punches are targeting. Also, there is little diversity in the number and style of enemy units. Waves of identical mummies or soldiers come at you. Some variation would have been nice. The landscapes though are well rendered and put you in the feel of the location, whether it be in the underground tombs, the snow covered mountains or in the desert.

The Mummy Returns

Once you have played the game through, there is not much need to play again, and to be honest you wouldn’t want to. The game becomes really boring and repetitive very quickly. The developers have attempted to address this by adding in puzzles, but these do little to increase the enjoyment of the game. In the early stages there are decipher puzzles which require drawing Chinese characters in order for a door to be opened. This seems OK, but the issue of having to constantly fill your ink pen with ink is just tedious and the puzzles become boring themselves.

Puzzles are generally easy, so that anyone can play. If you do get stuck however, there is minimal help available. You will just continue along the linear path, hoping that the required task has been completed before making your way to the exit or next level.

Are there any redeeming features?

There are a couple of good things going for the game. As mentioned above, most puzzles are simple enough for younger gamers to complete, widening the potential gamer base. The other feature that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has going for it was the audio. Although the sound effects such as punching, kicking and firing the pistol are fairly standard, the voice acting is done quite well. The music also does a good job of placing the gamer in the settings of the game.

The Mummy should have remained in its tomb

I was really looking forward to watching the latest instalment of The Mummy series on the big screen. The ancient settings and the visual effects of the previous movies were impressive and surely could only improve after the past few years. But that was prior to playing this game. If the movie plays out like this game, it would be a stinker. The game is awfully linear, resulting in a lack of replayability. The game will take gamers more than a couple of hours to complete, but once completed you will have no urge to play again – if you get that far anyway.

OK, so the DS comes with a stylus and a touch screen, but they must be used appropriately if they are to be used. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor does not do that. The control system makes what could have been a decent game, largely unplayable. Unless you are a huge fan of The Mummy series and collect everything associated with it, don’t bother with this one. This is one Mummy that should remain hidden for all eternity.