The Mummy Demastered

I like Tom Cruise. I like horror films. I like big summer blockbusters. And yet, even with all that going for it, I didn't like The Mummy, Universal's cynical attempt to shoehorn their classic monsters into a Marvel-style shared universe. It was big and loud, and also completely forgettable. But no matter how bad the movie was, I'm glad it exists. Why? Because without it we wouldn't have gotten The Mummy Demastered, a brand new 2D action game from WayForward that is destined to be the best part of the so-called Dark Universe.

Let me dispel one thing right up front: You don't need to have seen the recent Tom Cruise movie to enjoy The Mummy Demastered. In fact, it's probably better if you skip that turd entirely and stick with this much better run 'n gun action game. This is a thrilling side-scrolling shooter that combines elements of Metal Slug, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Super Metroid and even Dark Souls to create an engaging adaptation that is better than the source material in every way.

Instead of following Jerry Maguire as he globetrots around the world, we play an elite agent of the monster-hunting Prodigium organization. When the evil Princess Ahmanet starts raising the dead, it's our job to swoop in and contain the situation. Unfortunately, our nameless agent is too late, and most of his squad has been torn apart by supernatural forces. It's up to this lone surviving agent to explore the surroundings, collect all the upgrades and fight off an army of insets, skeletons, plague-ridden vermin and, yes, mummies.

Fans of the Metroidvania genre will feel right at home in The Mummy Demastered. This is a game that covers a lot of familiar grounds, especially when it comes to learning new abilities and backtracking to open up new areas. Let's be honest, this is a formula we've all seen dozens of times before, so I went in expecting that this one would hit all of the familiar beats. It does, for the most part, hit a lot of those beats, but I was impressed that it also goes out of its way to subvert some of my expectations.

The upgrades and abilities are a good example of this. Usually with this type of game you can almost set a clock to when you'll get the double jump. But there's no double jump here. About the closest thing we get to the typical Metroidvania ability is a helpful dash move that can be performed in the air. For the most part, all of the abilities make sense to this one agent. We'll be able to hang off the ceiling, learn a running jump, dive underwater and roll to avoid the undead enemies.

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There's more of an emphasis on high-powered weapons than flashy abilities. The Mummy Demastered is as much a run 'n gun shooter as it is a side-scrolling adventure game. We're treated to a nice variety of cool looking weapons, as well as a few different types of grenades. I like that these guns aren't used to open doors or unearth hidden areas; they're allowed to simply look cool and be destructive. There was never a point where chopping down mummies with a plasma beam stopped being fun.

There is one wrinkle to the formula that will likely prove controversial. Instead of simply dying and warping back to the save room like most games, The Mummy Demastered decides to take a page out of the Dark Souls playbook and make death mean something. The idea is that you'll drop all your guns, grenades, health items and new abilities when you die, forcing the player to literally rush back to that spot, kill the zombie agent and retrieve all the stuff. This is an interesting idea in theory, but I ran into some moments towards the end where it nearly ruined the experience.

The problem is that some of the late-game enemies are not only aggressive, but can kill you in just a couple hits. This kind of thing is usually mitigated by the upgrades and more powerful weapons, but without them you're a sitting duck. I like the idea of losing your stuff, but wish they would have let us keep a more powerful gun just to even up the odds. I hate to admit it, but I ended up quitting to the main menu and reloading every time I was about to die in order to avoid the hassle of retreating my stuff.

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The Dark Souls-style deaths may not have worked for me, but the rest of the game certainly did. I love the faux 16-bit pixel graphics and the tight gameplay. The run 'n gun shooting action feels great and there are some truly memorable boss fights here. The Mummy Demastered does an excellent job of evoking the spirit of games like Ghouls 'N Ghosts and Metal Slug, all while remembering the lessons we've learned over the last twenty years. This is modern retro done right.

By taking the action back to the 16-bit era, WayForward has improved on The Mummy in pretty much every way. This is a great looking run 'n gun shooter with a cool horror theme and a large map to explore. I like the unique abilities and the emphasis on the high-powered weapons. The game stumbles a bit when it tries to introduce elements from Dark Souls, but that's the price you pay for an otherwise thrilling action experience. The Mummy Demastered single-handedly justifies the existence of that terrible Tom Cruise movie. That's hard to do.