The Mummy Returns

Released in 2001, third-person action adventure game The Mummy Returns was inspired by the story of the movie of the same name. You’ll play as the main characters of the movie – Rick O’Connell and Imhotep. From a gameplay design view, this is pretty neat. While both characters have similar controls – their moves, inventory, and stages are unique. Rick tends to stick to guns and explosives, while Imhotep wields blades and magic.

The Adventures of Rick and Imhotep

When controlling Rick and Imhotep, you’ll defeat enemies, solve movement puzzles, and find hidden treasures. The ultimate goal is to get to reach the end-boss of both the game and movie its based off of: The Scorpion King. Having two different gameplay routes is great because it not only provides replay value, it also gives players the chance to experience the perspective from both the protagonist (Rick) and antagonist (Imhotep).

Hollywood’s Still Figuring It Out

Since the 80’s, when E.T. was licensed for a video game for the Atari 2600 home console, Hollywood has been trying to convert box office success into video game success. For many of these attempts, they fell flat. Unfortunately, The Mummy Returns does little to push the needle the other way. While the character models are certainly passable, none of the voices of the actors from the movie (Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo) or voice actors from the cartoon series (John Schneider, Grey DeLisle, Jim Cummings) can be found. The ones used are sub-par, and that’s being kind. Although it doesn’t help that the writing is tacky. It tries a bit too hard to play off the characteristics of the protagonists from the movies and just doesn’t quite hit the mark, or anywhere close for that matter.

It’s Just a Game, No Harm Ever Came from Playing a Game

You’ll be playing this game in a third-person perspective for the entire journey. The controls are very responsive and easy enough to understand from the start. The movement controls may annoy some players since they are relative to the direction the camera is facing. It’s not a complete chore to control this, but it can cause some accidental movements that lead to your death. Another issue you may run into is with actions such as jumping or climbing, which can only be done when the button prompt appears. The ability to jump all the time would have been great as a dodge tactic. Furthermore, there is no ability to choose your target when shooting or using a spell. This means you’ll often end up targeting an enemy you didn’t mean to.

The stages have varying degrees of fighting enemies, platforming, and puzzles while you find the end of each stage. You may face a boss in some stages, but I didn’t find them to be very challenging.

One boss just continued to use the same move while I just strafed left and right spamming my pistols until he was defeated. Once other annoyance is that I found myself backtracking through stages for keys I might have missed, which can be a chore if enemies respawned already.

Pros

• Varying stages that progress you through the story for the film The Mummy Returns
• Two different playable characters to choose between, each with unique skills and levels to play
• The music sets a good mood for each stage, although forgettable

Cons

• The camera and action controls such as jumping can be a chore
• Lots of backtracking to find the end of the stage
• Sub-par voice acting and script
• Auto-targeting enemies can lead you into trouble