The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review for the Nintendo Wii

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor box art

System: Wii, PS2, DS	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Eurocom Ent.	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Sierra Entertainment	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: July 22, 2008	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

TotDE's frustrating gameplay is only further exacerbated by random spikes in the game's difficulty. While most players will walk through much of this game with no problem, the game will often become inexplicably difficult. There are two major examples of this that will help explain just how annoying this can be. The first is a segment that has Alex manning a turret, shooting an endless marching army of Terracotta warriors. It is difficult to keep up with destroying these warriors to begin with, yet the game feels the need to also have enemies cheaply sniping at you from off-screen.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor screenshot

The next example is a boss battle involving Alex and the Dragon Emperor, who has turned into a massive creature that resembles a mix between a gargoyle and a dog. This battle is needlessly difficult, requiring memorization and constant movement to avoid attacks, and it is also insanely long. While the entirety of the game may take around four hours to complete, I swear this battle makes up close to a quarter of its completion time. If you are as turned off by the rest of this game as I was, these random jumps in the games difficulty will likely result in putting this title down and never going back to it.

Although the gameplay is often anger inducing, this game's presentation is fairly good. Characters bear a striking resemblance to their real life counterparts and also include their voice talents (minus Jet Li). Even though these voices can quickly become grating, especially during a particular Alex boss battle, it manages to add a feeling of authenticity to the game. The backdrops and environments look decent, with some good lighting effects accentuating the game's characters and objects. TotDE also runs very smoothly, with absolutely no frame rate dips to be found.

Unfortunately, it takes more than a slight amount of polish and some good voice work to make a good game. Fans of the film/films may want to check out this game, but I strongly advise you to rent this title rather than purchase it. With frustrating gameplay, a very short and linear experience, and no multiplayer or unlockable modes/levels to speak of, TotDE gives players no reason to keep playing. Perhaps this is for the best and we should just leave this game buried in the deluge of summer movie tie-in titles, as we would a real mummy buried in its sandy grave.

By Adam Brown
CCC Freelance Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

3.5

Graphics
Some good lighting effects and star likenesses help to make this game feel like a part of the film.

2.0

Control
While the combat and platforming controls are passable, locking onto specific enemies is next to impossible, and the included motion controls don't work well.

3.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
With most of the movies' cast lending their voices to this game, almost everyone sounds as they should. Unfortunately, these voices will still become annoying once you've heard everything they have to say for the hundredth time.

1.6

Play Value
Random difficulty spikes, mind-numbing puzzles and combat, and infrequent checkpoints culminate in a very short and frustrating experience.

2.0

Overall Rating - Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Two Playable Characters: Play as both Rick and his son Alex at appropriate times, each with unique combat style, animations, and period-authentic weapons.

Intense combat and fast/fluid gunplay: Experience intense combat with seamless switching between hand-to-hand attacks and action packed gunplay.

Big bosses/enemies: Battle supernatural creatures from the film such as the three-headed Gorgon, and Terracotta warriors.

Utilize the motion-sensor controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to complete puzzle and riddle solving challenges.

Movie Authenticity: Talent likeness of all the key cast members.