I seriously thought this game was a fever dream because I couldn't remember the name. Thank you for bringing it back to mind and confirming it was real for me.
One of my favorite games as a kid! You can definitely tell they ran out of time/money later on in development but it was still super fun and has a ton of atmosphere. The sequel hook will always haunt me lmao
Eurocom did really good work back in the early 2000s. I remember going around in games like this and Spyro: A Hero's Tail and pointing the camera straight into waterfalls, just to see if I could get it to drop below 60fps. I don't remember if the waterfall trick caused any slowdown, but the GameCube version ran flawlessly during normal gameplay, and the PS2 version (from what I saw of it) was almost on par with that... but strangely, the Xbox seems to be struggling in this video. The town, the lava area, and those pesky waterfalls all seem to be dropping the Xbox version down to 30fps. I've seen before how this console struggles with alpha effects (transparent stuff like smoke), but it seems that Sphinx didn't get the optimization it needed.
YES! I wanted you to cover this game so badly. This is one of my favorites. I enjoy its unconventional puzzles so much and the Egyptian aesthetic is well done. Think about it, you play as an almost invincible mummy, so the puzzles are amazing. Like you'd need to use the mummy to set yourself on fire, then run to wooden areas to destroy them. I've never seen such fun puzzles and I likely won't ever again. A shame about its original release (I played on PS2, not sure it it affected Xbox), it had a game-breaking bug - a door is open, but if you save, then game over or reload the save for any reason, a door required to progress is permanently locked and there's nothing you can do. It's extremely bad because there's no autosaves and each manual save point is about an hour of gameplay away from each other and in this game it's extremely easy to game over, so you need to play those two areas perfectly for ~2-3 hours of gameplay before you can get to the subsequent save point. This was always a game not well known compared to Zelda or Mario, but I had many friends and nobody could beat the game and no RU-vid back then, we discovered the glitch by word of mouth together. You could mail Sony (I think it was Sony or the devs?) your memory card back then and they'd fix the save for you but the glitch scared me too much to go back to it. I finished it when it released on GoG, it has a great endgame I missed out on. I wonder if this glitch affected the reviews too, I remember this game was panned by all critics and this was before patches were done on consoles. Thankfully that bug is fixed in its modern releases!
A couple of years ago this game was free with Xbox gold, i downloaded it but never played it. Thanks to your video i gave it a try and it's amazing! Thanks for the tip!
This game really brings me so much memories as a kid. The mummy is my favorite character in the game. It's a perfect combination of action platformer to puzzle solving.
I remember playing this game a lot on my PS2 when I was a kid. Its setting was unique, the story was memorable and the gameplay was fun. Plus the soundtrack gave it that haunting feel. It’s a damn shame that Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy never got a sequel to conclude its storyline after the first game ended on a cliffhanger. Hell, I could have had a franchise that explores lots of other forms of Egyptian Myth.
A well rounded video review, excellent graphics captured throughout! A good looking game, that's one of the reasons I love Eurocom, which has made many of my favorite games over the years!
just grabbed this on the switch. i love these kind of 3d adventure games. fighting, platforming, puzzle solving. its so of a specific era. they truly don't make many of these anymore and it's a shame.
Absolutely incredible game. Basically Zelda in Egypt. Beautiful graphics and charming cast. The hd remaster on switch n pc is stunning. It runs in 4k n 60fps on series x. Highly recommend it.
One of my all time favorites! Such a classic game with so much charm and a game I regularily recommend to anyone who has enjoyed a Zelda game. I remember as a kid spending hours collecting creatures for the zoo. There are actually a few creatures in the zoo that have descriptions as being from a distant land and this is a cut area of the game. It was a jungle/mayan area and in early trailers there is footage of the area. Too bad with the rerelease a few years back they didn't polish up and add in a bit of the cut content as an extra mini expansion.
Another interesting last-minute change is the name was originally going to be "Sphinx and the Shadow of Set". There is a demo disc for the ps2 which has this name. Managed to pick up the demo disc last year and besides the name change I couldn't find any differences between the demo and the final release.
Also, HOW did you find out about the origins of Sphinx as a possible animation piece!? And Sidenote: who else would LOVE to see an animated film based on the game!?
I found out from this great piece written on steam: web.archive.org/web/20231112115245/steamcommunity.com/games/606710/announcements/detail/3792654612933489757 Her is a clip of the movie: vimeo.com/33129408
@campxbox Also just a correction, the original xbox release actually supported 720p, not 480p as the max resolution as stated in your review. You need component cables to get 720 on xbox. It was the best looking and only hd version between the ps2/gamecube release. The cube was 480p ps2 was 480i. All have 16x9. Per ign comparison: 480p progressive scan and 16x9 widescreen mode on GameCube and 720p and 16x9 widescreen mode on Xbox. Sadly, the PlayStation 2 version does not run in progressive scan.
One half of the game is a pretty ok zelda like. But man, the mummy segments are so much better. Hurting yourself to solve puzzles is so much more interesting and is what Voodoo Vince should have been. I mean the Sphinx segments are fine. They're kinda fun. Combat kinda sucks though and that cliffhanger ending is so bad
@@its_ohhrite depends on what system you’re most likely to play. If you want portability, Switch; and if you want to view it on a bigger screen, Xbox! There’s no console exclusive modes or characters, unfortunately. Good news is, if you decide to buy Xbox, it’s available both digitally and,if you have it on original Xbox disc,physically as well!
@@its_ohhrite on that note, the answer is neither is graphically better or worse than the other! The switch Does render things at a lower frame rate than the other console! But what else is new, yes?
