I’m surprised you clicked on this article. Chances are, you don’t even know what the hell Sphinx is. Well, it’s one of the best games you’ve (probably) never played and it deserves the Nintendo Switch sequel that was teased not long ago.

OLD GOLD

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is an action adventure game with platforming elements that came out in 2003 for PS2, Xbox and GameCube by Eurocom and published by THQ. A lot of Zelda, a bit of Mario and the work of incredibly talented developers brought this Egyptian fantasy world to life. Each character you play as has their own style and at times the game feels like two in one. But it works. The game has a unique identity and doesn’t deserve the term ‘Zelda-clone’, that barely scratches the surface of the game’s essence.

An immersive world

Gameplay is spread between playing as the demigod Sphinx and the young Prince Tutenkhamen of Luxor, who turns into a mummy not long after the beginning of the game. On one hand you have swordplay and boss fights with Sphinx, intermixed with some puzzle solving and platforming and on the other you have the Mummy sections, with heavy influence on puzzle solving and sneaking instead of combat. The game can be unforgiving at times, with its save points spread really far from each other, but it is fun nonetheless. I can’t do it justice, it’s really something you have to play to understand. The beautiful 60 FPS world sucks you in and replaying it after all these years makes me realise how ahead of its time it was.

The time is now

With Super Mario Odyssey, it seems that good quality platformers could make a return in the mainstream. In addition to that, the recent success of Breath of the Wild shows that not all action-adventure games have to be dark and gritty in order to be well-received. They just have to be good; and Sphinx has that ability.

THQ NORDIC, IT’S IN YOUR HANDS

The current owners of the Sphinx license are THQ NORDIC. They have teased the return of some older licenses but thus far, we have not seen any proof of Sphinx 2 being developed. According to the Sphinx Wiki, “The CEO of the company, Lars Wingefors, hints at an entry for the upcoming Nintendo Switch, stating that the IP is,”well suited” for the interface of the console”. The best candidate for a Sphinx sequel is the Nintendo Switch. On Switch, I believe a game like that has the most potential to shine, whether as an eShop title or a full-blown boxed release.

I can only hope that the smaller-scale games THQ NORDIC has been releasing for the Switch will perform well. Maybe then we can get a sequel that will conclude the amazing story that ended with a cliffhanger more than 10 years ago.

Update: THQ Nordic released Sphinx remastered on Switch. It’s really fun.

The post Sphinx – the Switch game you SHOULD beg for appeared first on BadFive.

The AITD series has been around for a long time. In 2008, Eden Games sought to bring the game that pioneered survival-horror to a new generation. While the game did make an appearance on the PS3 as a superior version that addressed a lot of shortcomings, it was initially released on PC, 360, Wii and PS2.

NEXT GEN VISION

From what I remember, the potential of Alone in the Dark started shining the moment a tech demo was revealed showcasing the game’s ‘Twilight 2’ engine. It was impressive for the time. We got to see propagating fire, realistic physics and an interesting take on managing items. The HUD was almost completely replaced with your character looking in first-person mode inside his jacket, picking and choosing which objects to combine to make anything from explosives, incendiary rounds to bandaging wounds. The story was to be divided into ‘episodes’, the parts of which you could play out of sequence, if you wanted. The game was very much aiming for a TV-series type of feel, even including a “previously on Alone in the Dark” line at the beginning of each segment.

DISAPPOINTMENT?

Sadly, the final game was disappointing to many. While it was ambitious from a technical and story-telling standpoint, it failed to reach the potential of its revolutionary ideas. The free-roaming in the PC and 360 versions felt like an unnecessary chore and glitches were plenty to be found. The story, as well as the episodic feel, were criticized for being a cheap excuse to game-breaking glitches and not being as exciting as initially described. Personally, I played the PC version and loved it despite its many flaws. But we’re not going to talk about those versions. Let’s focus on the largely overlooked Wii version for a moment.

ALONE IN THE DARK…WITH A WII REMOTE

I read the reviews. I watched people comment on it on YouTube. But I had to play it on Wii for my own. And I loved it. I knew AITD wasn’t game of the year material but it managed to gain a special place in my heart because it tried to do something different. The Wii version, developed by Hydravision Entertainent, was graphically inferior, lacked free roaming and had a few less item combinations. Believe it or not though, this worked to its advantage. The removal of pointless free-roaming (in order to collect a number of something to progress) streamlined the story. Though I have to say that a big part of the reason I loved it so much was the unique Wii remote gameplay.

CONTROL YOURSELF

The Wii version’s saving grace were its controls. Opening up your jacket, checking your pistol’s ammo, hotwiring a car, driving, swinging around burning objects and putting things in/out of your pocket was so natural. To this day, I believe AITD Wii is one of the best examples of how fun and immersive motion controls could be in a game. It worked and it worked well, even though it didn’t look as good.

WHAT NEXT GEN SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT

At first glance, any version of Alone in the Dark will seem unfinished, unpolished or simply bad; and that may very well be the case. But see past that and you will discover a fun game that tried to do awesome things on every platform it came out on. It gave us a sneak peek at what next-gen was supposed to be. Instead, games nowadays look pretty, but rarely try to immerse you in the world as much as AITD. Before you say it, VR doesn’t count. But that’s a matter for another article.

Alone in the Dark had too much negativity surrounding it when it came out and it definitely isn’t as bad as people made it out to be. Do yourself a favor and check it out. It probably won’t cost much and even if you hate it, the game has an amazing orchestral soundtrack guaranteed to make it worth your while.

The post The secret brilliance of Alone in the Dark appeared first on BadFive.