Game: The Awakening of Mummies
Genre: Puzzle, Indie,
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Virtual Arts Studio
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $1.99 | UK £1.69 | EU € 1,59
Release Date: May 13th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Virtual Arts Studio.
Time to have a look at The Awakening of Mummies by Virtual Arts Studio, a cute puzzle game based on escape the room style puzzles. Here at LadiesGamers, we have reviewed a few Virtual Arts games recently. You can find the review for Diorama Builder here and the review for Magicolors here.
Awakening of Mummies
The mummies are escaping from evil Pharaoh Cléo’s tomb, and you must help them find the portal so they can escape from Cléo and out of the big pyramid. As with most puzzle games, it starts pretty easy. You control a little mummy, which you must direct to lift a coloured staff and then head to the Totem where the mummy unlocks the portal and moves on to the next level.
Traps Await the Mummy
Of course, it isn’t just as simple as moving the mummy around the puzzle, as there are pressure plates to activate or deactivate and traps to avoid. For example, spikes pop out of the tiles and stab the cute mummies, which means game over for you. Also, some tiles crumble once the mummy walks over them, and a hole appears where the tile is. The hole in the tile means you can’t use that route again in the puzzle, so you need to think carefully before you make your move.
Undo All
You have to control two or three mummies at once in later levels. Each mummy is colour coordinated to the Staff they have to collect and the Totem making things just slightly more difficult. The mummies walk in the same direction, so if one goes left the other mummy will do the same, so you have to keep an eye on each f the mummies steps to keep them out of danger.
However, though the game can be challenging, it isn’t too frustrating as you can undo the puzzle if you make a mistake. Unfortunately, the undo puts you right back at the start of the level you are on. While this is helpful, it is a shame to see all the mummies progress completely wiped. I’d much prefer an undo button to take the mummies back a step or two to fix my mistake than starting again from scratch on a level.
Visuals and Controls
The Awakening of Mummies has three floors with ten chambers (levels) on each floor. So in all, you have thirty chambers to puzzle your way through. The graphics are cartoonish and are colourful and detailed and I love the animation of the mummies. The animation made me smile on more than one occasion while playing the game. When the floor has disappeared beneath a mummies foot you can watch them do a little shuffle when they realise the floor has vanished and they are about to fall to their doom. It adds a nice touch of humour to the game.
You can control the mummies by using the keyboard WASD keys for their movement. You can also use a controller which was the option I went with. While both control systems work fine, I couldn’t use the joystick on my controller as for whatever reason it didn’t want to work with the game. Though having to use the D-pad wasn’t a hardship as it worked fine.
Conclusion
The Awakening of Mummies is a fun and enjoyable puzzle game for all ages to enjoy. There isn’t anything inappropriate in the game which would make it suitable for parents to play together with their children. Some of the puzzles, especially the latter ones, require some trial and error to complete them giving you a good sense of satisfaction when you do complete them.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 