Happy Friday, everyone. Today I’m going to look at a game called Egypt.
Developed and published by Human, Egypt was released very late in the Famicom’s lifespan, almost a full year after the release of the Super Famicom in 1990. Like many Famicom games, the development history of Egypt is virtually unknown. In fact, very few people, even in the import gaming community, know that this game exists. Because of this, reviews of this game are a bit hard to come by. But that’s why I’m here. So where does Egypt stand? Is it a stinker best left in the dust where it’s been for all this time, or is it a gem that needs to be dug up?
The game begins with Indiana Jones exploring an Egyptian pyramid (okay, not really, but don’t tell me that’s not the first thing that comes to mind). The story is: a goddess has been sapped of all her powers and she needs this explorer to scour an Egyptian temple to retrieve them. But he can only do this by going inside a giant magical orb… for some reason. Yeah, it’s just a fetch quest, but this is where the plot kind of takes a back seat.
The game begins, and the object is to hop around the map, moving tiles into certain areas to progress. First, the basics: unfortunately, the graphics are quite mediocre. The tiles are easily identifiable, but the puzzle pieces aren’t particularly well-drawn. I know it’s a puzzle game and we’re not supposed to care about the visuals that much, but it would be nice to be able to at least tell what anything is. Then there’s music; it’s okay, but definitely not great. The music at least has the Egyptian theme that suits the game, but the three men who put this soundtrack together used way too many high notes. After a while you’ll be able to hear it scream, “Turn the volume off”.
Now, onto the gameplay. As stated, the object is to connect certain puzzle pieces together to advance to the next round. Simple, right? Well, here’s the kicker: each board has tiles that have an arrow indicating which direction they can be moved. Each time you step on the tile, it will move one pace in that direction. If a puzzle piece(s) is in that tile’s path, it will move one pace along with it. Once a tile or puzzle piece reaches the end of the board, it will come out the other end. If you connect two or three puzzle pieces of the same kind together, they will disappear. Once all the different puzzle pieces have disappeared, you will be able to progress to the next round.
So that sounds pretty simple, but throughout the game you will have to use your noggin. Why? Because you can’t simply move one puzzle piece in one direction and expect an easy win; you have to move the puzzle piece into the same path as another tile facing a different direction and then use that path. This change of paths can go on for up to 10 times, if not more. If that wasn’t enough, sometimes you can put yourself at risk of trapping yourself or a puzzle piece within several non-moving tiles that you cannot jump on or over. But if that wasn’t enough, there are times where you can accidentally connect two puzzle pieces together and leave a third one standing alone, leaving you unable to complete a level. If either of those things happen, you will be forced to hit Select and start the level over again. You don’t get penalized for doing this, but because you can end up trying the same level over and over again, it can get frustrating at times.
There are items you can acquire throughout the game that will make it a little easier, and you can use said items by pressing B. There’s a lightning bolt that will destroy every extra tile on board and a feather that will allow you to float out of trouble should you find yourself trapped. You can earn said items by completing a board with only a limited amount of steps throughout the level. Unfortunately, given how difficult and time-consuming certain boards can get, obtaining items may be a pretty rare occurrence as the game goes on. So unless you know exactly what you’re doing, I wouldn’t count on it.
Once you’ve had enough headaches for the day, you can go to the main menu to get a password. Yes, you read that correctly: a password game in 1991. This was released at a time when passwords were dying and batteries were becoming the norm. But anyway, the password is only six characters, which is better than most NES games with passwords. So every time you boot up the game again, you can just enter the password and you’re all set.
So, why wasn’t this game released in North America or Europe? Well, it may have something to do with religious symbolism. Throughout Story Mode, the Star of David is depicted on the floor of the temple lobby. You may think that’s a perfectly legit reason to keep it local, but I’m going to say no, that’s no excuse; they could have easily changed it to a basic portal and they would have been just fine. Look at Golgo 13 and Bionic Commando, they both contained Nazi symbolism, yet they received changes and were released in the west. You could also say the SNES was coming out and they didn’t want to release an NES game that late, but I’m also going to say no; the Super Famicom was already out in Japan, and plenty of games debuted on the NES late and even later: Kirby’s Adventure, Tecmo Super Bowl, Battletoads, Mega Man 5, you name it.
So, that’s Egypt. Being a puzzle game, it’s playable, but it definitely requires more thought than most to succeed. It may not be beautiful, nor may it be music to your ears (no pun intended), but it’s all about gameplay here. What’s my recommendation? I wouldn’t recommend trying this if you want a simple puzzle game to kill time; more like something to challenge your mind if you don’t have a Sudoku on you.
Rating: 8/10
Featured Image art by Kaio Scott