Run From Mummies will probably tickle Power Stone players as much as it does pyramid-robbing children

rockpapershotgun.com:

Every now and then I reflect on the statistically determined average age of a Gamer – what is it now, 36, 37? Please let it still be under 40 – and realise with alarm that, by extrapolation, a lot of the people reading this probably have children. Augh, children! Please excuse me while I go stand on a chair, clutching a broom. I’ve never understood the craze for generating smaller versions of yourself. It’s one of those weirder subcultures you read about in the papers, but rarely observe in daily life.

I do, however, understand the appeal of same-screen co-op games like Run From Mummies - which, being a bloodless comedy dungeon romp, seems like a fair pick for those encumbered with boisterous selfspawn. Don’t worry, the “mummies” of the title are just regular old disembowelled corpses wrapped in cloth, not those sinister, non-embalmed “mothers” you’ve been hearing about down the grocers.

Run From Mummies is a game about archaeology in much the same way that Whack-A-Mole is a game about moles. You and up to three friends are tourists trapped in a giant pyramid filled with rambling undead, spike traps and laser-beam statue bosses. Your only weapon is a camera – you can stun the inhospitable relics and mess with other objects using the flash, in what is probably a serviceable metaphor for the effects of tourism on archaeological sites generally. Snapping a picture means standing still while an AOE triangle extends from your feet, however, so try not to do it whilst running away from a rolling boulder.

There’s a demo for Run From Mummies on Steam. The full game spans seven regions linked by hand-drawn cutscenes that have reasonable Two Point energy. There are apparently “secrets” and “lore” to uncover, but while I can get behind probing layouts for sliding walls, I’m not sure plumping the codex is the point of a game like this. It reminds me a bit of Sega Dreamcast classic Power Stone, except that it’s top-down and 2D. Undoubtedly, half the fun will be getting in