The Scorpion King was supposed to be a loose prequel to the fantastic and refreshing, The Mummy and its much more prosaic sequel, The Mummy Returns. This GBA game, Sword of Osiris, takes place after the ones depicted in the prequel. So we have a sequel to a prequel in a trilogy. But no matter because like The Scorpion King, this has as much to do with the prequel movie as The Scorpion King has to do with The Mummy. The story goes that Menthu decides to amass armies, as all evil figures seem to have a knack for, to invade Egypt. Menthu decides to take a page from Greek mythology and steals Cassandra, wife to Mathayus (aka Scorpion King). Of course, like all evil figures, he forgot to read the ending to that and Mathayus sets out on quest to retrieve his wife.

Naturally Mathayus, the good guy (although he is a bad guy in The Mummy Returns but we won't dwell on that) wins in the end but only with a heavy dose of your help, especially those platform skills you've honed in countless GBA titles before. Sword of Osiris is a classic platform game in every sense. Mathayus is equipped with a plethora of acrobatic stunts and weapons that allow you to pull off some pretty classy choreographed moves with the GBA's limited controls. Each level, it seems, throws one type of challenge at you that demands you to master a certain move. Each level's end pits you against a predictable boss battle. Repeat this formula for six different worlds and you've got Sword of Osiris in a nutshell.

The visuals in Sword of Osiris are well done for a platform game, although you will never get the idea that this is anything but a platform title. The animation of the characters is well done, especially that of the star Mathayus. His range of abilities makes him the most remarkable of the character set you'll encounter. The audio is also something that helps carry through the game. The soundtrack and effects are commendable. They exert a real effort to support the adventure theme, just as John William's score did for Indiana Jones. The music here, however, is not on par with any film composers but still respectable for a game.

Mathayus' trip to defeat Memnon was relatively short. His whole vendetta was carried out within a ninety-minute movie piece. Menthu proves no tougher. Any competent platform gamer will be able to finish this within a few days, if not less. Any incompetent platform gamer like me will be able to tough it out within a working week. The reward for all this is the ability to play as Cassandra in place of Mathayus. However, this is in the same narrative again. If you can accept this game for what it is, it should prove to be an enjoyable experience. It aspires not to defy its spiritual ancestors. It aspires not to tear apart the boundaries that surround its genre. Like the popcorn movies the license was born out of, it really has no aspiration but to entertain. This it does wonderfully, even though some aspects of the gameplay, level design and audio-visuals are ultimately unfulfilling. It's in this respect that Sword of Osiris may have carried too much from the movie itself. It really forces you to make peace with the limited ambition of the work. But once you do that, it plays out like a popcorn movie: a fun ride while it lasts.