Sherlock Holmes is the man. Ever since debuting in book form in 1887, he’s remained such a popular and referenced character that an informal 2008 UK survey found 58 percent of respondents thought he really existed!

What gives the detective such eternal appeal? He’s the ultimate tribute to brainpower, possessing an encyclopedic knowledge, finely honed sense of observation and iron-clad deductive logic. Woe unto you if Holmes is anywhere near should you murder, steal, or do anything as much as silently break wind in a crowded elevator, for he will find you.

So when you find the Sherlock Holmes name in an adventure title, you would naturally expect to be similarly challenged as the world’s greatest sleuth, finding a grand mystery in which you must cunningly piece together clues and solve fiendish riddles in order to deduce the truth and win the day. And if you picked up Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Mummy for that reason, you will be sorely disappointed. Heck, if you picked it up because you like mummies, you’ll probably be disappointed on that front, too.

Mystery of the Mummy is a port of the 2003 PC adventure title from The Adventure Company. I find nothing wrong with turning point-and-click adventures into point-and-tap, as the DS is well suited for this cause and The Adventure Company has put forth some commendable titles in the genre. This one, however, has little that stands out about it at all.

Playing as Holmes, you’re given a rather bare-boned backstory: you’re charged by an Egyptologist’s concerned daughter to investigate his abandoned mansion. The whole game takes place within the mansion, largely filled with ancient artifacts and old-time charm. It doesn’t look that bad for the DS, but you will find very little animation within the game itself. That is left to cinematics, which are also all right for the DS, but moving throughout the mansion consists of the basic adventure game-style screen skipping. The titular character, going Watson-less through the game, will comment to himself frequently in a forced-inquisitive voice that gets annoying from time to time — especially if you are tapping on the same thing several times as you often need to do. The looping music also gets trying now and then, but there are no audio cues in the game (hint, hint).

You tap with the stylus where you are shown you can move or investigate, dragging it to the edges of the screen to pan your view around a room. It moves a bit quickly and may be disorienting at first, but I got the hang of it after a little time. A tap of the L button will switch the game screen with your inventory, providing easy access to items, notes and hints. The setup is nicely tailored for the DS, with developer Frogware to presumably thank for the good work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t save the rather dull gameplay.

Too much of Mystery of the Mummy consists of wandering around looking for items and not figuring out how to use them. The most puzzling part of a lot of tasks is finding just where the junk is; once you have it, it’s basically a key to get you moving on. For a game set in a house packed with Ancient Egyptian artifacts, a surprisingly rare number of puzzles — like one or two — actually require you to know or learn something about history or culture, which you do not get many chances to do in the game. There is some literature to pick up, yes, but the majority consists of bits and pieces to put a little flesh on the characters and is unnecessary in progressing through the puzzles. Most times will simply require you to try everything in your inventory until something works and go off wandering again for missing items if it doesn’t. Holmes’ Lost and Found Agency, at your service!

When the game does choose to throw an honest-to-goodness puzzle your way, most sadly fall into one of two categories. They are either so obtuse that you will somehow solve them with no idea why the answer actually works or so brain-dead and overdone that you will inwardly weep. There is absolutely NO reason the “use paper and a pipecleaner to snag the key from the other side of a locked door” puzzle should be included in any adventure game made before 2000. And the “use 5-liter and 3-liter buckets to make 4-liters” puzzle? The original PC game was beat almost a decade by the film Die Hard: With a Vengeance, which itself stole it from puzzle lore. That’s just sad.

Oddly enough, one of the more creative and enjoyable puzzles is new, taking advantage of the DS itself. Although not particularly difficult, it was at least interesting. In speaking with a friend who played through the PC version of the game, I discovered a handful of puzzles were changed for some reason; a few (thankfully, in my opinion) getting rid of sliding puzzles.

If you get stuck, the in-game hint system is more than happy to help, often directly telling you what to do. It’s completely avoidable if you want to figure everything out yourself, but I found it much too tempting on puzzles or tasks I absolutely did not care about, such as finding where the heck much needed-yet-boring items were hidden. Just how many “nearly empty flasks of oil” does one man need?

Another note on items: the designers frustratingly shoehorn you into using them. Early in the game you pick up a hammer and a screwdriver at the same time. Later, you find an old lock Holmes says he can simply force open. Hammer time, right? Don’t be an idiot. The screwdriver is the only item that will work; the hammer is apparently enchanted to only break open a crate later on. Oh, and even later, when you pick up an ancient ceremonial knife and a dusty old axe, then need to bust open some locked wooden drawers? Just close your eyes and think “What Would Sherlock Do?” That’s right: jimmy those suckers open with a priceless artifact!

What I’m trying to say is…
Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Mummy had the potential to be an involving adventure title. It’s set up nicely for the DS and features a character and scene ripe for mining interesting histories and elements. Sadly, that allure is largely wasted in scavenger hunts and generic puzzles. In the end, there’s no real sense of accomplishment once Sherlock unravels the mystery; just a sense of relief you managed to slog through it all. If you’re a die-hard adventure fan wanting something on the go, this may whet your appetite for a short while, but it’s debut $30 price tag is simply ridiculous.

Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Mummy was developed by Frogware and published by The Adventure Company. The game is available for $29.99 (USD) for the DS and was rented for review. Game completed in approximately five hours. Sherlock Holmes blown up once. He prefers not to talk about it.