Voice Of The Mummy

Next to the phrase "we need to talk", the following three words are the ones nobody ever wants to hear...it's a sequel!

Technically, it's actually a prequel. Though, can you consider something that came first a prequel? That's just the original, right? Whatever. We're not here to talk semantics, we're here to talk board games. 1971 saw the release of the game that preceded Seance - our last foray into the board game world - titled "Voice of the Mummy". Once again dependent upon the pre-recorded audio, this game is really not much different from Seance. The official description reads:

Players move around a multi-level pyramid collecting gems; small battery-powered record player inside sarcophagus at the center of the board instructs players who land on certain spaces on their moves or gem collecting. Once the Great Jewel is removed from sarcophagus (along with the evil cobra-shaped Spell), the record is turned over, and the game becomes a race back to player's home temple by exact count; player with highest gem value wins, regardless of whether they are the first player to reach home base.

 Okay, so it isn't exactly the same, as it does actually have movement involved, but it's pretty darn similar. Playable for 2-4 people, with a time limit of about 30 minutes, it actually doesn't sound too bad. In fact, Seance (unsurprising, as sequels often suck) is the lesser of the two games, really, seeing as it's essentially inheritance monopoly. Designer and artist are, yet again, uncredited, and I think it's safe to say at this point that this is actually a major issue in the board game industry is the people who make these things not getting their due recognition. I know some of it's likely lost to time, which will happen, but the fact that both these titles are from Milton-Bradley makes it sort of hard to believe they couldn't keep track of the people they hired to design and make the art for these games. Get your shit together, guys. Also, why's the design of this look lowkey like a Cribbage board? It's actually an extremely neat design, if we're being honest, even if it's fairly basic, but I love the inclusion of all the Egyptian imagery I could see myself really being into this if I were a kid, because I - like every child - went through an enormous Egyptian phase. I am not a big fan of the gentle banana color (Gentle Banana is my new band name by the way) but it makes sense, as it's supposed to emulating the color of sand.

Overall it isn't terrible, and it's a unique board in that it's really raised up. It's certainly more visually interesting than the board for Seance. Sure Seance's artwork was great, but it was just that, artwork, it had no real pull to it. This is actually an interesting board design, along with neat artwork and layout design, and that goes a much farther way than usual. And I especially enjoy the sarcophagus on the top. It isn't just a tiny little box with a mummy on it, no, it's a full on piece layered into the rest of the board. They could've so easily gone the cheap route, and they didn't, and I think that's really awesome. But you know who really wins here? The player tokens.

Just look at these dapper mother fuckers. These may be some of the greatest player tokens I've come across, because it's fantastic art ON the token, it isn't a piece itself. Though, the fact that they only made one male and one female model and then doubled them leads me to believe that this is a set of twins who are all fighting against one another to be the first to raid this crypt, which...I'd...actually watch that movie if Hollywood made that. That sounds entertaining as hell. And I have to give a shoutout to the box proper, which doesn't feature any goofy fucking children on it or anything, it just shows you the board, and it looks really good. A prime example of what solid advertising on said product can be. So yeah, Voice of the Mummy is, by and large, the better of the two games, and I don't think anyone is going to argue that. I mean, what's more fun conceptually? A will reading, or an Egyptian tomb raiding? Yeah, exactly.

Let's hope someday they reunite the team and create a 3rd for the trilogy, where you have a will reading IN an Egyptian tomb. Now we're gettin' somewhere.