Dead Tomb springs to life on Xbox, Switch and NES

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Retro-styled adventure set in ancient Egyptian pyramid available now for download and on limited edition cartridges

The heyday of Nintendo's original NES system may be well behind us, but the newly released point-and-click adventure Dead Tomb is looking to breathe life back into the venerable old console, along with more modernized versions for newfangled current-gen platforms.

In the year 3018, players find themselves embarking on a mission to study the last ice age first-hand at the behest of their employer. Naturally, something goes critically wrong and your time-traveling ship experiences a serious malfunction that forces you to land on the "truncated top of a huge pyramid" in 1300 BC. Repairs should be easy but escape won't be, as soon after your arrival you're discovered by the soldiers of Pharaoh Seti I, who violently "take matters into their own hands." The next thing you know, you're regaining consciousness, trapped inside the pyramid with a nasty bump on your head and no memory of where you are or why you're here. To rediscover answers to those questions and get out (and back home) alive, you'll need to find a diamond to power your ship, and "uncover secrets that lie buried in the tomb."

Created by CollectorVision/Acclaim and described as a "love letter to a lost video game genre," Dead Tomb is based on an earlier game called Temporel Inc, which was "only available on the defunct Videoway cable service system in Canada and in some parts of the United Kingdom during the late 80s and 90s." While updated for newer hardware, the game is still unapologetically retro in design, with 8-bit graphics, a "catchy chiptune soundtrack" and a menu-styled verb-based interface for interacting with the environment. Expect plenty of items to collect and puzzles to solve throughout a journey designed to be "reminiscent of the glory days of point-and-click games."

Dead Tomb is available now to download from the Xbox Store and Nintendo eShop, but collectors and fans of the NES can also purchase the game in boxed cartridge form, the first ever offered by publisher 8-Bit Legit. You'll need to act fast, however, as the physical version is a limited edition print with only 300 copies available.

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