As we all know, Activision Blizzard is killing Vivendi Games' Sierra label and all the crappy, and some of the not-so-crappy, games it was publishing (some might even argue it's keeping a few of the Sierra franchses that are crappy, but that's a separate issue).

But there was one crappy game that was so close to being published, and was literally being manufactured with "Sierra" on the box as the merger happened a few weeks ago, that Activision Blizzard couldn't stop it. And so the final game to go out under the Sierra label is "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," a PS2 and Wii game based on the crappy film of the same title. Do I even have to tell you it's terrible?

Sierra, of course, was an awesome publisher back in the '80s, making classic games of my childhood like "King's Quest," "Space Quest," and (when I got a little older) "Leisure Suit Larry." The first time I remember ever laughing at a videogame was definitely a Sierra title. There's a great Wikipedia entry on Sierra that goes from its founding by Ken and Roberta Williams (who made the first ever adventure game with graphics) through its heyday in the '80s to the corporate machinations in the late '90s and early 2000's and eventually being turned into Vivendi Games' label for everything non-Blizzard.

You can be excused if you didn't even know Sierra was making a "Mummy" game. There was no PR around the release that I saw. The Sierra website says the game is coming out in "summer" and that the rating is pending. And according to Metacritic, it has gotten two reviews from gaming websites so far.

But as always when it comes to movie-based games, we're there for you. So just how bad is Sierra's "Mummy" game? In the words of Variety reviewer Tom Chick:

"Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is two parts "Tomb Raider" clone, one part mindless punch fest, one part shooting gallery, and one part repeating boss battles. The Wii version throws in a few motion-sensing gimmicks (Pull doors! Yank chains! Turn cranks!) for an extra bullet point on the back of the box... If "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" were a better game, the challenges to upgrade the weapons might have given it some replay value. But that's hard to consider without having much play value the first time around.

Like Atari, the Sierra name has a lot of value and it's possible somebody will pick it up and make it great again. If not, maybe "Mummy" can be erased from the official history.

Those who want more details on how terrible the game is, including the part when you turn into the abominable snowman (my favorite detail for sure), can read the whole review here.