Kick Ass Like an Egyptian
- You live an odyssey in Egypt... if the Gods allows you.
Big Karnak is a 1991 Platform Game made by Spanish video game company Galeco and their first major release for arcades.
Set in Ancient Egypt (presumably in Karnak?), you are a pharaoh warrior whose bride was kidnapped by rogue gods; you must travel through the Nile, Abu Simbel, and a number of locations while battling mummies, cultists and assorted wildlife before confronting several members of among the pantheon of Egyptian gods in multiple boss battles. Nope, the game doesn't really attempt to make any sense of these.
Gameplay-wise, Karnak more or less resembles another Ghosts 'n Goblins clone (with some Black Tiger thrown in), albeit with an Egpytian setting. It is Gaelco's first major success, both critically and financially, before they move on to other arcade titles like Biomechanical Toy and Alligator Hunt.
Dare you face the wrath of rogue Egyptian gods?
- Adaptational Villainy: For the most baffling of reasons, Horus, Nut, Isis and Osiris are depicted as villains here, as bosses you must defeat to retrieve your bride. Nut in particular seems to be the boss of a slave galley for some reason.
- Anchors Away: Nut, which is fought as a boss aboard a slave ship swings a massive anchor as her secondary weapon, once you got past her projectile attacks.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: The first Mini-Boss outside the pyramid - called in-game as "Egyptian" - is a hulking, navy blue-skinned giant of a man. Who's actually a recycled sprite
◊ ripped from Karnov - Battle Boomerang: You can collect boomerang weapons for ranged attacks, who flies back to you after each throw.
- Beast Man: The second stage is filled with animal-headed humanoid enemies. Most of them appear to be jackal-men, because, well, Egypt.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gigantic scarab beetles as large as your player character, among the toughest enemies encountered requiring several slashes to kill owing to their hard shells.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: The giant Man-Eating Plant boss can be defeated by collapsing a platform on it, crushing it into the ground. Which is located two meters away from where it's spawned, for some reason - for the battle you just need to target its head, tricking it into burrowing underground before using ranged attacks on the platform until it breaks.
- Boss Bonanza: The entire second half of the game, basically. After defeating Nut, you then go on to battle a giant squid, plant, the Mutton Head, giant pterodactyl and Osiris himself, as all these bosses appearing within less than ten seconds from each other.
- Boss Game: Starting as early as the third stage, the mooks start getting fewer in numbers, with each boss coming within seconds of each other.
- Cave Mouth: Mutton Head, upon defeat, rots into a gigantic ram skull, whose mouth opens into an entrance to the next stage.
- Company Cameo: The pyramid's interior in the second stage have two stone signs that spell "CAL" and "LIC". You can attack the signs to spin them around, so they spell "GAELCO", the company who made this game.
- Dem Bones: Animated skeletons are another recurring enemy in the crypts. The first boss is notably a giant skeleton where you stood up to his kneecaps.
- Giant Squid: Your second journey on the slave galley has you being attacked by a giant octopus, which starts the battle using Combat Tentacles, but whenever you sever its limbs it then sends them bouncing after you as a ranged attack.
- The Great Serpent: The giant asp boss, a huge snake at the bottom of a pit whose head is larger than your onscreen player. It can also summon smaller snakes as backup, which is still larger than you.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The plot is kicked off when Osiris, as a giant winged human, kidnaps your bride from above while in her chariot. You then set off to rescue her, leading to the rest of the game.
- King Mook: The giant skeleton and giant mummy, enlarged versions of common enemies who put up a far better fight than their mook counterparts.
- Living Statue: Interestingly enough, despite the setting, the statues are not depicted as enemies. As soon as you defeat Osiris and rescue your bride, the two giant statues in the background suddenly come to life... and bow at you.
- Man-Eating Plant: One of the bosses is a giant pitcher plant-monster who tries to chomp you up. It can produce smaller plants as backup, and oddly enough, have the ability to breathe fire.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Monkeys appear on coconut trees along the Nile, and attack you by pelting coconuts. You defeat them by deflecting their nuts back at them.
- Mummy: As expected from a game with an ancient Egyptian setting, you encounter mummies frequently as enemies, inside and outside pyramids. Some of them can even launch their bandages at you as a ranged attack.
- Oculothorax: Giant eyeballs are enemies in the pyramids, who attack either by bouncing all over the place or rolling around until you slash them up.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Fittingly given the Egyptian setting, the second stage has a were-panther as a Mini-Boss. She assumes a Cat Girl form when attacking you, and if you damage her enough she momentarily turns into a human-sized panther to pounce on you.
- Proj-egg-tile: The giant eagle boss will lay and drop eggs from above during its boss fight.
- Randomly Reversed Letters: In the game's title screen (plus posters and promotional materials) the second K in "Karnak" is reversed. It forms a nice symmetrical effect for aesthetic reasons.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: You encounter asps and giant lizards, and they're enemies who attack you on sight.
- Slave Galley: One of the stages is set on a ship filled with rowing slaves crusing along the Nile. The slaves ignore you and can't be harmed, while you spend the whole stage fighting enemies off the deck and climbing up the ship's mast to confront the boss.
- Stationary Boss: More than one:
- The giant Man-Eating Plant, since it's growing from the earth, but it can periodically stick itself into and out of the earth.
- Mutton Head is a gigantic robotic ram-head built into the ground, who attacks by launching flying projectiles.
- The Giant Octopus boss spends its entire fight tethered to the back of a slave ship, while using its Combat Tentacles as a ranged attack.
- Stripped to the Bone: Osiris, upon defeat, immediately turns into a flaming skeleton before crumbling apart.
- Teleport Spam: There's a falcon-headed enemy in the pyramids who has the ability to teleport, disappearing and reappearing every time you land a slash. It can survive several hits, too, requiring you to keep chasing after it throughout battle.
- Unrobotic Reveal: The game somehow has a robotic ram head (!!!) as one of the bosses (called in-game as Mutton Head). But after you defeat it, the head rots away revealing a skull, which then opens up into a Cave Mouth for you to reach the next level.
- Winged Humanoid: Osiris is depicted as a giant Egyptian man with purple wings sprouting from his shoulders. There's also a minor Elite Mook enemy resembling a winged woman who lobs spears at you.
