Overview
Big Karnak is a side-scrolling action game set in Ancient Egypt. The pharaoh's wife was taken by a flying creature, and of course now he embarks on a quest to get her back. On his way, he has to fight a lot of mystical beings and animals, e.g. skeletons or snakes.
The game is divided into three stages with a different gameplay focus. The first level is a standard hack & slash: the pharaoh walks from left to right and fights enemies (which mostly go down in one hit) and one boss in melee combat. The second level, a temple, has a maze-like structure with multiple junctions. The pharaoh needs to explore this temple, find a few women to rescue and a magical weapon to proceed - a map which appears directly after entering the temple shows the way as well as hints for the two switch puzzles. At the end of level one, the pharaoh acquired a staff which is able to do ranged attacks, which is helpful to deal with the increased amount of bosses and mini bosses. The third stage is mostly a linear sequence of boss battles.
Each level has to be beaten within a time limit while avoiding dying. The pharaoh has an energy bar which is depleted with enemy hits, and one of the lives is lost as soon as the bar hits zero. Power-ups along the way increase power and time.
