Akaria is an unused location in Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. It was an underwater kingdom in the depths of Abydos. Sphinx would use a fish-shaped submersible to travel between Abydos South (also discarded) and the entrance tunnel to the underwater city's dome.
History[]
Originally, it was home to the Akarians, who were at the brink of war with Abydos; each side had grown increasingly weary of the opposing kingdom's sabotage tactics. The Electric Eels were evidence of this. At the end of the game it was revealed that Set and the Akarian King's adviser Ishka were behind the discord.
Development[]
Most areas were in an advanced stage of development when Eurocom decided to reduce the game scope due to time constraints. It originally consisted of several big levels and a handful of small dungeons. One special feature that did not make it into the final game was the sliding mechanic: Sphinx surfed down various steep water slide tubes while avoiding waterfalls to transport Salt Crystals safely, which were needed to open doors leading to new levels and dissolved on water contact.
Compared to Sakkara, the discarded levels are more polished, with the last dungeon and boss battle being mostly reused for the Abydos boss battle, with only minor tweaks in the entrance animation (where in the final game it is implied that Sphinx falls from the Council Chambers instead of using the door) and confronting the Mayor's Advisors instead of Ishka. The final, transformed form as a flying demon and fight mechanics were left as-is, though they were supposed to showcase advanced versions of the explosive mines and light crystals used in all the previous levels leading to that point.
| Pre-release and unused content | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Ishka | Akarian King |
| Locations | Akaria | Sakkara | Uruk Valley |
| Monsters | Dino Oaf | Geb |
| Misc | Game Manual Differences |