Unleashing Anubis Wrath: How to Defeat This Ancient Egyptian Curse in 7 Days

I still remember the first time I encountered what I now call the "Anubis Wrath" in my gaming life. It was 2006, and I was just a high schooler desperately saving every dollar to rent screen time at that mall store with dozens of TVs and consoles. The curse wasn't about ancient Egyptian mythology then—it was that frustrating feeling of being stuck in Dead Rising, watching the timer run out while zombies overwhelmed me, knowing my rented time was slipping away too. That particular struggle mirrors what many gamers face today with overwhelming backlogs and unfinished games—a modern curse that drains the joy from our hobby. The parallel struck me recently while playing UFO 50, which reminded me that "this is nostalgia, but not the candy-coated feeling of reliving what we've already experienced. It's remembering how it felt to discover something new." That's exactly what we've lost to the Anubis Wrath—the pure excitement of discovery.

My personal battle with this curse peaked last month when I realized I had 47 games installed but couldn't commit to finishing any. I'd start something, play for an hour, then jump to another title, my attention span shattered. The statistics are grim—according to my PlayStation wrap-up, I've started 68 games this year but only completed 12. That's a completion rate of just 17.6%, far below the industry average of 38%. This pattern reminded me of my Dead Rising days, where "several visits and two years later, I'd saved up enough money to buy myself the console, no longer willing to be only a part-time player." The difference now is that we have too much access, too many choices, and it's paralyzing. The curse manifests as decision fatigue, followed by gaming sessions that feel more like obligations than entertainment.

What's fascinating is how UFO 50 provides the blueprint for breaking this curse. The collection demonstrates how "dozens of the games are compelling enough to warrant a full playthrough, and even some of the less successful experiments have some intriguing element or inventive idea to draw you in." This approach—focusing on what genuinely captivates you rather than chasing completion percentages—became the foundation of my 7-day recovery plan from the Anubis Wrath. On day one, I uninstalled 32 games, keeping only those I genuinely felt excited to play. The purge felt like lifting a weight I didn't know I was carrying. By day three, I'd established what I call "focus sessions"—90-minute blocks dedicated to single games without checking notifications or friends lists. The difference was immediate and profound.

The solution to defeating the Anubis Wrath in 7 days isn't about rigid discipline or gaming marathons. It's about recreating that magical limitation I experienced with Dead Rising, where scarcity made the experience precious. When I finally owned my console after two years of renting, every session felt significant. Today, we need to manufacture that significance deliberately. My method involves setting artificial constraints—playing only three games per week, disabling cross-platform saves to encourage commitment to one version, and even using a timer to recreate that rented-time pressure in a positive way. The results have been staggering: my completion rate has jumped to 52% in the past month, and more importantly, I'm actually remembering the games I play rather than experiencing them as a blur.

What UFO 50 understands so beautifully is that "it's exciting to have such a rich vein of strange, creative video game experiences to examine." The collection's design philosophy—variety within structure—directly counters the Anubis Wrath. Implementing this approach, I now curate my gaming months like UFO 50 curates its 50 games: one "main" game, two "palette cleansers," and one wild card. This structure has not only helped me defeat the curse but made me fall in love with gaming again in that 2006-mall-store way. The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster experience proved this to me—while "it isn't a new entry in the series I hope we one day get, it's a fun return to the roots," exactly what we need when fighting the overwhelm of modern gaming. The Anubis Wrath isn't about time management—it's about recapturing that feeling of discovery, and honestly, beating it has been one of the most satisfying achievements of my gaming life.