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After last week's Super Star Wars Trilogy write-up, it's now time to highlight the other unknown trilogy game: Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures.

It's basically like the Super Star Wars Trilogy, except it's based on a much better movie series (that's right, I said it), all three flicks are summarized in just one cartridge, and there's about 60% more Harrison Ford. Other than that, though, the trilogy games are remarkably similar; both jump back and forth between side-scrolling and Mode 7 levels, both are unforgivingly difficult, and both play fast and loose with their source material.

So go ahead, hit the jump. Trust me.

Story:

Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures somehow manages to simultaneously be really faithful to the original films, and not very faithful at all. On the one hand, it refuses to take the Super Star Wars route and turn every single dialogue scene into an excuse for platforming and combat: you don't have to punch and jump your way through Indy's university before heading to Cairo.

On the other hand, the game also ignores some of the best action sequences in all three of the films. You won't find the Raiders truck chase in Greatest Adventures, nor will you play the boat or motorcycle chases from The Last Crusade. And you won't even see the Cross of Coronado. 

Oh, and the final boss is an evil, zombified version of Walter Donovan. Instead of aging a thousand years and instantly dying after drinking from the false grail, he just sort of loses his skin and becomes eighty times more powerful. So, there's that.

 

Gameplay:

Same deal as the Super Star Wars games, except a hundred times harder. You know those Mode 7 levels in Empire or Jedi? Remember how I was bitching that they were difficult? They have nothing on the Mode 7 stages in Greatest Adventures. Every chase scene, be it on a mine cart or a biplane, requires the player to dodge and shoot with the reflexes of a genetically engineered rabbit. If you can't avoid the pitfalls, you die very quickly, and -- as one would expect from a game made in 1994 -- you have to restart the entire level again, even if you died right before the very end.

The side-scrolling stages are more or less standard, but they're also kind-of-sort-of nonlinear. Indy can climb on top of many surfaces and use his whip to swing from wooden, wall-mounted pegs; since Indy can do so much, the Factor 5 developers thought it might be cute to give the player a bunch of different routes to the goal -- only to dead-end all but one of them once the player has spent enough time on any given path to assume it's the right one.

Duck when you could have jumped? Tough titty -- you're gonna have to either die or go all the way back to that junction, and we won't tell you that this is the case until you've already spent another five minutes walking right.

The game isn't all frustrating, though. The way it replicates certain moments from the film using gameplay are really, really entertaining. The boulder chase plays out exactly as you'd expect it to -- the damned rock takes up the entire left half of the screen -- and this badass scene from Raiders is perfectly translated into a 2D boss fight. The boss actually can't be beaten unless you follow the film and shoot the dude in the chest; even if you try to smack him with your whip, the guy will just stand there and take it until you finally bust a poorly-animated cap in his ass.

 

Why you're probably not playing it:

Gotta love this guy's heavily-accented, occasionally stressed-out commentary as he beats the game. 

In all seriousness, though, just watch the guy try to beat the last stage -- it's friggin' hard. Each little platform has a huge spike which can knock you plummeting to your death in one hit, each of the timing puzzles takes off a significant portion of health with every hit...in many ways, this game is even more unforgiving than the Super Star Wars games.

It also doesn't help that the controls are nowhere near as tight. Indy jumps rather sluggishly, and aiming his whip attack in any direction other than straight forward can be a real chore. Heck, you can't even fire your gun and move at the same time unless you start firing after you start running, or if you jump in the air and fire your gun and keep the Y button held down or -- whatever. The controls aren't great.

Actually, considering the controls aren't that great, the game itself really isn't that great. It's interesting, it's got some cute level design, and its alternating faithfulness to and ignorance of its source material make it worth a try, at the very least. It is, of course, incredibly easy to NOT emulate -- if you're a fan of the Indy series, it might be worth the two-second NOT download time to hear 16-bit versions of the Indy theme song, and the famous boulder scene. 








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25 comments | showing # 1 to 25
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Tragic Hero's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:00
Tragic Hero
Not a bad game but it doesn't hold a candle to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for PC. Great Lucasart point and click adventure.
Snaileb 's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:06
Snaileb
Who could ever forget such a mainstream multi-million dollar property?

Military Madness, or Keith Courage, or even StarTropics are games that are sure to kick start the thinker.

But for the sake of the article, it was very well written, and the game did kick alot of ass.
Zane's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:13
Zane
I thought you this was going to be about indiana jones and the temple of doom on the PC (1985). Now there's a classic. That game was impossible (Maybe because I was only 5 years old!).

http://www.classic-pc-games.com/pc/arcade_action/indiana_jones_and_the_temple_of_doom.html
Cowzilla3's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:22
Cowzilla3
Good game, not my favorite ever though.

You know what is a great game you should do? Come on you can guess, I suggest it every week. Yea thats right...

Everything or Nothing. One day, one day it will be so.
vampireblood's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:23
vampireblood
Yea hate to say but the snes version in comparison to the PC version.

PC>SNES

PC>EVERYTHING!
Foe's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:25
Foe
Wasn't that point and click Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis? And yeah that was a great game.

And... I'm going to agree about the movies being better than star wars.
Fading Star's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:36
Fading Star
"It's basically like the Super Star Wars Trilogy, except it's based on a much better movie series (that's right, I said it), all three flicks are summarized in just one cartridge, and there's about 60% more Harrison Ford."

Those are fighting words!

Seriously, I have never played this game but it sounds neat.

@Rev
Are you going to see Indiana Jones 4?
brad drac's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 09:43
brad drac
You got your castlevania in my super star wars. But yes, that looks like it crosses the line from "fun hard" to "fuck off and die in blazing inferno hard".
repsode's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 10:15
repsode
@Foe

They both existed. In fact there were more than one Last Crusade game, one was action oriented, the other was graphic adventure, distinguished by subtitles.

Fate of Atlatis remains by far my favourite Indy game.

Damn it Lucasarts, why did you have to change?
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 10:24
Aaron Mxy Yost
How the hell have I never heard about this until now?
Dr Milkdad's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 10:59
Dr Milkdad
I only remember The Fate of Atlantis, that was a pretty good one.
shadow300z's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 11:12
shadow300z
I rented this game before it's official release date from a Blockbuster. I beat it in one weekend and wrote down all the level passcodes and then sent them in to gamepro and got published!

Yeah it was hard but it wasn't too hard for me. Some of the Mode 7 parts were hella fun.
Campbell's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 11:47
Campbell
Great game, but you lost me at "better movie series".
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 11:47
Sharpless
Factor 5? Didn't they do Lair?
Kyousuke Nanbu's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 12:11
Kyousuke Nanbu
@Heretic

Yes there was, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, made by the collective, fantastic game that captured the way Indy explores perfectly, it also had a great fighting system since you actually brawled(as was Indy's style) and it was fun as hell to disarm people with the whip.

I still have this game for my Snes, it sits right alongside my trilogy of movies, I want to see the new movie already.
CaffeinePowered's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 12:33
CaffeinePowered
I really have to go play fate of Atlantis sometime
Darren Nakamura's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 13:37
Darren Nakamura
Man, I've never even heard of this, but I'm a big Indiana Jones fan, so I ought to play them. Virtual Console please?
Elrando's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 15:23
Elrando
Finally someone who agrees, Indiana Jones is superior to Star Wars.
TheExit's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 15:29
TheExit
YES! This game rocks! One of the best SNES games! I have the rom, its sweet!
KamikazeTutor's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 17:43
KamikazeTutor
NO TIME FOR LOVE DOCTOR JONES!
DJMegaMatX's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 19:04
DJMegaMatX
This game has its decent parts.

Hardest part by far was the first level of Temple of Doom where you play a poisoned Indiana Jones that is running through a crowded dance hall while getting sniped at.

I do remember renting this and getting to the last boss of Last Crusade, then dying. Not sure if I'd be that patient now. :)
Orionsaint's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/05/2008 20:47
Orionsaint
Starting at 1:43 its like an episode of Jackass.

Snow rafting dudes!
catsithx's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/06/2008 06:58
catsithx
That game made me break my frist controller everand I played battle toads more than that game
PetiePal's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/06/2008 12:02
PetiePal
But who remembers Indiana Jones Stories and Yoda Stories for the PC. Infinite adventures!
eelel kielat's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/25/2008 17:52
eelel kielat
good looking game for an old title but damn that looks painfuly hard
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