Indiana Jones swings onto the Wii with his trusty whip and a bunch of motion controls. The latest adventure of everyone's favorite fedora sporting archeologist takes him on a quest for the Staff of Moses as he races against his rival Magnus Voller and the band of Nazis intent on getting the artifact for their own vile superior race driven agenda. Just right off the bat I have to say that I think the game is fun. Does it have problems? Yes, it kind of does. Some of the things people don't like about the game really don't bother me, but I do think there is good and bad to it.
Let's look at what most everyone considers bad first off. The motion controls. This game relies HEAVILY on motion controls. Whether you're slinging Indy's iconic whip or using his fist to knock the teeth out of a Nazi, you'll be putting your body into it. This aspect, I really didn't have a problem with. I like the feel of wielding the whip. Of feeling like I'm in a fist fight pummeling a Nazi within an inch of his life. If you don't mind that kind of thing, the game probably won't bother you as much as it does some people. However, the sensitivity of the motion can sometimes be a problem. Especially in the fist fights. You swing the Wii remote, Indy doesn't swing. BAM, a cheap shot to the face by a lucky Nazi. That gets annoying. Especially when you have a room full of brawlers coming at you. The cool thing is, you can use your whip to pull these guys to you and head butt them into submission and it feels great. The bad news is, sometimes you pick up a shovel, take a swing and the game doesn't read your motion and suddenly you have a bunch of dudes the size of the Airplane Bruiser from Raiders of the Lost Ark dogpiling you out of commission. All in all, though, I can forgive the game for that, because when it does work, it does feel rather satisfying.
The negative thing that drives me the most crazy is unskippable tutorials. Yes, these things will make you want to brain yourself with the nearest convenient concrete block. Say Indy gives you a run down on how to use your gun to take out bad guys who are hiding in a balcony. You take them out, walk off and a Cheap Death awaits with a bad step off a ledge or something of the sort. That's right, Indy gets to take another five or so minutes to show you how to take out balcony hiding bad guys with your sidearm once again with no way to skip through it. Uggh.
One other thing that might rankle is the running length of the game. It's pretty short. Less than ten hours, probably take you about 6 or so if you're not trying to get everything. This is okay with me as I only get to do my gaming in 20 minute spurts most of the time and with a good amount of checkpoints to save your progress, it can stretch the game out over a good couple of weeks or more for me. Then again, those who have hours to spare at a time will zoom right through this without breaking too much of a sweat.
That aside, I do think the game is fun. It feels like you're controlling Indy through a decent Indiana Jones movie. The locations feel like something you'd find in the movies and there's a decent variety to them. You start off in the Sudan and find yourself going through places like ruins in the jungle, the streets of San Francisco, a wrecked ship found underground, and the icy tundra of Nepal. You'll find a lot of brawling and a bit of puzzle solving along the way. Nothing that'll make your brain explode, but still fun to figure out and satisfying when you see the results. Once again, it's a decent job of making you feel like a participant in a Jones flick.
You can find a lot of "artifacts" hidden along the way and get enough of them, you can unlock movie trailers for the Indy series or new skins for the character to wear. There are a few cool moves you can do (such as killing a certain amount of bad guys by knocking a shelf on them) and unlock Glory Moves, which unlock other things. Most noticeably, the classic Point and Click adventure The Fate of Atlantis. In a way, you're getting two games for one in that regard.
Another thing about the game I found enjoyable is that amongst a lot of the levels, we find some arcade type action. A lot of time, you'll have the gun and you'll be a part of an on-rails shooter where you have to figure out the best way to dispatch bad guys. You'll find yourself on a runaway trolley shooting at car after car trying to gun you down. There's a pretty cool plane sequence where you have to navigate your way through a canyon-like area and take out enemy planes as you do it while holding the Wiimote like a joystick. This was frustrating to me at first, but once I got the hang of it, I found it quite fun. Also some water rafting and things of that nature. I found it a nice little way to break up the traditional bad guy fighting, puzzle solving play of the rest of the game.
For those who love them some Indiana Jones (what sane person doesn't), I think you can find this game cheap enough nowadays to warrant a buy. I don't feel it's good enough to justify paying the full price when it came out, but after the price drop; sure. If not a fan of the whip master, a rent would suffice. You just have to know going in how much you can tolerate the heavy use of motion controls and if that's worth trudging through. For me, it was. But, as they say, your mileage may vary.
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