Ah, Indiana Jones. A rather well loved film series from the same man who brought us Star Wars… and a film series which seems to have gotten the same treatment as Star Wars all those years later.
This Angry Video Game Nerd episode focuses on games from the Indiana Jones trilogy and was released originally on the eve of the release of the 4th film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — a film which would be met with mixed reception, shall we say, and would be the origin of the phrase “Nuke the fridge!”
We’re not here to talk about that though, were here to talk about video games, or more correctly, take a look a guy doing an entertainment review series where he takes a look at old video games while playing a character….
Anyway, the Nerd opens up this episode with the Atari 2600 game Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is a notoriously cryptic game that’s also incredibly deep, especially for an Atari 2600 title. Interestingly it was made by the same man behind Yar’s Revenge and E.T! Seriously. It’s not a bad game, but it’s confusing to say the least. One of those “without the manual you have no clue and even with it this stuff seems random” kind of games.
We follow up with the NES and Temple of Doom. There are 2 releases of the game with slightly different art, but software wise both releases are the same. Yeah, it’s a bit of an oddity. That’s before we get into the game which is itself a butchered mess of perspective with confusing controls and just a whole “what the fuck is going on” feel about it. Indeed, it’s enough to enrage James — while Raiders on 2600 confused an annoyed him, this one outright pisses him off, with the expected comedic results.
Lastly, we hit another NES game, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Much like the last game there are two versions of this one. Unlike the last game, the art on both is basically identical (save for some coloring changes in the background) and the two games are completely different. What the fuck, right?
Here’s where things get odd — the original release of this episode only focused on one version of the game, the “bad” one — the DVD version, which is what I link to below, starts off with the “good” version of the game, which was a segment added in to this version of the film, having originally never intended to review it but giving it a shot anyway.
This follows with the “bad” version of the game, and the one James remembered from when he was younger.
Oh man, this almost looks like a Game Boy game which has been ported to the NES. It’s a damn mess, that simple. I won’t even spoil it if you haven’t seen it, it’s just a mess of a game. A tedious looking experience, if this review is anything to go on.
We end with a look at an Indiana Jones game on Super Nintendo. This game actually seems halfway decent, marking a rare case where James ends a nerd episode on a high point, with no real final joke tossed out there. It was just a way for him to share his love of Indiana Jones while he had a good chance to.
Final Rating: 4.0/5
It’s a solid episode. Nothing too special but the games gave him a nice range of rants to make and things to complain about, and all in all it gave me a good laugh a decade ago, and still does today. As I said, it’s more of a chance for him to just have some fun and share his love of Indiana Jones while also being frustrated at how the series was treated in the 8-bit era of gaming. Nothing too major, but an episode with some charm to it.
Oh, an bonus points for the scene where he whips the game and actually breaks a light, but decides to keep the error in the video. That was just great.