Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (NES)
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| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | |
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| Developer(s) | Atari Games |
| Publisher(s) | Mindscape[1] Tengen |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release date | December 1988[1] |
| Genre(s) | Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media | Cartridge |
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an action game released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After the 1984 film release, Atari Games released an arcade version of the movie in 1985. Nintendo of America sought to capitalize on both the success of its Nintendo Entertainment System and the Indiana Jones franchise by porting the game to its popular console. The resulting game differed somewhat from the arcade version, but kept the same underlying premise and style.
By December of 1988, there were two versions of the game available, distributed by Tengen and Mindscape, although the software itself was identical. After a lawsuit, Tengen's unlicensed version was pulled from the shelves and Mindscape's became the standard. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom gives the player control of Indiana Jones as he makes his way through the temple in a series of twelve levels or "waves." In the final wave, the player must defeat the villain of the film, Mola Ram, on a rope bridge that recreates the final scene in the movie. The game was almost universally panned by both contemporary and modern critics and game players, chastised for its poor graphics and the overall difficulty of gameplay.
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[edit] Version history
The film version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 and starred Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.[2] Shortly afterward, in 1985, Atari Games capitalized on the franchise by releasing the initial version of the game on arcade machine. This version was described as a platform and fighting game and featured theme music and sound clips from the actual film. The game takes place over three zones that are based on the movie's plot and is relatively short, given the nature of the medium for which it was made.[3] This version was also the first translated from any of the movies in the Indiana Jones series into an arcade game.[4]
Nintendo of America's Nintendo Entertainment system was the best selling console system and almost all video game developers and publishers wanted to contribute the video game library. The NES, at its peak, sold thirty million units in the United States alone and controlled 90% of the 8-bit market.[5] Companies such as Konami, Capcom and Acclaim derived many of their gaming ideas from two sources to better capitalize on the growing industry. The first strategy was to take games that were already popular on arcade, such as Contra, and port them to home console versions. Their second idea was to produce game versions of popular movies and television shows, such as Fester's Quest and DuckTales.[6]
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom satisfied both of these categories. Aside from the original arcade version, the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum system had released versions of the game that were fairly similar to the first game in 1987.[4] By December 1988, the Nintendo Entertainment System had already seen two separate editions of the Temple of Doom game. The first version, distributed by Tengen, came in a black cartridge that was different from Nintendo's traditional grey colour format. By this point, however, Tengen had split from Nintendo and was producing unlicensed games that attempted to circumvent the need for an infamous 10NES chip.[6] Nintendo filed suit and Tengen lost, forcing it to remove its NES games from the market.[7] The officially licensed version was released by Mindscape in the form of a standard Nintendo cartridge. Aside from the differences in cover art and cartridge form, however, the actual software of the two games is identical.[6] After the Nintendo version, the game was subsequently released for Amiga, DOS, Apple, Atari ST and MSX in 1989.[4]
There are several significant differences between the arcade game and its console adaptation. In the original arcade version, the Sankara Stones were not all found in one location at the end of a wave. Instead, Jones had to travel through a temple every two rounds. In addition, the entire style of play is different and bestows upon the player more weapons and items for Jones to collect from the slave children he frees. Jones was also unable to jump in previous incarnations of the game.[6]
[edit] Plot and gameplay
The plot of the Nintendo version follows the storyline of the original movie. At the onset of the game, Jones has just reached the Pankot Palace featured in the movie and is preparing to free the slave children, recover the missing Sankara Stones and defeat Mola Ram and his Thuggee entourage.[8] As mentioned above, the game differs from the original arcade version in many respects, most notably the layout and the manner in which one progresses through the game. In both versions, however, the plot remains unchanged.[6]
The player advances through twelve levels (called "waves"), the first nine of which require Jones to travel through the palace and recover the Sankara Stones. In these stages, the player may restart the game with all items intact in the last area reached. Afterwards, if the player dies, they must return to the Chamber of Kali (Wave 9) and finish the game from that point. Each level also has a timer that goes from 99 to zero. If time runs out, the player loses one life and all of their items. The first eight waves also contain secret doors that can be discovered by throwing TNT. These hidden entrances lead to storerooms with caches of useful items, "special" waves and bonus warp areas that allow the player to progress through the game faster by skipping waves. All levels also contain mine cart rooms, where Jones can ride the rails through the levels across hazards and past enemies.[8]
Wave 9 requires the player to cross a river of lava by stunning the monsters that live there. Once across, Jones must grab the Sankara Stones to progress to the Map Room where he can use the map pieces he has collected to figure out where the secret door exit is in Wave 10. Alternatively, there is a secret idol in one of the waves that will reveal the hidden exit. To pass requires the use of both TNT and the Sankara Stones (if Jones dies with the Stones in his possession, they are placed in large skulls found throughout the level). Wave 11 leads to the exit and Wave 12 recreates the scene with the rope bridge and the final battle with Mola Ram.[8]
The game contains a variety of elements that both aid and hinder the player's progress through the waves. At his disposal, Jones has TNT, guns, swords, hats for extra lives, jewels for extra time and his classic whip. Opposing him are bats, rats, snakes, spiders and an endless supply of Thugee servants. In addition, if Jones lands in any of the lava pits, crashes a mine cart or hits a boulder or spike trap, he loses one life.[8]
[edit] Technology
Neither the graphics nor the music of this game have received much attention. Graphically, the game has been panned as a failure. The action sprites for Jones' whip, for example, are invisible in many of their positions. One official reviewer, from the Indiana Jones fan community TheRaider.net, commented that Jones looks as if he is wearing "a medical intern's dirty coveralls" and comments the colour scheme made their eyes "sting."[6] In comparison to the arcade version, the game fares just as poorly. Skyler Miller, a reviewer at All Game Guide who compared the console adaptation to the original game, admits that the graphics are "recognizable," but claims that the version is "missing the much of the original's detail and character."[1]
The reviewer from TheRaider.net, however, admitted that the game's "respectable attempt to preserve John Williams' musical score" was one of its only highlights.[6] The original arcade version had been revolutionary in that it was the first Atari System 1 game to talk to the players using speech capability, a feature lacking in the console version due to the limitations of the hardware. The arcade game, like the console adaptation, obtained its theme music (as well as sound effects that were absent on the Nintendo version) from the film itself.[3]
[edit] Reception and legacy
The game's great difficulty level was the key factor in its negative reception. Among the cited flaws are that Jones' new jumping ability is glitchy, causing him to leap downwards no matter which direction he is facing, unless the player is holding down the button for the particular direction in which they want to jump. Also the new weapons, which are required to cross the lava river in Wave 9, have a finite supply and are rare in later levels. Also cited are poor controls, unappealing graphics, plethora of enemies and the text-only ending screen.[6]
Despite these flaws, critical response was tempered. Erde Kaiser of The House of Games.net gave the game 5 out of 10, saying that it "adheres to the (now) tradition that games made from movie aren't very good."[3] Allgame's final judgment is to call it "a passable effort" and to compare unfavourably to the arcade version.[1] Player reviews, however, were somewhat more mixed, with GameFAQ's unscrutinized user review imparting a 3 out of 10 on the NES version.[9] Top Ten Reviews was even less forgiving, ranking it the third worst NES game of 1988, as well as the worst platform game overall and 1,278 out of 1,296 ranked Nintendo titles.[10] In contrast, GameSpot's unscrutinized player reviews give the game a 7.1 out of 10, which ranks the game 207th out of 1,326 NES titles.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Miller, Skyler (2007). Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. allgame. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ a b c Bousiges, Alexis (May 1, 2007). [Video Game] Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom © Atari Games (1985). Arcade-History.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ a b c Kaiser, Erde (August 9, 2006). Indiana jones and the temple of doom. The House of Games.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ Liedholm, Marcus & Mattias (2004). The History of the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom. Nintendo Land. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ a b c d e f g h MF. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The Raider.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ Kent, Steven. Lawsuit: ATARI GAMES CORP. and TENGEN, INC. (Plaintiff) V. NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC. AND NINTENDO CO., LTD., (Defendant) - Security Code. NESplayer.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ a b c d NES Manuals: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Vimm's Lair (August 2, 2000). Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Reviews. GameFAQs (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Top Ten Reviews (2006). Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Gamespot NES (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
