Indiana Jones comes to the Wii (among other consoles)

[DeadPoolX]

I know this has already been posted at Adventure Gamers, but Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings will be released for the Wii, DS and PSP sometime in the near future.

At this time, IJSK will not be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360. That's okay -- those consoles have a number of games that aren't on the Wii. What separates the Wii version from the PSP and DS editions (aside from the latter two being hand-held platforms) is that the Wii has an exclusive on it: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis will be added as a fully playable game.

So that means anyone who has a Wii will essentially gain two games in one. That's not an understatement, either. IJFA is extremely difficult to find now (it was released in 1992) and most copies for sale on eBay can be quite expensive. In addition, it's assumed that IJFA will be the "talkie" version, so full voices are expected.

If you have a Wii, this is definitely a game to pick up (espeically if you haven't played Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis).

[Maiandra]

I'm glad this is coming to the Wii and using the remotes interactively. I think it's especially cool that we can play an old adventure game on the Wii as well. I'll definitely be doing that, since the disk version we have doesn't have the voices.

[Tawmis]

I will give this a whirl. When does it come out for the Wii?

[DeadPoolX]

I will give this a whirl. When does it come out for the Wii?

I looked this up on the LucasArts website and it said "Late Spring 2009." That's a tentative date, however, so the game could get released much later. I hope it doesn't, since it looks like it'll be fun. Especially the co-op mode.

[Maiandra]

Yay co-op! That's my favourite thing about Wii games.

[Tawmis]

Oh! Co-Op mode? That I do like! Tis what I like about games like HALO, GEARS OF WAR, etc - Paul and I will have a riot of a time getting through things. (I drive him insane... he's the careful sniper type... I am the chainsaw gun run at'em and take the shots kinda guy)... More often than not he has to come out of his sniper position and come save me!

[DeadPoolX]

The release date has been pushed back to June 30, 2009. That's not surprising, really. Since when has a game come out on time?

Something to note is that IJSK uses the same game engine as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. From what I've heard, that particular engine was very interactive. Of course, what the gameplay is like depends on the development team, regardless of the engine.

One thing that puzzles me is why the PS3 and Xbox 360 wouldn't get this game. I'm not upset about that, but SW:TFU was on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. Many reviewers said that game was better on those two systems, as opposed to the Wii.

[Maiandra]

From what I understood in the reviews, the Force Unleashed was less successful on the Wii because of the controls weren't adapted as well as they could have been. Perhaps they felt it was better to focus on one control scheme for the new Indiana Jones game instead of trying to adapt it for multiple console controls.

[DeadPoolX]

Good News

• It was released on June 9, 2009
• It includes Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis ("talkie" version) as an unlockable

Bad News

• Atrocious, annoying motion controls
• Simplistic and repetitive action sequences
• Terribly laid-out checkpoint save locations
• Out-of-date visuals.
• Lowest score was 3.5 by GameSpot while the highest score was 7.5 from Nintendo Power. Both scores were based on a ten-point scale.

The part about motion controls and visuals is fairly subjective. As an example, I rented Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and despite every review claiming the controls (for the Wii) were terrible, I didn't find them bad at all. As for IJSK's graphics... well, they're certainly not as refined as the PS3, XBox 360 or the PC; however, for the Wii, I think they're pretty good.

Even from the screen shots (before the game was reviewed) the action looked simplistic and somewhat repetitive. However, the action in most games can get repetitive. So I'm not sure that's a very serious knock against it.

One part I think is unforgivable is the checkpoint save system. Despite the fact modern console games don't NEED to use checkpoint saves anymore, if it's going to be implemented, it should be done right! I don't know anyone who loves doing replaying a sequence where they've died or worse yet, had to quit the game for some reason or another.

All in all, I'm very disappointed. I was hoping Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings might be good. It's been a long time since LucasArts produced a decent Indiana Jones game (the last one I can recall was Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis), so I suppose I shouldn't have raised my hopes this time.

[Fender_178]

My brother just bought this game for Wii and its awesome so far.