Game: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Platform: NES
Year Released: 1988



Ever since the news about LucasArts’ near-forgotten next-gen Indiana Jones game broke yesterday, I have been jonesing to play one of the Indy games from my childhood. However, I had neither Fate of Atlantis or early PC graphic adventure The Last Crusade at my disposal, so I had to settle for what I figured would be the next best thing: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the NES. As it turns out, the game is the next best thing to pretty much nothing, as the gameplay experience is just awful.

To the credit of the developers, they did at least attempt to stick with the story from the 1984 movie of the same name, even if they did skip a whole lot of it. To me, that is forgivable in an 8-bit video game. You start out at Pankot Palace with the goal of rescuing the orphaned children while collecting Sankara Stones. The eventual goal is to defeat Mola Ram, just like in the movie. You can even hear a few Midi notes of the Indiana Jones score on the title screen, which is nice for an NES game.



What I’m less able to forgive are the awful controls and graphics that would have been considered terrible even in 1988. Though much of the game includes platforming elements requiring you to jump, swing, and move from one place to another as you collect items, the controls are barely functional. Jumping ranges from annoying to godawful, as half the time trying to get to another platform, even one right next to the one you’re currently on, will lead to Indy jumping into the lava below for no real reason. I don’t know if the jumping mechanism was designed this way in a misguided attempt at challenging the player or it’s an awful glitch, but trying to jump anywhere just makes the game feel broken.

Paired with the wonky controls is some of the worst level design I’ve ever seen. In fact, when I first started playing the game, I took one look at the first level (or “wave”, as they’re called in the game for some reason) and wanted to quit and find something else to play. However, I kept going, knowing that looks can be deceiving when it comes to old-school games. In this case, my first impressions were correct. Most levels consist of ambiguous lumps of some kind of solid surface, ladders that, even if you’re pushing up on the D-pad, you will still somehow manage to fall off of, and obstacles that range from moving enemies to falling boulders.



There’s really nothing about this game to make it worth playing, even as a novelty item. It’s nowhere near the top of the pack as far as Indiana Jones video games go, and instead of satisfying my appetite for a decent Indy gameplay experience, it just made me wish I had chosen a better game to spend my time on. You may come across this game at a flea market or yard sale, but if you pay any amount of money for this game, you’re getting ripped off. Don’t be fooled by the familiar and comforting face of Harrison Ford on the cover; this game is what should have been destroyed in a pit of lava.

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