Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade
1990 Lucasfilm Games/U.S. Gold Sega Master System Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade is a 2D platform game based on the 1989 movie of the same name. Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade follows the same basic plot as the movie and covers the main key plot points in the form of levels, or ‘scenes’ as the game calls them. Indiana Jones comes with everything you would expect, his classic brown fedora, he can use his fists for close encounters and can pick up the whip power up which allows Indiana Jones to use his famous whip against enemies. As a game, Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade isn’t overly long, it consists of only 6 levels in a race against the ever depleting clock. The timer isn’t forgiving, you have roughly 80 seconds per level to find the next hourglass and the timer seems to run down slightly faster than a second, which can lead you to make some frantic mistakes. Each level contains obstacles that Indiana Jones must overcome, from simple boxes and barrels, to ropes, pitfalls and falling fireballs. In true Indiana Jones style, even the wildlife hates you. From dodging angry rhino horns, over-curious giraffes and hysterical rats, the only thing missing from this is a horde of snakes. Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade doesn’t have the best 8bit graphics, but it isn’t without its charm. The graphics of the actual levels are much better than the sprites. The Caves of Coronado and The Catacombs of Venice are particular graphical highlights of the game. The enemy sprites on Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade aren’t great with the main focus being on the ‘cowboy’ sprite from the first level who makes recurring appearances throughout the game. However, I am not sure whether these cowboy sprites are used as a cop out from the movie, as level 4 and 5 have a distinct lack of Nazis. However, a great feature of Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade which should have been used more is during level 4 at Castle Brunwald, where Indiana Jones can use his whip to traverse pitfalls by targeting white orbs on the castles walls. One graphical point that should be raised about Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade is that level 6 pushes the boundaries by creating the illusion of 3D. On the quest for the Holy Grail, level 6 moves from a 2D platform by adding depth to the level, allowing Indiana Jones to move both up and down as well as left and right. Although this has its own problems, it’s also a cool feature and something that wouldn’t become truly popular until 16bit. A major problem with Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade is that the edges of platforms are longer than they actually are, this causes you to misjudge jumps with the end result being Indiana Jones plummeting to his death more often than not. The sound on Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade is distinctly lacking, well, in music. Unlike a lot of games from this era, which detract from the relatively simple gaming with a repetitive, bouncy 8bit beat. Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade other than the 8bit title sample of the Indiana Jones theme and the music played over the ‘scene’ film reel, seriously lacks music. Because of this lack of an ambient sound, the only thing to focus on is the sound FX which are pretty poor. The sound FX are built from 8bit thuds and tings with Indiana Jones’ whip sound again being a rehash of the fire ring sound from Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade is not without its flaws and it really could be a lot better. However, there are a lot of cool features which will appeal to any Indiana Jones fan, being able to collect the artefacts from the movie and being able to whip your away across the castle walls is pretty awesome. The distinct lack of sound is upsetting but, the fact that Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade challenges the boundaries of what the 8bit could offer is worth playing, even if it is just to see where 8bit was and where gaming was going towards 16bit. 5/10 Adam
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