Indy has been with us for several decades. Several generations have lived and grown up with his cinematic adventures. With Dr. Jones, we traveled to exotic countries, ate monkey brains, proved the existence of aliens or even traveled back in time. Of course, it would be a real shame not to have taken advantage of this rich adventurous universe within the world of video games.
It is true that despite what it may seem, Indiana Jones is not a franchise specially used in video gamesfor the cinematic impact it had. And what's more, he was treated with irregular fortune. But despite this, we are going to do a retrospective from the beginnings of our favorite adventurer until the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle of Bethesda
Indy's first pixelated journeys
The Atari 2600, almost prehistoric and precursor, was the first device to receive the archaeologist in a 1982 game: Raiders of the Lost Ark . Two other games will arrive in 1985 inspired by the second film and another freely.
Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients In 1987, he will give another point of view on the Indy games, until now more action-oriented. In this case, the story was not related to cinema and fell into the genre of conversational adventure. For the youngest, this difficult genre was based on texts to which you had to respond and write down the actions you performed. You could say that these games are the ancestors of point-and-click games.
Another game inspired by the second film would be released for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, Spectrum ZX and Apple II and would lead to the jump to consoles, already established as a form of entertainment.
Arrival on 8 and 16-bit consoles
The NES, which has been a global sensation in the world of video games since the end of the 80s and would therefore receive neither more nor less than three games from the franchise. These would be inspired by the films The Temple of Doom and the Last Crusade from 1988 and 1990 respectively. Then another game inspired by the almost unknown television series of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.
None of the three were great games, but the fact that they had the license, the music, and were three fun platformers gave them some relevance.. The last crusade It also saw its arrival on the three Sega consoles of the time: Mega Drive (Genesis), Master System and Game Gear, Mega Drive also received another game inspired by the young Indiana series: Instruments of Chaos: with young Indiana Jones in 1994.
Indy and graphic adventures
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: the graphic adventure (1989) marked a before and after in terms of Indy games. Taking advantage of the third cinematic opus, the game took us on an exceptional graphic adventure based on SCUMM (the LucasArts program for its graphic adventure games).
This further expanded the story of this film and even allowed us to take different paths to advance the plot. It is perhaps, to date, the best game inspired by the adventures of Dr. Jones and the most loved by fans. The success was such that this game had a sequel. With a completely original plot (which for many should have been that of the fourth film) came Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in 1992. Another quality game inspired by our favorite archaeologist which has enjoyed great success.
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures for Super Nintendo in 1994, it was another of the franchise's great games. By bringing together iconic scenes from the original trilogy, we could enjoy all of Indiana's adventures in one action-platformer cartridge. Additionally, the game used the Nintendo console's famous Mode 7 (3D effect) and images rendered from footage from the film, which gave the game a round appearance.
Indiana Jones and 3D, an irregular couple
Indiana Jones and his computer adventures In 1996, it was an arcade game for Macintosh and PC with Indy in figurine mode and not very memory intensive, which appealed to many. And with that, the franchise's 2D run came to an end.
In 1999 Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine placed our protagonist in a 3D adventure. It was released on PC, Nintendo 64 and was adapted for Game Boy Color. One of the most notable games of this new polygonal journey of the franchise which was going to be a tomb Raider. The game was very popular in both action and puzzles.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb from 2003, took on the Tomb Raider style game concept. I liked the game, although it didn't really resonate due to complicated gameplay. It was released on Xbox, we can play it today thanks to backward compatibility PlayStation 2 and PC.
The friendly Lego characters were the next step in the saga. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures in 2008 and a year later Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continuesthey were fun adventure and platform games. They were released massively on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PC. These games made it possible to restore a little taste to the character, since since the last film in 1989, the franchise was somewhat forgotten and somewhat unknown to new generations.
A failure to say goodbye to this day
The last game released on consoles until today was Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings in 2009. A game which, although intended for the Xbox 360 and PS3, was ultimately released on PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii and PC. This is a good example of the poor graphic quality of the title, unjustifiable on higher platforms. Additionally, the motion controls, especially on the Wii, were truly atrocious and poorly adapted to other platforms. A game to forget, which caused the franchise to be abandoned until the character was recovered by MachineGames and Bethesda.
If we except Indiana Jones Adventure World In 2011, when it was a game on the social network Facebook, good old Indy hibernated in the world of video games until 2021 when our beloved Todd Howard, boss of Bethesda, announced a game inspired by the famous archaeologist: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
As we announced to you in our news on the title, Indiana Jones and the Great Circleaims to be the best game inspired by the great cinematic saga, with its own plot, first-person camera, action and puzzles and truly spectacular graphics. This is why the community and specialized media are impatiently waiting for Indy to put his hat back on our Xbox next December.
I exterminate aliens. Gamer and movie buff
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