This is a frustrating game. I could see it being good if you didn’t have anything better to do, but I couldn’t see anyone being excited to play this over and over. This is one of those games that seems to be banking on people wanting to play an Indiana Jones game.
The developer was handed the rights to make a game based on the latest Indiana Jones movie, and they did their best. Games like this normally didn’t end well. While this is the mindset of people playing them in retrospect, I have to agree with them.
I put myself in the shoes of a younger me when I review these games. In this case, I’m not sure I can. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the Game Boy isn’t a very good game, and it blends in with all of the other mediocre side-scrollers from the early 90s.
TLDR: It isn’t a good game and is another bad movie-based video game.
History
The game was released between 1989 and 1994 on almost everything you could think of. Here is a list of all the systems that this game appeared on:
- ZX Spectrum
- Master System
- MSX
- NES
- Sega Genesis
- Game Boy
- Game Gear
- DOS
- C64
- Amstrad CPC
- Amiga
There might be others that I’m missing. It was created by Tiertex Design and NMS Software (NES and Game Boy). It was published by US Gold and Ubi Soft. There is a second Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade game on the NES, which is a different game.
I think by 1994, this game was showing its age. There were better games that had passed this one up, and releasing the same one over and over was a bit of a cash grab.
A completely different Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade game was released in 1991. Taito made this one.
Gameplay
This is a side-scrolling action platformer. It isn’t a good one, but it can be fun for some time. As you go through the game, you do collect the weapons that you might have expected to have at the beginning. It was kind of fun, but it felt off as you’re always playing as the adult Indiana Jones.
The levels are based on scenes from the movie. However, the bosses feel a bit random. I think this had to do with some parts of the film not having an iconic villain in them. It just wasn’t that type of movie.
It takes forever to kill enemies and bosses. Your attacks seem to do little to no damage, which is one of the more annoying parts of the game. The bosses have a predictable pattern that you can exploit. You can get through this if you have enough time and patience. I’m not sure why you would want to.
I think the rope jumping at the beginning of the game was one of the more annoying parts. I wouldn’t say I like these stages, to begin with, and here it was a pain. It also seems unnecessary. You’re jumping over water, which shouldn’t hurt you, but manages to. I guess Indiana Jones is vulnerable to bathing.
Visuals
The visuals are the only thing that I like about this game. As a Game Boy game, this looks great! I was playing this on a Game Boy Pocket, and the game looked great.
One of the things that I found annoying was trying to avoid the bullets from some enemies. Occasionally, you will come across a gun-toting enemy. All I can say is good luck. I normally took damage because I didn’t see the bullets in time and had no ranged attack to fire back with.
On the Game Boy’s screen, you don’t always have enough time to react to the enemy’s bullets. They are on you very fast, and you don’t see the bullets. It makes ducking or jumping over them very difficult.
It can also be hard to tell what you can jump on and can’t. This wasn’t a big deal, but it was a problem from time to time.
5.5/10. While it is a fun game, it suffers from poor hit detection and clumsy controls.
Pros
- It is better than the NES port
- The game looks nice
- The controls are okay
Cons
- Unfair difficulty
- Enemies are too strong
- Time limit on the levels
Conclusion
As far as movie-based games go, this is sadly one of the better ones from this time. The high-water mark for games like this would be the Batman games. This doesn’t come close to those, but it is, at the very least, playable.
As a Game Boy Game, I think this one isn’t all that bad. It has some good things, and the developers tried to follow the movie’s story. I didn’t like the game that much.