Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade

[Melf]

With all the hype surrounding the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie, we figured it was time to revisit the good doctor's Genesis adventure, based on the third film. Sadly, it not only fails to live up to the movie it's based on, but it's enough to make you want to hang up your Fedora and whip for good. Famed review adventurer Tom Lenting takes on his greatest test yet, as he embarks on an epic review of this stinker. Read his full report (http://www.sega-16.com/2007/08/indiana-jones-the-last-crusade/) and then go find yourself a copy of Instruments of Chaos. You'll thank us later.

[Genesis Knight]

I agree that the movie was great. I also agree that this game was awful.

[playgen]

Play Growl instead and just pretend its an Indiana Jones game. It does have an Indy look a like character to play as, and you can use a whip on enemies.

[McTom]

With all the hype surrounding the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie, we figured it was time to revisit the good doctor's Genesis adventure, based on the third film. Sadly, it not only fails to live up to the movie it's based on, but it's enough to make you want to hang up your Fedora and whip for good. Famed review adventurer Tom Lenting takes on his greatest test yet, as he embarks on an epic review of this stinker. Read his full report (http://www.sega-16.com/forum/../Review-%20Indiana%20Jones%20&%20the%20Last%20Crusade.php) and then go find yourself a copy of Instruments of Chaos. You'll thank us later.

Nice, though I hope the last sentence is ironic... Instruments of Chaos is maybe the only Indiana Jones-game worse than Last Crusade... :)

[Mr Smith]

I love this game and can almost complete it.
In saying that, all the criticism is well deserved, I guess if you break it down this game is utter tosh.

[Benjamin]

Fate of Atlantis remains the only really good Indiana Jones game from what I've played. Those text adventures remain the only way to really capture the spirit of the source that an action/platformer just can't do. It's the same reason why Simpsons and Batman games are typically so poor; because they do little to capture what the license is about in the gameplay.

[Genesisdoes]

Yeah Fate of Atlantis is a great game, so is the Last Crusade adventure game.
Indy Chronicles or something is pretty good on SNES.

[playgen]

Yeah the Indiana Jones Adventures snes game is qualtiy, I saw somewhere it was supposed to be released on Megadrive too, not sure if thats true or not though.

[108 Stars]

Yeah the Indiana Jones Adventures snes game is qualtiy, I saw somewhere it was supposed to be released on Megadrive too, not sure if thats true or not though.

The game was already finished on MD; it was ported by Factor 5 and had all 3D effects etc in it, and a better balancing afaik. I have a review of the MD-version. But with Sega´s sudden stop of MD-support I guess that the publisher decided against releasing it. Pity.

[playgen]

Ooooh thats cool, could you scan the article by any chance?

I've found in a mag a preview of Super Star Wars for Megadrive too (Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming Issue 8 April 93) I would scan that to share, but my stupid scanner has died :(

[108 Stars]

I could scan it, but it is in German. At least you could see the screenshots and ratings.

[playgen]

That would be great thanks

[starphaser]

fate of atlantis is also a good game because it isn't based on a film. it's an entire new story featuring (the extremely good) characters from the famous franchise that indiana jones is.

[Aarzak]

The game was already finished on MD; it was ported by Factor 5 and had all 3D effects etc in it, and a better balancing afaik. I have a review of the MD-version. But with Sega´s sudden stop of MD-support I guess that the publisher decided against releasing it. Pity.

There's a two-page preview/strategy guide of some sort of "Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures" or Trilogy or whatever for Genesis on EGM issue #73 (August 1995), as if the game was complete, yet I've never seen or heard of a copy. I own this issue (my first-ever issue of a game mag, currently my second copy and falling apart to boot) and my desktop printer is an all-in-one (printer, copier, scanner) but I have yet to mess with it's scanning capabilities..........care to give me some pointers guys?

On another note, I don't know what the HELL happened, but it seems that after the 1994 holiday season, software releases for the Genesis declined sharply. By 1995 it seemed like Acclaim (what was the whole buddy-buddy relationship between them and Sega about anyways, that had Acclaim processing tons of cart shells for Genesis games?), Midway/Williams and....yeah, it seemed like they were the only third-parties left bringing out Genesis port.....I mean games, with little to no Japanese companies outputting software. Sega's output was strictly American, with delayed STI fare such as "The Ooze" and "Comix Zone", random licensed fare like "X-Men 2", "Batman & Robin" and "Power Rangers the Movie" and nothing much else. Meanwhile the SNES was still receiving a steady fare of software and TLC from Capcom, Konami, and other Japanese companies on top of the American output. Damn, what happened?

[playgen]

It was because Sega had the Saturn coming, while Nintendos' replacement to the snes was still a while off - so they had little option but to keep supporting snes. In hindsight it was foolish of Sega to decide to concentrate so much on Saturn when the Megadrive and even Master System had a large install base of people who would have still bought new games.

[Aarzak]

I think it also had to do with the situation over in Japan, where the Mega Drive did pretty badly throughout it's lifespan (1988-1995) and was unsupported and/or poorly supported by the big Japanese companies like Capcom, Konami and others. Once the Saturn came out in Japan in late 1994, the developers either used that as an excuse to completely abandon the MD or just blatantly jumped ship immediately, killing the MD pretty quickly in Japan before Sega decided to can all non-Saturn Sega systems here in the U.S in fall 1995.

[Genesis Knight]

Just to touch on something Aarzak said, why DO so many Sega cartridges have Acclaim shells? Does anyone know what the agreement was, and why Acclaim?

[Aarzak]

I just recall hearing that Sega and Acclaim took a big financial hit due to warehouses of unsold cartridges in the mid-'90's when 16-Bit was dying out. And then there's Majesco's Genesis re-releases right up until the beginning of this decade, often using Acclaim's cart shells (w/their logo covered up).

[Zebbe]

I got my Alien Soldier in a Acclaim case (which didn't even have the hanger). I almost threw up when I saw it. It immediately received a Sega case and the Acclaim case was sold with some crap game later on.

[108 Stars]

There are lots of unsold, brand-new Acclaim and EA-games on eBay Germany all the time.

[Aarzak]

Here's the front cover to the aforementioned issue of EGM I was talking about.........an issue I treasure very much but is falling to pieces. :| Being a "Mortal Maniac" at the time, I was salivating for a copy of "Mortal Kombat" 3 in any form after reading through this issue, which came true when I received my first Genny later that fall in 1995, and a brand-new copy of the Genesis MK3 port for my birthday in January 1996. Something of note, MK3, a late '95 Genesis game came in a clamshell case and had cheap cart labeling (not to the extent of Majesco's though) that later peeled completely off and a cart shell that looked and screamed "Acclaim/Mexico packaging", even though the publishing duties for the MK home ports were handed over to Williams (subsidiary of Midway at the time?) starting with MK3. Wonder just how long Acclaim held the reigns on the home rights to Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam. They were supposed to have expired sometime in 1995, but Midway's last Genesis releases in late 1996 (UMK3 & NBA Hangtime, both cardboard box releases) reeked of Acclaim/Mexico packaging and labeling still. Back on topic:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee255/RexingtonSteele/IMG.jpg

There's a couple of Genesis-related print ads/reviews/articles in this issue, but I honestly don't have the time to scan them all (plus my issue is hanging on by the teeth of it's skin so I must treat it carefully) so I'll only be scanning the "Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures" for Genesis article.

[Aarzak]

<Kel> AW, HERE IT GOES! <Kel>

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee255/RexingtonSteele/IMG_0001.jpg


http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee255/RexingtonSteele/IMG_0002.jpg

I busted my ass to scan these. Hell, I had just done my first scan with this magazine. Pretty easy except when trying to keep the scanned page aligned with the weight from the other side of the mag. I'll get used to it I suppose, and improve.

There you have it, the game was complete, set to be released that fall...........nothing. Not even a leaked ROM to this day.

[Mr Smith]

Wow! That's some great scanning and a great shame that it is not available in the public domain, in some guise. Imagine how many awesome/semi-awesome Mega Drive titles were discarded before being released. :(

[Aarzak]

Thanks..............anyone else gonna comment on my scans? Huh? HUH?

They sure took a while to get right, and then the painfully slow scanning and uploading to Photobucket.......

[108 Stars]

Nice scans. I have my own review though.

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/040907214848_indy1.jpg

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/040907215552_indy2.jpg


Since I am to stupid to post the scans in the post I must link to them.

[Aarzak]

Woah, were they really going to try Mode-7-esque scaling on the Genesis with this title. I HAVE seen it pulled off on the Genesis ("Street Racer") but this sounds like a much more ambitious attempt.

This could've really helped out the Genesis' fall '95 lineup. Instead, the only notable titles that came out then were "Mortal Kombat 3" and "Light Crusader".

[RR1980]

the downfall of Sega starting with the Sega cd to 32X to Saturn reads like a text book case of what happens when a company doesn't do enough R&D and just keep putting out products that are flawed and doesn't meet the demands and expectation of the consumers and then worse off had no idea how to even market them. Sega should have learned their lesson from TurboGraphx.

[Noiman]

I was playing this one yesterday, it was total shit, one of the most horrible games i've ever played on my Mega Drive

[Ecco]

Wow this game is awful! Platforming hell in every possible way

[vintagegamecrazy]

Melf I really hope you were joking when you said to play Instruments of Chaos instead! Man is that a trashy game all around.

[StarMist]

I've a soft spot for this game as it's a rare instance of straight up NES platforming on a 16 bit system. Platforming altered so much in the 16 bit transition that I can forgive a few faults (apparently quite a few) when presented with a dinosaur such as this. I also enjoy that there's no warm-up first lv, that traditional to 16 bit cakewalk first lv handed the player for amassing lives and weapons. This game was clearly developed on outmoded models and with too little time/money, but I think is still quite playable so long as one's willing to be killed a few times more than usual figuring it out. I'd say it's also above avg for a franchise game, though titles like Aladdin and Alien 3 (awesome on two systems) may skew the evaluation.