C&VG


Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
By U. S. Gold
Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #73

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Remember Indiana Jones, the hero from Raiders, and the Temple Of Doom films? He's back, not in a film, but in his own computer game. That's right, US Gold has released the long awaited computer conversion of the arcade classic Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.

I'm sure many of you have already played the arcade original. I know I certainly have, what a fab game!

Atari seem to be outdoing themselves lately, especially with such hits as Gauntlet, Supersprint and Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones is one of those games where the name of the game is skill, and plenty of it. Your aim is to successfully retrieve the sacred Sankara Stones from the temple of the evil god, Kali.

They are guarded by the high priest Mola Ram and his evil thuggee henchman. There are three stones to collect, each of these stones is situated in the temple. To get to the stones you must first pass through three stages, or scenes.

All three have various hazards and dangers which msut be overcome. The only way to avoid these, is by using Indy's trusty whip.

Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom

You begin with five lives and the game ends when all five lives are lost. It is incredibly easy to lose all five of your lives, as you will discover. Each time you lose a life, a message appears at the bottom of the screen telling you how you could have avoided dying.

For example, if you are killed by a thuggee guard, the message "Whip the thuggee guard, Indy" will appear.

Scene One: The Mine. This is where you begin your quest. Equipped with your whip you must protect yourself from snakes, bats and constant attacks from the thuggee guards.

The snakes and bats can be destroyed with just one crack of the whip. You can also use your whip to swing across chasms between the pathways. The guards, on the other hand, have to be thrown off the ledges.

There are nine enslaved kids locked up in cages. Rescue them for bonus points. You are also attacked by Mola Ram himself, who magically appears on the screen and throws fireballs at you.

To escape this stage, you must find the entrance to the railway tunnel. Enter it and you will go on to the next scene.

Scene Two: Mine-Cart Chase. This is the fun part. You are now sitting in a rail-cart, speeding down a series of railway tracks which are linked by several junctions.

You can go fast or slow, depending on whether you move your joystick up or down. As you proceed down the lines, other carts - full of thuggee guards - approach both from in front and behind, intent on stopping you dead in your tracks, you might say! If they catch you up, your cart will be overturned.

You will also come across oncoming guards who are waiting for you alongside the tracks. Whip them for extra points. After a while you will come to the end of the line. This is the exit to the next stage.

Stage Three: The Temple. This is probably the easiest of all the stages. Here you must collect the Sankara Stone, which is just above the statue of the evil god, Kali.

You are attacked by some of Mola Ram's thuggee henchmen, as well as Mola Ram himself.

As you come near to the statue your way is barred by a pit of molten lava. This can easily be swung across by using your whip. Once across you will notice that the floor just below the statue continually opens and closes.

You must manoeuvre yourself very carefully to successfully retrieve the stone from the top of the statue.

One false move and you'll fall into the molten lava - what a way to go! Once you do have it, two doors will open on either side of the statue. These are the exits to the next level, and the next Sankara Stone.

All three scenes are repeated over and over until every Sankara stone has been collected.

Paragon has produced quite an accurate and splendid conversion, especially on the Atari ST version. The graphics are well drawn and are a good reproduction of the original.

Playability is great. Control of your character is smooth and easy, which is what I like best about this game. I think that the sound could have been a lot better though.

A lot of the sound effects were not all that descriptive. There's one or two snags that I'd like to point out.

Firstly, each level - which is made up of three scenes - has to be loaded in separately, and when you lose all of your lives the first level has to be reloaded.

If you purchase the game on tape, you will find this both tedious and tiresome.

Secondly, it will take you quite a lot of practice to eventually master the game as it is extremely hard. Whether you're a fan of the arcade original or you're just after some high adventure - with a few pitfalls thrown in - this is the game for you.