Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

Throwing punches and whip-cracking through ancient temples, all handled with finesse by immersive Wii controls. Indy fans, this way.

What a terrific action hero, Indiana Jones. With his famous hat secured for a dash of style, he whips and gun-slings while dishing out the humour adding insults to injury. From the big screen to DVD boxed-sets, and even the most outlandish fourth film to digest, we can always stomach more Indy. We’ve had puzzle-theme adventures to contend with as videogames before now, most notably LucasArts’ “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis” – which you can easily unlock in The Staff of Kings. This Wii adventure is pure action, waggle like you really mean it bonanza.

Indy’s latest videogame is also available for PlayStation 2 and PSP, but it’s the Wii version that showcases the action to its best advantage. You’ll learn to box and wrestle like Indy while keeping a look out for spur-of-the-moment booby traps by spring on your enemy. Jabs, hooks and uppercuts are handled instinctively via the Wii remote and nunchuck. Grabbing foes by the shirt to ram them into walls, tables or their pals is also easy. Whipping feels great too, allowing Indy to attach to objects or people to drag him towards them or vice-versa for close-range fisticuffs.

Whether back-alley brawling in pursuit of a female accomplice or thrashing through the jungle to reach a well-guarded temple, every scene is presented like a set-piece in a movie. It’s up to you how the props get used, that include sticks and shovels to throw at or beat around the head of trouble. If you find a particularly clever way of despatching some foes – e.g. bringing down a wooden shack onto several at one – you’ll earn Glory points used to unlock multiplayer mini-games.

Just to vary the action you’ll occasionally fly an old aeroplane or struggle in a canoe. These sections wouldn’t win any prizes all by themselves, but we enjoyed flying down a canyon using the Wii remote held vertically as a responsive joystick.

Given the Wii console format and target audience of mid-teens hooked on Indy we think LucasArts couldn’t have made this any better. Perhaps the co-op mode featuring Indy’s father could’ve been better realised on Xbox 360 or PS3 online, as it’s a little too simplistic here. Also, The Staff of the Kings is a bite-size adventure at only six-seven hours thereabouts from beginning to end.

We realise that we’re out of step with popular opinion on this one, but Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings really lived up to our expectations. Think of it as an Indiana Jones theme park experience and we’re sure you’ll feel the same.

4 out of 5