Thursday 1/18/2024 at noon at the 2024 Microsoft Xbox Developer Direct event (Everything announced at the Xbox Developer Direct 2024 | GamesRadar+), a new Indiana Jones games called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle showed off some gameplay via YouTube:
Indiana Jones, the character, the movie, the IP, has been treated extremely well in pinball, both in virtual and real world pinball machines, but thinking back, there hasn’t been that single, amazing Indy video game that I remember playing, anyway.
This pinball machine from Bally/Williams is a lot of fun to play:
Or has there been a video game as good as the pinball?
Consulted for help the following list from Gamepur ranking in their opinion the best Indiana Jones games (The 10 best Indiana Jones games, ranked – Gamepur):
10. Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients (1987) – Apple II / Macintosh/ MS-DOS – Text-based
9. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2009) -Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982) – Atari 2600 – I do remember playing and liking this one, but the graphics were so crude back then. It’s not what the Indy property deserved. This wasn’t as good as Pitfall Harry, from Activision, which if that had been an Indy game, I’d name that as my favorite Indy videogame.
7. LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (2009) – Windows/PC, Playstation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Mac OS X
6. Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom (1984) – Commodore 64
5. Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (2003) – Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox, Playstation 2
4. Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999-2001) – Windows, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color – notable for being the first 3D version of an Indy game.
3. Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures (1994) – SNES
2. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (2008) – Windows, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360, Mac OS X
1. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992-2014) – Amiga, DOS, Mac, FM Towns, Wii, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
While researching this article, I’m wanting to visit (or revisit in some cases) these Indy games. Do you have a favorite Indy video game or agree that we haven’t seen the very best yet? Maybe this new game, which looks as good as any modern game should, will finally capture the spirit and feel of the good Indy movies. From watching the clip, it looks like we’re getting some hand to hand combat, Indy working a machinegun, some artifact chasing, basically the action and investigation.
I just hope it isn’t too narrative-driven and at least somewhat open-world. A too much story Indy seems like more of what’s come before, and I’m personally hoping for something more arcade-y.
Speaking of the movies, we can argue another time and place if Indy was sort of over after the third movie.