LucasArts details new Indy game

By Robert Purchese Published 3 February, 2009

Has co-op with secret character.

LucasArts has lifted the lid on Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP game Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, which was partially revealed yesterday.

Sadly we're still without a date, but there are some rather rough screenshots to be had, plus word of campaign co-op featuring a familiar character who has never been playable before.

Staff of Kings is set in 1939 as World War II breaks out across Europe, and locations vary from Chinatown in San Francisco to the dense jungles of Panama. The prize - as the title suggests - is a powerful relic: the Staff of Moses. And Indy will have to move fast to beat nemesis Magnus Voller to the punch.

Punching, incidentally, will be handled on Wii by gesture combat. Matching on-screen gestures will also be Indy's ticket to escaping crumbling ruins or overwhelming odds - not to mention the Wiimote-flicking control of the whip.

Staff of Kings won't just be combat, though, but feature plenty of puzzles and "Hot Set" environments that can be pushed and pulled and manipulated to outwit enemies or de-trigger ancient traps.

There are "burst sequences", too: periods of intense action where, for instance, the Wiimote is used as a gun to shoot on-screen targets.

Multiplayer also features, and will let up to four people fight each other in biplane or tank free-for-alls. Presumably there are more normal brawls available as well.

Incidentally, vehicles will be available throughout the campaign; there are ridable elephants and rafts as well as aforementioned tanks and biplanes.

And that's the Wii version. The DS game replaces gesture controls with stylus input, while the PSP and PS2 offerings provide an array of combat, chases and physics puzzles to keep people entertained.

Head over to our Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings gallery for the first screenshots. Alternatively, pop your into Eurogamer TV for the trailer.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • OnlyMe #1 3 years ago

    You forgot the most important part. Fate of Atlantis is included as an unlockable!

  • MoGamer2006 #2 3 years ago

    Do EG just scan the forums for updates now? I posted this on the Wii forums about 4 hours ago!

  • Moonprince #3 3 years ago

    No, they've always done that.

  • SliderNL #4 3 years ago

    It's a game for the Wii, so it's likely to be a Crap-title (I have a Wii and the amount of Crap-games is Amazing same goes for the DS)

  • CallousB #5 3 years ago

    If it gets decent reviews I'll by it at launch...but sadly it's being made by the people who did the Iron Man game so I'm not expecting much.
    Edited by 1 at 03/02/09 @ 15:27

  • penhalion #6 3 years ago

    Hang on does this mean they really have scrapped the PS3 and 360 versions?

  • Tomnd #7 3 years ago

    Lucasarts need to stop this shit and get back to what they do best, point and click games. Especially now that these are coming back into fashion. They have the best portfolio of point and click games and the be IPs associated with them. I personally wouldn't mind grim fandango 2 or monkey island 5 (hand drawn thou).

  • consignia #8 3 years ago

    Fate of Atlantis, unlockable? How about locking away this monstrosity and bringing out a Lucasarts adventure games complete compliation. I wonder if it'd be possible to fit all the talkies they made onto one DVD.

  • OnlyMe #9 3 years ago

    No.

    That would include MI3 and 4, Grim Fandango, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and The Dig. The total amount of CDs for these games are 9 discs.

  • Rirekon #10 3 years ago

    "Matching on-screen gestures will also be Indy's ticket to escaping crumbling ruins or overwhelming odds"

    Quicktime events then, great :(

  • insincere_dave #11 3 years ago

    "That would include MI3 and 4, Grim Fandango, Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and The Dig. The total amount of CDs for these games are 9 discs."

    I'm pretty sure that could be compressed onto a single DVD. If this actually wanted to do it, which they obviously won't.

  • udat #12 3 years ago

    Yeah easily... a dual layer DVD is about 9 CDs worth of data, and they:

    1) Weren't always full back in the day
    2) Used uncompressed audio (pre-mp3 days!)

    I'd buy Fate of Atlantis, etc. all again now. Hell they could probably fit into Live Arcade file size restrictions with compression.

  • OnlyMe #13 3 years ago

    Of course, you're right. For some reason I considered a DVD as 1GB. Where that number came from, I don't know. Probably the Dreamcast discs.

  • Kazzahdrane #14 3 years ago

    Oh dear, this is going to be terrible isn't it?

    Oh dear, I'm still going to play it aren't I?

    I'm such a blind fan for anything Indy :-(

  • Zomeguy #15 3 years ago

    >Fate of Atlantis
    ScummVM Wii?

  • consignia #16 3 years ago

    I wasn't quite sure so I looked up on wikipedia the list of graphic adventures:

    * Labyrinth (1986)
    * Maniac Mansion * (1987)
    * Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders * (1988)
    * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure * (1989)
    * Loom * ** (1990)
    * The Secret of Monkey Island * (1990)
    * Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991)
    * Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
    * Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
    * Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993)
    * Full Throttle (1995)
    * The Dig (1995)
    * The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
    * Grim Fandango (1998)
    * Escape from Monkey Island (2000)

    Of those, Loom, and everything from the Fate of Atlantis onwards had Talkie releases. Some of the others had re-releases with CD audio, but as said that could easily be compressed, even lossless probably, without making too much of an impact. I think ends up with about 12 discs, without any sort of compression. So, it would seem, that they'd easily with a bit of jiggery pokery get the entire collection onto a single layer DVD, almost as orignaly released for the PC. Obviously Grim Fandango and Escape From Monkey Island would involve a bit of work, but Lucasarts could probably knock this out as a budget release for the Wii. I'd probably buy.

  • space_ace #17 3 years ago

    no to euphoria, yes to qte? o_O

  • Stuz359 #18 3 years ago

    They NEED to bring back point and click adventure games. It's criminal that I have not had a decent lucasarts adventure since COMI. I mean, surely Professor Layton(or whatever) proves it still has an audience.

    But lets face it, how many games have had a script or narrative as brilliant as DOTT, MI1, MI2, MI3, Sam and Max, Full Throttle or even The Dig?

    Surely these more cerebral games are crying out to be made in a world of Gears of War (not that I dislike that game, I love it) or Killzone 2, or Halo etc, etc...

  • InsoFox #19 3 years ago

    Oh, naive souls. All the good people at Lucasarts have left to form companies like telltale, double fine, autumn moon, etc. The dream team is dead, although those companies are making some interesting stuff.

    The LucasArts you want to go back to making adventure games is dead, it's a dream. It doesn't exist anymore and if they were to return to those franchises now without people like Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman etc to guide them along, it would inevitable end in huge disappointment for everyone.

    LucasArts needs a totally new direction or, failing that, we just need to accept that they're no longer a company to go for for quality games. But you never know, this indy game could be mildly diverting.

  • Daikon #20 3 years ago

    Punching, incidentally, will be handled on Wii by gesture combat. Matching on-screen gestures will also be Indy's ticket to escaping crumbling ruins or overwhelming odds - not to mention the Wiimote-flicking control of the whip.

    Do people really want this?

  • Daikon #21 3 years ago

    OK. I though OnlyMe was kidding with his comment of Fate of Atlantis being unlockable.
    Turns out it's true!
    Wow. I'd pay full price just for that.
    I just hope I don't have to do anything I don't want to do (like complete the Wii game) in order to unlock it...

  • space_ace #22 3 years ago

    "a vampyre story" looks pretty solid for the first one hour or so, has there been a review in eg?