Indiana Jones: Why Are There No New Video Games?
2. The Disaster Project
Indiana Jones And The Staff of Kings was the last original game in the franchise to be released to fans. It is a game which not many have heard of and for good reason because Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings was essentially the final nail in the coffin for the prospect of video game featuring an original Indy story.
Announced in 2005, The Staff Of Kings was set to be the third 3D Indiana Jones title and it was first shown at E3 in 2006 by LucasArts. It was developed at a similar time to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and was said to run on the same engine. Additionally, a novelisation of the title was in the works by Robert MacGregor who had written previous Indiana Jones books. Euphoria physics were also mentioned which was a new element of creating detailed animations.
Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings seemed very advanced for its time with the intention of being released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. There was a lot of optimism regarding the game and its overall quality. However, this all went wrong very quickly.
Three years after the game’s announcement, rumours began to circulate about whether the game had been cancelled or not. LucasArts had remained quiet on the development which allowed theories to grow about layoffs of budget problems. However, DailyGame reported that LucasArts had responded to these rumours, stating that the game was still very ‘deep into development’ for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
It may have been time constraints or lack of hardware, but Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings was only going to be released on the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 as well as the Nintendo DS in 2009. With this came major graphical downgrades, scaled back game mechanics, and shortened story missions. Essentially, the game had been cancelled and degraded into an inferior product, taking away many of the more promising aspects of the game.
Reviews were negative, lambasting the various gameplay problems such as the controls. The Nintendo Wii edition of The Staff Of Kings based its gameplay elements around motion controls which were deemed unresponsive and tedious. Furthermore, the game restricted the player by placing them onto lengthy on-rail shooting segments. Other reviews criticised the lack of detail, poor animations, and graphics.
Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings was a severe disappointment for fans of the franchise who were thirsty for the first game since 2003. Since then, Youtube videos showcasing early gameplay footage of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions allow for the ex-fans of the series to look back at what the game could have been.
Oh, Robert MacGregor's novelisation of the game? Although it was finished, it was not published. He revealed this on Reddit, posting that the publishers failed to publish the book when the game was released. MacGregor, upon asking why they didn't publish the novel, was told that 'there was not enough Indiana Jones fans to support another novel.' It's disappointing to think that there is a fully developed novel of what Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings could have been if it hadn't been downgraded.
But what of the future?