Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for Wii Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings has all the makings of a quality action game. A newly conceived, adventure-filled plot that takes franchise hero Indy around the globe in search of a priceless artifact. Linear, but entertaining levels overrun with enemies to fight and mild environmental puzzles to solve. There are all sorts of unlockables, a tailor-made cooperative mode, and more. And rounding out the experience are some stylized visuals complemented by a host of graphic effects. Yet, it's clear that LucasArts and development studio A2M (Iron Man, Wii) have no idea how to use Nintendo's controller. Hint, guys: we learned a year-plus ago that assigning primary actions to motion is a bad idea. Creating an entire combat system that revolves around waggle? That's just plain stupid. Unfortunately, the resulting experience suffers considerably, for even as you travel to exotic locales and jump headfirst into some adrenaline-soaked challenges, you will be fighting the combat controls just as often as you do henchmen.

Staff of the Kings is available for PlayStation 2 and PSP in addition to Wii and therefore astute players will be able tell that it's been ported over to Nintendo's console with new controls. That's not to suggest that the title lacks finesse aesthetically, though, because that's not the case. A2M has created a simple, but effective user interface made to replicate Indy's office and from there you can access the main quest, jump into a cooperative game, flip through extras or read the archeologist's journal. There's a lot of welcomed content in the package, including an emulated version of the classic graphic adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, reason enough for some die-hards to consider this latest project. In-game cut-scenes drive the tale, which revolves around Dr. Jones' search for the mythical Staff of Moses. Of course, all sorts of evil forces are also on the hunt for the artifact, and so Indy travels from San Francisco to Nepal, Central America and Istanbul in the late 30s to retrieve the item first. The story is a little campy, but so is Indiana Jones, so it works. What doesn't work are the unskippable front-end logos cut-scenes, the latter of which will replay in full (tutorials and all) if Indy meets an accident.

Some of these inclusions prove more interesting on paper than in practice, disappointingly. Take, for example, the specially designed cooperative mode in which you control Indy and a buddy Henry Jones (aka his dad; Sean Connery's character) through roaring rapids and puzzle-platformers. You work together to make your way through these challenges. Sounds pretty good, right? Yeah, but then you play these levels and learn the terrible truth: they're horrible. In rapids, you must both waggle your Wii remotes incessantly in order to pilot your canoe through the water. The controls feels clumsy and unresponsive at best, malfunctioned at worst. Meanwhile, the environmental puzzles never amount to more than two of you stepping on switches in order to raise levers so that one might progress and repeat the process for the other. Uninspired, to say the least. The unlockable multiplayer battles, some of which unfold in biplanes, aren't any better.

Thankfully, the main game, even with overused motion controls, is much better. I think LucasArts and A2M have created some compelling locales to explore, and many of them come to life with lush scenery and fun, interactive challenges. One moment, Indy is swinging across a broken bridge with his trademark whip, the next he's pushing a statue down a hill to break through a wall in a Tomb Raider-esque scene, the next he's flying a biplane through enemy-infested mountain canyons, the next he's in a gun fight on a trolley in San Francisco, and next he's running for his life as a weakened ceiling threatens to collapse on his head. There's great variety and the exploration elements of Staff of Kings are very engaging thanks to the large selection of ever-changing locales an objectives. Additionally, the levels themselves are pleasingly interactive. Various hot spots allow Indy to use his whip to swing across chasms or walk up walls, or use his weight to push over obstacles so that he may proceed, among other examples. The problem I've found with some of these trigger points is that they are occasionally hard to spot, both because they are not obvious within stages and also because they're very particular -- if you're not standing at exactly the right spot and angle, the icons indicating interactivity may never reveal themselves and you'll be left scratching your head.

Controls are straightforward and work well until you factor in the gestural combat. For that reason, the PlayStation 2 build of Staff of Kings is probably your safest bet because there's no waggle necessary. You control Indy tightly with the analog stick. You can pick up items like glass bottles and sticks and whack enemies with them and you can also fight or use your whip against foes. I really like the interactive environments as used in combat. Occasionally, you can press a button or use your whip to pull down in-stage objects onto combatants, taking them out in one fell swoop. When you can do this, you'll want to, because using nonstop waggle is your only alternative. To throw a right punch, waggle your Wii remote. To throw a left punch, waggle your nunchuk. To uppercut with either arm, waggle upward. To use the whip, hold B-trigger and waggle up, sideways or down for variations. It's funny, even as I was going through the initial control tutorial, only about half of my movements were being recognized and the game kept telling me to try again and again. That level of inaccuracy never retreats. Throughout the entire experience, you will find yourself shaking dramatically and praying that your movements will go recognized -- sometimes they do, other times you have to repeat yourself. That just isn't acceptable. It's clumsy and you shouldn't have to settle for that kind of stupid control because it's supposedly more immersive, which it clearly isn't if it doesn't work.

On a brighter note, Jones will periodically engage in gunplay battle with the evil forces who'd love nothing more than to thwart his efforts and these scenarios shine on Nintendo's system because A2M has utilized the Wii remote's infrared pointer for aiming purposes, which feels great. You just point, aim, shoot -- it's fast, reliable, and as a result highly enjoyable. If only more thought had been put into the motion system.

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