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  PEEKNPOKE REVIEW - CHRISTMAS SPECIAL


 

 

 

 
Raiders of the lost Ark (2003)
Atari 2600 -Reviewed Christmas 2003

GAME PLAY :Indy goes Atari

Reviewed by Lee

Raiders of the lost ark is a big game for the 2600. True to it's Adventure origin this quest has some fantastic rooms filled with lots of stuff for Indy to do. You could easy get lost in this game. The big selling point of Indy is you can be Indiana Jones for the day whip cracking around the screens which come across like Adventure but with better graphics. Now Indy was a good game all those years ago and today it really stands out as obscure title because the game has lots of bad points that to me overpower the good. The game uses two joysticks. One to control Indy and the other to use items. Bad idea all round. Maybe this could have been used better on one stick (stand still and press fire that goes to the item select at the bottom maybe?) but is seemed like at many frantic points I was swapping to another stick. Bad design. The screens that hold the game together look clean and neat as Indy walks around. The whip crack was funny (just a dot but hey! this is the 2600) and even the music and FX were nice. The ideas behind the quest to the Ark are weird although they seem to gel in the end. The map room is an idea that works well within the game and hales true to the movie.

ROTLA is not the game I remember. It now seems a clumsy collect 'em up with strange things thrown at the player. Adventure kept it pure (but then at that time It had too) and to look at Raiders now it seems less of game more of a chore. Still, it is large and will have players finding the Ark for a while or at least the Easter eggs will keep you happy.

Overall:5
Meaty and big for its time, Raider has good moments of gameplay but is let down by some bad design in places.

 

 

 
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