The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
293A playthrough of Jaleco's 1992 license-based action game for the NES, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was an old television spin-off of the classic Harrison Ford movie trilogy. I remember it being advertised on TV as a kid, but I never watched it, so I can't really speak to how well the game reflects it.
I am, however, a huge fan of the films, and I would argue that, even if you completely changed the title, you'd still have a game that was clearly based on the exploits of Indiana Jones. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is a actually one of *four* Indy games to be released on the NES!
At its core, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is a fairly rudimentary platformer, but it's a solidly built one that does its utmost to infuse a bit of style through its combination of cutscenes and its boss designs.
The game is driven by a two distinct (and disjointedly squashed together) story arcs - one involves Mexican gangs, while the other has Indy single-handedly foiling German chemical-warfare schemes during The Great War.
In practice, this means that you'll be typically watching a dramatic cutscene that sets up the goal, running around a stage whipping bad guys while looking for weapon upgrades (which include firearms, grenades, dynamite, and knives), tackling a boss, and then watching a new cutscene that shows what happened as a result of your efforts before starting the cycle anew.
And in typical Jaleco fashion, it does its job reasonably well. Jaleco's in-house developed games always tended to be fun, solid action romps that generally lacked the originality and polish of the games they borrowed from. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles has always reminded me a lot of Shatterhand (which Jaleco also published, though it was made by Natsume) - the game play and the graphic style feel quite familiar, but they never quite hit the target.
It channels the same vibe that one might get when comparing Vice: Project Doom to Ninja Gaiden: the same basic elements are there and they are well put-together, but it never ventures far enough out of its comfort zone to really establish an identity of its own. It is clear, though, that the developers had a firm grasp of the system's abilities, and it looks and sounds like a solid late-gen NES release. In other words, don't lump it in with anything made by THQ from 1991 onward.
That's alright though - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is executed more than well enough to justify a playthrough. The mechanics are tight, the action is fast, the level design is solid, and the different weapons allow for a good amount of variety in the ways you can tackle a stage. (I loved the little bit where you get to drive the tank!) It's not particularly difficult, either, so it doesn't take too long to get through it with a bit of practice.
The graphics are nicely done, and they also tend to reflect the look of Shatterhand - the sprites are small but nicely animated, and the backgrounds are a bit flat but well detailed. Indy's in-game sprite and the boss designs standout as high points, but I have to wonder why everything is so neon. I wouldn't expect turn-of-the-century Mexico to be shaded of fluorescent orange and yellow, but if nothing else, the garish color schemes are certainly eye-catching. The sound is somewhat less notable. The music and the sound effects are competently done, but with the exception of the first stage's BGM, they aren't memorable in the slightest.
Overall, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles does a solid job of giving players yet another chance at playing their favorite action hero on the NES, and it does it better than most of the other games on the system bearing Indy's name. It might not be a timeless classic, but it's a respectable effort that sits well above the majority of license-based NES titles.
It fits my go-to "Jaleco" acronym nicely:
Just
Another
Likeable
Experience,
Copied
Overtly.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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