INDYJONES.NET REVIEW
The Wii Version: "... I can certainly recommend Staff of Kings to Indy fans, but with massive amounts of warning. There’s a lot of good here, but it’s tainted by a lot of laziness. It’s clearly a lesser port of a much better game, like it was supposed to be. The extras are great, the fighting fun, the adventuring hampered by confined spaces but still good, and the motion controls sometimes good (the whip) and sometimes shit (the piano level)..."
The PSP Version: "... going by general Indyness, there’s definitely improvement here. Indy has his satchel (and just to show off, occasionally adjusts it). The Germans are properly called Nazis (although the swastika still isn’t present, but I can accept that one). Indy and Maggie O’Malley’s relationship is written and acted much better, and actually forms the crux of the cutscenes – they argue beautifully. John Armstrong has far better writing to work with here, and whenever he gets angry with Maggie he sounds just like Harrison Ford..."
WII REVIEWS
The International House of Mojo
... Despite all of that portentous background (which if anything will do wonders in tempering expectations to a realistic level), I inserted the game into my Wii with an open mind, knowing that I should rule out the possibility of anything special or mindblowing and simply hope that I'd be getting a decently fun action/adventure game. Which, fortunately, I did. Staff of Kings isn't going to blow you away, but thanks to some simplistic but solid gameplay and genuine Indy thrills, the game should satisfy your craving for another Indiana Jones adventure even if not much else...
NGamer
... to describe Staff Of Kings as a game seems a bit disingenuous - this is a collection of smaller sub-games, similar to Disaster: Day Of Crisis. There are puzzley platform bits, typically involving copious whip-cracking and vigorous remote-pumpage; there's brilliant environmental combat, which lets you hurl snooker balls at bad guys, shove them into aquariums or whack them in the head with garden tools; on-rails gun battles will also occasionally break out, dumping Indy behind cover and letting you peek out and aim with the remote...
Eurogamer
... three years ago LucasArts promised that the next Jones title would be a cutting edge affair, showing off unscripted and dynamic physics-based gameplay and chaotic action scenes via its Euphoria engine. When it was announced the game was billed as "a mystery of biblical proportions" set in 1939 - exactly the same as The Staff of Kings, then. But while reports claim that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions have both been cancelled, LucasArts has been tight-lipped on the subject. Whether or why these versions have quietly been shelved is open to speculation, but whatever the reason, the net result is that we're back to square one with the Wii game that has come out, reflecting on yet another underwhelming title...
IGN
...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...
Game Informer
...If you thought that the latest film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was a stretch for the famed fedora, this game will twist your perception of Indy to the point that it would make sense for him to French kiss a cobra. The only aspect that sings of the archeologist’s exploits is the object of desire: Moses’ staff, a religious artifact that plays off Indy’s phobia of snakes. It’s a perfect match, yet the narrative seems to be afraid of it, as the story is pushed to the side to such a degree that some scenes don’t even conclude. I guess we’re supposed to use our imagination to form our own conclusions...
GamePro
... I have to admit that I still enjoyed the seven hours or so it took me to finish it. I often found myself frustrated and I rolled my eyes a fair number of times at the lame story, but the developer does a good job of switching things up. Even if you are doing the same four things over and over again, the game manages to keep you interested long enough to convince you to complete the level and move on. I think the game suffers from being tied to such a beloved franchise-we expect a lot out of Indiana Jones so anything short of an epic adventure is seen as a letdown...
Techcetera
...I'll go out on a limb and declare the following: This is the best Wii release of the year so far, and certainly the best game I personally have played on this system. It's entertaining, it's dynamic and it mixes Wii technology with a fantastic storyline. In the words of Indiana Jones, there is "fortune and glory" in this game...
Empire
... For most fans it's a delirious blend of kick-ass action and perilous exploration that make the Indiana Jones movies so thrilling, charming and downright irresistable. But while Indy's latest console quest has all the swashbuckling and whip-cracking you'd expect, the chances to poke around dusty tombs and become a virtual explorer are sadly missing...
PSP REVIEWS
Cheat Code Central
... Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is best described as a light version of Tomb Raider. It features action/adventure, platforming, RPG, puzzle solving, combat, and exploration through a series of bite-sized levels. It's not very complex, nor is it deep. It's similar in nature to the movie franchise in that it attempts to be more fun than serious. Unfortunately, the PSP version is not polished, and it comes off as a better-than-average adventure game instead of the blockbuster that it could be...
Game Chronicles
... while the Wii is far interior to what I saw so many years ago at E3, it was still an engaging and enjoyable experience thanks to the game design and the cool motion controls. The PSP version takes the story, events, and locations, and chops it up to create some sort of Indiana Jones mini-game collection that is neither fun nor engaging...
DS REVIEWS
GameSpot
... this is an action game after all, and in that department the game redeems itself with a series of enjoyable combat sequences that combine intuitive controls with a reward-based system that has Indy performing some classic moves. But while Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings performs well given the limitations of the platform, players will still have to look very hard to find the true Indy spirit in what could very well be just another DS action title...
GamesRadar
... There was no Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings movie. Fortunately, this DS title still manages to deliver all the frustrating features we’ve all come to expect from games based off of famous film franchises...
PS2 REVIEWS
WorthPlaying
... In 2006, LucasArts released a teaser trailer that showed off the new Euphoria technology that would be used in the next Indy game, but fans would never experience it, since his next-gen debut would be canceled for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Instead, the PS2, Wii, PSP and DS would get "the other version" that was being developed at the same time, which we now have as Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. It's not quite the whiz-bang adventure that fans hoped to see their favorite relic raider in, but it provides with tantalizing hints of how this could have been so much better had it not come off feeling like a salvaged effort...
PSX Extreme
... Developer A2M really needed to refine the combat and general control mechanics, and because they’re so clunky, we end up more irritated than entertained. The pacing is good and we really loved a few of the concepts (disarming enemies with the whip tops our list), but it just falls well short overall...
