Getting on to problems with the game itself, why not start with unskippable cutscenes? There are few enough as it is, but we don’t want to repeat them ad nauseum. This especially goes for the long logo animations as you start the game up, which are then repeated in case you’d forgotten who made the game. Oh we know guys, and we’re always keeping you in mind. Particularly on the Odin level.

Once you get in, you discover the game is absolutely painfully linear. There is little room for exploration, except to find hidden treasures which are lazily shaped like a glowing floating Indy hat instead of the relic itself. This was particularly silly in a room shaped like the temple of the idol at the beginning of Raiders. Often though, you’ll be just funnelled down corridors, sometimes with occasionally ridiculous invisible walls.

The game itself is divided into three types of gameplay – well, four, if you count fights as separate. The first is running and adventuring like a linear Tomb Raider with no jump button, with added whipping, which changes back and forth between fistfights which I personally don't count as you’re not forced into them. Secondly, there are Time Crisis-style shoot-outs, which is the only time Indy uses his gun. Thirdly, there are ‘set-pieces’ where you have to use the Wiimote to mimic certain controls, like levers or driving.

Fighting is usually fun, if not quite as spectacular as those videos from 2006 made it look. Indy can jab and punch left and right as you make the motion with either the Wiimote or Nunchuck, but frankly this should be your last resort as it doesn’t really work and isn’t fun. Of more fun is using the whip to pull in enemies by the throat, waist or feet for a few punches, or yanking down statues or bookcases on top of them. Alternatively you can grab enemies and smash them into a variety of amusing things, like pool tables, suits of armour, fishtanks or through windows. There’s also a lot of objects lying about to be picked up and either thrown or used as a weapon. The variety’s great, and when there’s plenty of things to do in an area these fights can get very enjoyable.

The normal adventuring is scuppered a bit by not having a jump button*, and with the linearity of the whole thing it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be any fun. However, as soon as you hit Panama’s Mayan temple it really picks up. This is the same time as the levels start to open out and get more impressive too. Artifacts become not so obvious as well, and suddenly there is exploring to do. Fact: thinking for ourselves is fun. Controls work, although the camera is a bit annoying when there’s loads of stone boulders rolling all around.

The shooting sections are… okay, I guess. I would’ve much preferred to have had the opportunity to move Indy myself, but it works and makes it a bit cinematic I suppose. It’s a shame he can’t use his gun in the fighting though, like we could in Emperor’s Tomb.

However, it’s the final gameplay types, the ‘setpieces’ that will cause the most problems. The main problem isn’t doing them, it’s doing what the game wants you to do. Often the motion controls are just far too sensitive, or it asks you to do too many things at once. The biplane chase on the very first level requires you to fly through a narrow canyon, using sensitive Wiimote controls (holding it like a flight stick), while shooting down German planes. I barely got out alive, and that’s the first level!

It’s the now-infamous Piano Swinging Level near the end of the game though that reminded me just why the Wiimote has a strap. Fortunately my controller, my TV and my pride are still intact. Holding the Wiimote like a lever, you have to swing a piano around a hangar knocking down Nazi soldiers who are trying to climb ladders to get at you. If they get up, they suddenly can kill you with one shot. If you hit the ladders direct, the piano’s too low to reach them if they’re more than halfway up. To cap it off, there’s clipping issues. Some people can do this level quickly, as it only lasts two minutes. Others will suddenly find their profanity meter rising fast and a TV repair bill in the mail.

Sound is something LucasArts are renowned for, with all of their games sporting great voice acting and music. Staff of Kings is no exception, with John Armstrong doing an occasionally pitch-perfect Harrison Ford impression, although the guy playing Magnus Voller is far too quiet.

Music is almost completely taken from the films and Young Indy TV series, with only a few new tracks to supplement them. While this does mean the soundtrack is of a very high quality, and is used perfectly (Ark theme for Staff of Moses, for example), it’s only disappointing because this is the first proper original Indy game not to have an original score. Considering the brilliance of Clint Bajakian’s Emperor’s Tomb soundtrack, it’s definitely missed.

Once you get past those motion controlled levels and can get over the linearity, the strange un-Indy ideas and the badly told story, the game itself isn’t too bad. However, it’s also incredibly short, and many Indy fans will breeze through in a few days.

The extras are pretty cool however. There’s a fighting-only survival mode with several unlockable stages, there are multiplayer battles, secret costumes and concept art (including the tantalising ‘Cutting Room Floor’), not to mention all the Special Glory Moves challenges and Fortune artifacts to find in the main game.

The main two however are a fun co-op campaign, with one player as Indy and the other as a Sean Connery-impersonated Henry Jones Senior, and the pièce de résistance, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Yes, our official Best Indy Game Ever is available free, for the first time officially on a console. It works perfectly well on Wii, but for some annoying reason subtitles can’t be turned off (slowing down the conversation as you wait for them to end) and you can’t quit the game without going back to the Wii menu. Apart from that, it’s still a classic, and is a fantastic inclusion… even if it does show literally everything that is missing from Staff of Kings.

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*).

If you’re an Indy fan, this is clearly the version to get, but on the other hand…

SIDE NOTE: THE PS2 VERSION

The PS2 is much the same game as the Wii, with the use (irritatingly absent from the Wii version) of a proper, non-motion controlling gamepad. This makes those ‘setpiece’ levels far less frustrating, and with the added bonuses of a cheaper price and being potentially (if your PS3 is PS2-compatible) the only version of Staff of Kings that will run on a next-gen console, this is surely the copy to get, right?

Well, no. The extras that extended the game beautifully for the Wii version, specifically Fate of Atlantis and the co-op campaign, are not included in the PS2 version. Also, with absence of motion controls the range of fighting moves has been seriously trimmed down, so it’s nowhere near as fun.

Finally, the PS2 version is extremely buggy. I’ve heard reports of games crashing, having to reload old checkpoints, and glitches all over the place. This is possibly the version that was completed last year, and A2M/LucasArts have spent all the time since then polishing up and adding things to the Wii version instead – the main version.

Despite the dodgy motion control levels, the Wii version easily wins out here. Now then, let’s look at the handheld games…