Techtite.com game reviews: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb!

My dad was a big Tom & Jerry fan, and although I myself took a liking to Marvin the Martian (call me a big outer space junkie; I don't know), I always have a soft spot for the cartoons that even dad would watch with me. So, you can imagine how much a game based on this classic cat and mouse team stood out on a game shelf. Tom & Jerry in a fighting game...? Cool. However, is it as good as the cartoons always were...?

The concept here is actually quite brilliant: take the characters of classic MGM Tom & Jerry lore, and put them into a fighting game for kids, a la Dead or Alive or Soul Calibur. Well, "T for Teen" ratings aside, that is almost exactly what this looks like from start to finish: a fighting game with cartoon characters, for younger kids! You kick, punch, and most often, seek out the typical "Acme product" to whack your opponent with, be it snowballs in the alps, a live crab on the beach, or kitchen utensils indoors. <Wham!> <Whack!> <Ouch!>

The animation is good enough, as are the environments. I especially liked the comical animations of the characters when they either lose or win. Jerry literally seems to jump up and down, almost right off the screen. Tom does his classic clasping of the hands and waving "hooray" to his audience. This is nice animation; almost like an interactive cartoon.

I also liked how the environments aren't static; almost everything visible can be used somehow. Use all the items on screen, and they "restock," so you can keep using them until someone wins! Environments can often include added hurdles: a gas oven out of control, a refrigerator that freezes the wet floor (and you, if you're on it at the time!), a French Alps ski slope with the frequent avalanche, and best of all, a beach with the occasional flash flood...complete with a hungry cartoon shark! Cool.

However, all is not a bed of roses for Tom & Jerry. For one thing, when it comes to modern fighting game formulae, two cartoon characters are not enough; other opponents are necessary. So, just about every lackluster (and quite frankly, forgettable) character from Tom & Jerry lore has been invited to play, including a baby duck, a vulture, a robot dog, and so on. This means that in any one arcade game, you're fighting against Tom or Jerry for one level, yet fighting a whole bunch of "nobodies" for all other levels. Why couldn't I choose the option of Tom & Jerry fighting alone, like they often do in the cartoons, for all the levels...?

There's also a flaw in the implementation of props being overused, in a fighting game format of this type. Most battles are simply a pair of characters running to the nearest objects and throwing them at each other. This gets old very fast, especially for any gamer used to as much as a dozen fully animated battle maneuvers (at least) for any one opponent (like there is in, say, Soul Calibur 2). Basic moves in this game are simply "kick" and "punch," and as for weapons, more than half of them are simple melee weapons that often do the exact same thing, with the exact same animations as a result: <Wham!> <Whack!> <Ouch!>

Environments suffer too, thanks to the speed of game play. There is way too little room to maneuver here, based on the lightning-fast speed of all characters. In fact, action is so fast and furious that once an opponent gets a weapon, there really isn't any viable way to avoid their attack as they approach; there just isn't enough "arena" space here to move around in. Consider how many fighting games allow escape maneuvers and blocks for most attacks, while other games allow you to strafe to avoid the blow of an enemy weapon. This game seems too interested in the next comical <Wham!> <Whack!> <Ouch!> to realize it's a game first, and a cartoon second. The result is a kid fighting game about as challenging as a game of "Hungry Hungry Hippos"; the only real "Strategy" here, is to see who can hit their trigger button the fastest.

Not that this makes the game worthless...to kids, anyway. Two kids with a love for Tom & Jerry will love playing two-player in this game. They may even survive arcade mode long enough to unlock secret characters, which include a giant "Monster Jerry" and the classic Tom the cat adversaries, Spike and Tyke. However, the overall game could've used a bit of work for older gamers to enjoy it. You'll probably get carpel tunnel syndrome long before you see any point in seeing <Wham!> <Whack!> <Ouch!> for a dozen more times. It's nice, though, to see Tom & Jerry in a video game. Maybe next time it can be an even better one.

	Final Rating : Small Crater. Well, there's nice animation here and this makes for a nice two-player fighting game for kiddies too young for Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur. Otherwise, this is merely a "rental."
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