The game follows the original Indiana Jones trilogy fairly faithfully, consisting of 12 levels based on Raiders of the Lost Ark, 8 levels based on Temple of Doom, and 8 levels based on The Last Crusade. As Indiana Jones, players must go through each level, avoiding traps and fighting enemies, and occasionally fighting a boss at the end. To break up the platforming, there are also MODE-7 levels that find Indy in control of a vehicle, such as the raft and mine cart in Temple of Doom and the bi-plane in The Last Crusade. While Indy starts each level with only his fists to fight with, you can break open containers to acquire his whip, a revolver, and screen-clearing grenades.
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures followed on the heels of the Super Star Wars series and was overseen by the much of the same Lucas Arts staffers who had overseen that trilogy, and the similarities are evident - in fact, the Indy sprite shares the same head as the Han Solo sprite from Super Star Wars. And while it's nowhere near as difficult as Super Empire Strikes Back, the game also retained the Super Star Wars series' often blistering difficulty.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Given all the movies had their Big Bads firmly in the non-action camp, liberties were taken to make boss fights out of them.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: Belloq calls forth apparitions from within the Ark to attack Indy while he himself does his best to keep out of reach.
- Temple of Doom: Mola Ram faces off against Indy on a rope bridge and throws Sankara stones both to attack and destroy sections of the bridge.
- The Last Crusade: Donovan turns into a very agile skeleton that attacks Indy by throwing pieces of itself.
- Adapted Out: Neither Willie Scott nor Short Round are present during the Temple of Doom part of the game.
- Bear Trap: Snow mountain level are littered with bear traps that snap shot when Indiana is near them.
- Bottomless Pit: Almost every level has pits that kill Indiana if he falls into them.
- Convection Shmonvection: All over the place near the end of the "Temple of Doom" portion. Not only does one level have you riding rock rafts through rivers of lava - complete with lava waterfalls - but in the mine cart level, the tracks were seemingly built right on the lava.
- Crosshair Aware: The escape from Club Obi-Wan at the beginning of "Temple of Doom" has you avoiding crosshairs that try to pelt you with machine gun fire. Luckily, there are plenty of tables and pianos to hide behind.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Everything explodes when killed, whether it be natives or animals.
- Dem Bones: After Donovan chooses the wrong grail, he becomes an insanely agile, bone-chucking skeleton that acts as the game's Final Boss.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: In addition to Nazis and thugs, you will also have to deal with wolves, rats, and even birds that drop rocks on your head.
- Fisticuffs Boss: The fight against Colonel Vogel on the tank requires you to use your fists. Nothing else will hurt him, not even grenades.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts appear in temple levels and serve to impede the player.
- Indy Escape: The second level consists of the iconic boulder scene.
- Minecart Madness: The penultimate level of the "Temple of Doom" portion.
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Nintendo Hard: While it's a bit more forgiving than the Super Star Wars series, the game can still get extremely tough. - No Swastikas: Here, they've been replaced with black X symbols.
- Password Save: The only way to save your progress, so you'll want to have a pen and paper handy.
- Rise to the Challenge: The level at Marion's bar has you hurrying to the top of the level as fire rises from the bottom of the screen.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: In some sections there are crushers that try to squash Indiana.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Downplayed examples with two villains, both of whom survive the magical events that kill them in the films so that Indy can kill them in Boss Battles instead.
- Belloq is not killed by the spirits of the Ark, which he is instead able to use against Indy.
- Instead of being outright killed by the false grail, Donovan is transformed into a living skeleton which becomes the Final Boss.
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Jumping on awnings bounce Indiana up in the air.
- Super Drowning Skills: There are many deep pools of water that act as bottomless pits. The catacombs in "The Last Crusade" portion do have shallow areas that you can wade around in, though.
- Watch for Rolling Objects: The snow mountain level has sections where snowballs roll downhill and Indiana has to jump over them. The burning house features rolling flaming debris that also needs to be jumped over.
- Zero-Effort Boss: The Arab Swordsman from the first film comes back as a boss. Take a wild guess how you defeat him.
