It's a colossal shame. Had LucasArts spent time tailoring an engine for Indy - and not, as we suspect, rewriting the Jedi Knight engine to offer unwieldy support his third-person mechanics - IJATIM could be a truly fulfilling experience. Rarely beautiful to behold, it nonetheless communicates a sense of distance and scale that few games (even Tomb Raider 4) can match. It has large, progressively complex puzzles that - when solved - offer a wholesome sense of satisfaction. It's a travesty that these favourable attributes, amongst others, should be eclipsed by the cumbersome design of Indy himself.

After a few hours, it's possible to control Dr Jones with a degree of aplomb; more so if you're a gaming adept. At this point, you can truly begin to appreciate its better moments. You can lose yourself in a multi-layered puzzle, wandering from one extent of a map to the other in search of a vital clue. And, while it's difficult to warm to Indy himself - the guy who does the voice-over track is not blessed with boundless charisma and talent - the developing storyline is mildly compelling. It has little in the way of humour, the cut-scenes are wooden, the acting banal, and it therefore has little in common with the excellent movies. But it is entertaining. Just.

In an affaire d'honneur between Indy and Lara, though, the winner has the bigger breasts. Prince of Persia 3D isn't even a contender. Still, at least LucasArts and Lucasfilm can be content that the forthcoming Tomb Raider film could well be a huge flop, both critically and commercially. It would be a strangely apt conclusion to one of the most brazen love(-your-ideas) stories in videogame history...