He has a hat, a whip, and a long career in cinema: Indiana Jones is back this week in the world of video games, with the release ofIndiana Jones and the Ancient Circle. The action-adventure game, developed by MachineGames, is placed after Raiders of the Lost Ark and takes the archaeologist, in the guise of a rejuvenated Harrison Ford, on a journey around the world. A few days before Christmas, the game is perhaps the ideal gift for a very specific audience: gamer fans of the 1980s.
At the time of their release, mainstream films of the 1980s like Terminator or Alien had to settle for video game adaptations that were not necessarily very well done. Technological constraints and the desire to make simple derivative products have not given them a good reputation. But recently, the eighties have made a comeback in video games. Besides Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circlethis end of the year also saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws. Last year it was Robocop Rogue City and in 2022, Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed transformed the cinema saga into a multiplayer video game.
All the ingredients for a video game
Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circle – and these other examples – play on a powerful feeling: nostalgia. “It is based on an idealized representation of the past, it is a way of watering down its negative aspects,” defines Emmanuelle Fantin, lecturer in information and communication sciences at Celsa Sorbonne University. The one who also co-edited the work Contemporary nostalgia also reminds us that the use of this emotion is not new. Back to the future (well, another saga from the 1980s which had the right to a video game return in the 21st century), already played on the nostalgia of the 1960s.
More precisely, the 1980s marked “the transition from an analog world to a digital world, which changed our relationships with the media”. CDs, music videos, personal computers, video games and the advent of family cinema and its blockbusters: a whole era which marked the cultural sector. More obviously, these famous blockbusters are often full of action scenes, well-defined heroes, and are linked to the genre of adventure and science fiction. All the ingredients come together to create video game levels, with their obstacles and enemies. “There is also a parallel with the retrogaming trend,” says Emmanuelle Fantin. Clumsiness and simplicity create a charm that contrasts with the sector’s search for technological progress and graphic realism. »
“You don’t need to have lived through an era to be nostalgic about it”
Finally, nostalgia “is an integral part of the marketing toolbox,” says Emmanuelle Fantin. Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circle has qualities, but he would have been less talked about if he was not the heir to a film franchise. “The sagas of our childhood are presented in all kinds of commercial and material ways,” continues the researcher. There is a logic for capturing audiences. And you don’t need to have lived through an era to be nostalgic about it. The best example is the phenomenon of rockabilly, the rock of the 1950s, which still attracts some new fans today. It’s all good in a way: we’re going to talk to the person who will remobilize their memories and arouse attraction among young people. »
Between adaptations, sequels and remakes, video games play this card to the fullest. More than a lack of creativity, Emmanuelle Fantin sees in it “a logic of economic and financial optimization: reconstituting a universe or an audience is less hard than constituting it. » But “returning to aesthetic ideas does not prevent being creative. » The players ofIndiana Jones and the Ancient Circlethey can in any case treat themselves to a great archeology session for the holidays.