Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The plot of the NES version follows the storyline of the original movie. At the onset of the game, Jones has just reached the Pankot Palace featured in the movie and is preparing to free the slave children, recover the missing Sankara Stones and defeat Mola Ram and his Thuggee entourage. The game differs from the original arcade version in many respects, including the layout and the manner in which one progresses through the game, but the plot remains unchanged in both versions.

The player advances through 12 levels (called "waves"), the first nine of which require Jones to travel through the palace and recover the Sankara Stones. In these stages, the player may restart the game with all items intact in the last area reached. Afterwards, if the player dies, they must return to the Chamber of Kali (Wave 9) and finish the game from that point. Each level also has a timer that goes from 99 to zero. If time runs out, the player is confronted by Mola Ram and loses one life and all of their items. All levels also contain mine cart rooms, where Jones can ride the rails through the levels across hazards and past enemies.