Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but I had to because I absolutely love Growl. Not the Genesis port (which isn't terrible, but it's not that great either), but the original arcade game. Yes, it's a blatant Indy ripoff - I swear someone at Taito wanted to make an Indy arcade game but couldn't get the rights - but what makes it shine is the sheer WTF-ness of the whole game.
The Engrish is hilarious ("Get lost you wisp!"). The game throws tons of enemies at you at once, and your animal friends will deliver armaments to you or trample the enemies themselves. Hey, an elephant takes on a tank and wins! When you continue, a giant bed of spikes drops out of nowhere and crushes the enemies on the screen. It's just so over the top and ludicrous.
And the most out there moment of the entire game comes after you finish off the last boss' first form (looks like the Joker wearing a stylish top hat and coat with tails), and his body goes slithering across the screen and cracks open to reveal some kind of space caterpillar or something.
As fan as all the Indy ripping off is concerned, yeah, Gen looks just like Indy (as does one of the other guys), and you can get both a whip and revolver. But you also fight enemies that resemble the Thuggees and a whole mob of angry John Rhys-Davies cosplayers. Multicolored Sallahs ahoy!
Read more about it here:
http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/growl/growl.htm
Also, here's my nickname for Growl (artwork from the arcade flyer):
Regarding some of the other games listed here... yeah, Earnest Evans sucked. What a shame. I loved El Viento (which EE is the prequel to, at least for the Mega CD), but EE was just terrible. Not a shining moment in Wolf Team's history, that's for sure.
I love Montezuma's Revenge, especially the Sega Master System version. The 2600 version wasn't bad either. Haven't ever played Motezuma's Return, though. And does anyone here remember the hero's name?
Also - has anyone here ever heard of a Konami game for the Famicom Disk System called Almana no Kiseki, aka The Miracle of Almana? Think Indiana Jones meets an early Konami arcade game, Roc 'N Rope. It's not bad at all, but it can be damned frustrating. Check out the first link to see the Indyness of it:
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/fds/almana.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almana_no_Kiseki