Lego Indiana Jones

Lego Indiana Jones:  The Original Adventures

Rating E10+

Score  7.5/10

             After making several Lego Star Wars games, Traveler Tales took on the Indiana Jones series.  This game is available for the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 and PC.

             Unless you live without television and have never gone to the movies, you must be familiar with Indiana Jones.  The series is well known and well loved.  Lego Indiana Jones, like Lego Star Wars, is a more humourous version of the series.

             The gameplay itself is a lot like Lego Star Wars.  In fact, it is Lego Star Wars, but uses Indiana Jones instead of Star Wars.  You’re still destroying blocks, finding studs (block like money in the Lego world), collecting an endless amount of extras, and enjoying the game’s unique humor.  The Indiana Jones series has less (important) characters than Star Wars, but Indiana Jones is more about adventuring than fighting, a fair trade-off.  Indy fans can spot key scenes from the original trilogy (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade) with ease.

             Features you’ll find in this game that were previously utilized in Lego Star Wars include:  choosing which movie you complete first, choosing one of many characters and creating your own custom character.  Unlike Lego Star Wars, you get more than a saber and a gun for your custom character.  You can get a lance, a sword, an uzi, and even a bazooka.

             Of course, this game is more enjoyable if you saw the movies first.  It’s also more enjoyable with a friend.  A friend controlling the other character is also easier, since the A.I. (artificial intelligence) is questionable at best.  Sometimes the character will stop following you for no reason, sometimes the character will refuse to fight, etc.  This game was never intended as an adventure to be enjoyed alone.

            If you’re expecting an amazing game, you’re expecting too much.  It has better visuals than it could have gotten away with but it’s still only Lego Star Wars with Indiana Jones slapped all over it.  If you and a friend love the series, though, you should have a blast.