Although it accompanies Indy’s return to the big screen, Lego Indiana Jones isn’t the usual sloppy movie tie-in.

Instead, the game takes a nostalgic trip back to the first three films in the series, giving them the same Lego treatment that was previously employed to a surprisingly successful degree with the two Star Wars trilogies. Indeed, the net effect is very similar to that of the Lego Star Wars titles.

The idea is to platform your way through various Lego-ised set pieces from the movies, grappling with enemies, solving puzzles and collecting treasures as you go. Often the way forward requires the assembly of some Lego bricks, but this is less complicated than it sounds – a single button press does the trick.

Even if you’re not familiar with the concept, Lego Indiana Jones is a fantastically simple game to get your head around. As such it’s suitable for younger players, though the Lego series’ signature tongue-in-cheek take on proceedings mean that a lot of grown-ups will probably it enjoy too.

If anything, Lego Indiana Jones is just mildly less enjoyable than its Star Wars equivalents, simply because the subject matter lends itself slightly less well to the format.

For instance, each level features Indy plus another character whose special ability you’ll need to use to progress at certain points. In single-player mode you can switch between Indy and the computer characters at will, while in two-player mode your on-screen partner can be controlled by a real-life buddy.

But, where Lego Star Wars was fun to play whether you had Yoda, Chewie or R2-D2 as your sidekick, in Lego Indiana Jones, the secondary characters just aren’t as interesting and even avid fans may struggle to recognise some of the more obscure individuals the game rolls out.

That said, Lego Indiana Jones certainly offers a lot of game for your money. There are effectively three games in one here – one for each of the original films. On top of that, there are many hidden challenges and items to collect in order to complete the game, plus the entire thing can also be replayed cooperatively.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.