Lego Indiana Jones 01 December 2008

It is a sad but true fact that games based on films are almost always poor shadows of their celluloid parent. There are a few exceptions, the 1997 Blade Runner game, GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64, and now the Lego games.

Having not played Lego Star Wars, (for previously stated reasons), this is my first experience in the Lego world, and I love it. The game is thoroughly charming, incredibly easy to play, and certainly more entertaining than the latest Indiana Jones film.

You control a Lego version of Indiana Jones, and a variety of companions. The game follows the original three films, told mostly through surprisingly large levels and daft cut-scenes. Sections of the game have been altered from the films to be family-friendly, most noticeably the baddies are merely dark suited villains and not Nazis. The Wii version only makes slight use of the unique features of the platform such as flicking the Wii remote to use use Indy’s Whip and shaking the nunchuk will speeds up building and repairing actions.

The find-and-seek based game mostly revolves around finding and using items, digging up objects and piles of bricks to construct part of a useful contraption, placing keys in keyholes, and moving statues around to create paths. Its all great fun, and has some parallels to Tomb Raider, itself inspired by the original Indy films.

All of these takes place in some really long and intricate levels, mostly realistic with lego eliminates to break up or use to complete some task, all the while being treated to the original John Williams’ score bursting forth at opportune moments. My only real complaint is because the levels are somewhat long, the autosave is not as frequent as I would like, particularly if like me you take your time playing the levels and exploring.

It’s a really great game, and I’m interested to see what Lego Batman is like, and where they take the Lego franchise next. Personally I’d love to see ‘Lego Blade Runner’, but it I doubt it would have the same appeal. I do vaguely remember a set of Lego Jurassic Park toys when the last one was released. I see potential in driving a Jeep chased by a Lego Tyrannosaurus, and although previous attempts to capture the thrill of the Jurassic Park films in game format have failed, maybe the Lego magic will do work here too?