Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Is this the first building block (see what we did there?) in a whole new Lego franchise? David Hollingworth cracks on to find out.

Reviewer’s note
Okay, I’ve got to break out of our communal Editorial Voice here to make a possibly damning confession. I may in fact be the only human alive to be left utterly cold by the various Lego titles that have assaulted pretty much every platform under the sun in recent years.

Everybody else in the office thinks they’re a hoot, and I drew a small crowd while playing through the latest Lego game, which this time mines the rich soil of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Everyone else was very amused by Lego Indy’s bouncing adventures, but all I could manage was a bitter bah-humbug.

You have been warned...


On with the show!
To be brief, we could sum up this game by simply calling it Lego Star Wars with a Fedora. But then you’d be done with the review by now and wondering at all the white-space on the page. However, that’s also the most accurate way to describeit, as it really doesn’t bring anything new (apart from the hat) to what’s already been established in previous Lego titles.

This is great if, like the majority of both casual and hardcore gamers, you loved what’s been before. If you hated them, and are simply hoping that Indy-in-blocks makes it all worthwhile, prepare to be disappointed.

Present is all the usual blasting of flora and fauna to earn blocks, blasting of flora and fauna to renew health, and of course the blasting of aforementioned flora and fauna for no other reason than they are in your way. As the pretty colours swirl around the screen, you’ll also be called upon to solve any number of Rube Goldberg-ian puzzles and contraptions and leap about what are essentially platform puzzles. To do this you’ll need to swap between the various characters on screen, watching your little Lego soul waft about like something from a bad B-movie.

Once you’re through the more introductory levels, some of the puzzles get downright fiendish in their complexity and the kind of multi-tasking you’ll require. One new wrinkle is the fact that each character comes with a phobia of sorts – Indy hates snakes, Willy hates spiders and so on. Juggling those, and each character’s unique abilities can actually be quite engrossing.

However, the real ‘treat’ in the game is discovering how Traveller’s Tales has translated the often gritty and sometimes bloody world of Indiana Jones into family-friendly Lego fare. For instance, the first fifteen minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark has a body count higher than practically any other film in the series. People are shot, poisoned, burned, trepanned and whipped to violent deaths, and that’s before the movie has barely started.

Unsurprisingly, the game turns it all into a bloodless and cutesy joke-fest.

Case in point would be the death by heart-plucking and lava-dunking that sets the tone for the second act of Temple of Doom. In Legoland, that simply becomes a vicious taunting followed by the poor nameless slave getting an awkward-looking tan in Siva’s solarium from hell.

Which, we guess, is kinda funny.

In effect, that pretty much sums up the tone of the game right there. It’s a no brainer that this is going to be as popular as the Star Wars games, and likely lead to a Lego version of The Crystal Skull to boot. Great news if you’re a fan.

Woo!