Lego Indiana Jones: Die legendären Abenteuer

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a 2008 video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts. The game allows players to recreate moments (albeit more humorously) from the first three Indiana Jones films. It features the same drop in/out co-operative play mode as seen in the Lego Star Wars video games, although it is restricted to local console play. The game was released on June 3, 2008 in the United States and Canada, and June 6, 2008 in Europe. A downloadable demo for Windows was made available on May 13, 2008.

As introduced in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, new moves include clinging onto branches during a jump using Indy's whip. As a promotion, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga features Indy as an unlockable playable character.

The game often follows the events in the films, however like the Lego Star Wars series, some scenes from the film have been altered to become more family friendly or just provide comic relief to the player.

Development

The game is designed to be family friendly and unlike the films, the game follows the Lego Indiana Jones theme in avoiding references to Nazism.

It was initially reported that the game would allow up to four players in co-operative mode, but this later turned out to be a miscommunication. While four characters may be visible on the screen, only two can be controlled by players. On the Nintendo DS, up to eight characters may be in the party, but only two may be visible on the screen. The Xbox 360 version does not support Xbox Live.

The game incorporates character phobias; for example, if Indiana Jones sees a snake, Willie sees a spider (excluding giant tarantulas), or Henry Jones Senior or Elsa see a rat, they will be frozen with fear and have limited movement capacity until the animals are either gone or out of range.

Levels

Raiders of the Lost Ark

• Lost Temple
• Into the Mountains
• City of Danger
• The Well of Souls
• Pursuing the Ark
• Opening the Ark

Temple of Doom

• Shanghai Showdown
• Pankot Secrets
• The Temple of Kali
• Free the Slaves
• Escape the Mines
• Battle on the Bridge

Last Crusade

• The Hunt for Sir Richard
• Castle Rescue
• Motorcycle Escape
• Trouble in the Sky
• Desert Ambush
• Temple of the Grail

Gameplay

The game follows the storylines from the original Indiana Jones films: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade. However, the developers modified the storylines to fit the movies into 6 subsections per movie.

Barnett College, Dr. Indiana Jones' teaching location from the movies, serves as the main hub of the game. Once a player chooses a mission, a cutscene begins that introduces the section of the movie being played.

Each character featured in the game has his/her own unique ability. Lego Indiana Jones allows players to customize characters and make their own creation like Belloq Jones, Colonel Toht

New features add to the gameplay from the Lego Star Wars series, such as the ability for the player to interact with objects in their environment (e.g. bottles, swords and guns). Players can also build and ride vehicles.

Notable scenes have been recreated from the movies, such as the iconic boulder escape and the fight on the rope bridge, as well as Walter Donovan choosing the wrong Holy Grail.

As a teaser from the Lego Star Wars series, Han Solo is a special unlockable character for free play, and can be unlocked by finding Star Wars characters in various levels.

Nintendo DS Gameplay

The handheld version has some significant changes to accommodate both the memory and size limitations of the DS as well as its unique touch screen controls. Characters' special abilities, such as Indy's whip or Satipo's shovel, and elements such as switches can be controlled by using the touch screen. In addition, the built-in microphone comes into play, allowing the player to physically blow out torches in some levels and inflate rubber rafts to cross water hazards.

There are four classes of characters that can use special access panels to enter hidden areas; these all require the player to match a four block sequence by solving a mini-puzzle on the touch screen. Scholars can access scroll panels, and must flip pages in a book to find the correct blocks. Thuggees use red skull panels and move a torch to illuminate the blocks on a darkened screen. Military characters can use the green radio panels and scroll through a set of slot-machine wheels to match the pattern. Brotherhood characters enter the red sword panels and solve a block switching game. In addition, the female characters (and Monkey Man) can transform into a monkey on special red pads to climb to otherwise inaccessible areas, and throw bottles of alcohol into flaming trash cans to blow up certain obstacles.

The DS version features cameos by Star Wars characters, including Wicket the Ewok and Luke frozen in an ice cave resembling the Wampa's, but unlike the console versions none of the characters are playable. Santa Claus and the Clown are the only non-movie characters who are unlockable. There are also no hidden levels and no bonus reward for completing the game at 100%.

Red power bricks remain in the DS version, despite being replaced with red parcels in the console/PSP versions.

Reception

• IGN gave the game an 8/10 for the Nintendo DS, PS2 and the Wii 8.4/10 for the 360 and PS3 and 7.7/10 for the PSP. which is about the same as the Lego Star Wars games.
• X-Play gave it a 4 out of 5, saying that it had everything an Indy fan could want, but it is not as fun as Lego Star Wars.
• Official Playstation Magazine UK gave the game an 8/10, praising the immersive nature of the game, and praising the series's choices of source material.
• Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 82%, just about the same as Lego Star Wars, saying it was very similar and not much has improved.
• Game Revolution gave the game B+, citing that the game, designed by fans of the movie series, provides "addictive game play" with "tons of replay value."

Bugs

There are several bugs in the Playstation 2 version game, which generally require the player to restart the level (losing any progress that has been made up to that point).

• In the Pursuing The Ark level, where the player moves a large crate on a crane, it is possible to drop the crate in the wrong place. Occasionally, the crate will end up suspended in mid-air and all attempts to retrieve it fail. Since the level cannot be completed without the crate being in the correct place the player must restart the level.
• Near the start of the Pankot Secrets level it is possible to jump from an elephant onto the platform where a monkey is holding a key. The monkey tries to run away and can fall down into the ravine below. The player can then not retrieve the key from the monkey and the monkey cannot get up and is not restored to life. Since the key is required to advance in the level again the player must restart.

External links

• Official site
• Games for Windows listing