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.

Like 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.

Also similar to the Lego Star Wars series is the fact that some scenes from the film have changed.

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), Henry Jones Senior and Elsa see a rat, they will be frozen with fear and have limited movement capacity until the animals are gone.

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 somewhat in order 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, providing access to the 3 main stories, Dr. Jones office, a movie theater, an artifact display room, and other secret areas. 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. Satipo is able to dig things from the ground, female characters like Marion Ravenwood and Elsa Schneider are able to high jump unlike male characters. Willie Scott is also able to break glass with her screaming, and Thuggee characters can activate statues and find secret passages. Certain characters like Henry Jones, Sr., Rene Belloq, and Walter Donovan can solve hieroglyph puzzles using their knowledge of symbols to either progress through Story mode or find secret areas in Free Play. Lego Indiana Jones allows players to customize characters and make their own creation like Belloq Jones or Colonel Toht.

The game features hidden treasure chests, similar to the minikits found in Lego Star Wars. There are 10 chests in each level and if you collect them all, a bonus artifact will be in the artifact room at Barnett College. Some levels contain buried bonuses to help find the missing treasure chest. When you have found a certain number of the artifacts, a hidden level becomes unlocked (e.g. the Young Indy level when 3 artifacts have been completed). There are also red parcels which can be used to unlock bonuses.

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 (e.g. In the level "The Hunt for Sir Richard", players are able to hop on a boat in Venice, and ride an elephant in the "Pankot Secrets" level from The Temple of Doom).

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 the following Star Wars characters in various levels: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO. Finding these five minifigures unlocks Han Solo as a playable character. Also, Santa Claus, Dancing Girl 2, Shanghai Hoodlum 1, Shanghai Hoodlum 2, Grave Robber 1 and Grave Robber 2 are playable characters for the Free Play mode if the "Secret Characters" extra is purchased. It works in a similar manner to Extra Toggle from Lego Star Wars, as Santa is only playable in the "Into The Mountains" level, Dancing Girl 2, Shanghai Hoodlum 1 and Shanghai Hoodlum 2 are only playable in the "Shanghai Showdown" level and Grave Robber 1 and Grave Robber 2 are only playable in the "Young Indy" bonus level.

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 a 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 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."

External links

• Official site
• Games for Windows listing
• LEGO Indiana Jones PC Review