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. Strangely, however, in the DS version of the game, on the Raiders of the Lost Ark level "Pursuing the Ark," some of the crates in a truck feature a Parteiadler without a swastika.

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. Neither the Xbox 360 version nor the PlayStation 3 version support online play through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

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 events into 6 game chapters per movie. Barnett College, Dr. Indiana Jones' teaching location from the movies, serves as the main hub of the game, and different rooms allow access to each of the missions as well as the extra unlockable content and options. Once a player chooses a mission, a cutscene begins that introduces the section of the movie being played. Notable scenes have been recreated from the movies, such as the memorable boulder escape and the battle on the rope bridge, as well as Walter Donovan choosing the incorrect Holy Grail.

There are 83 regular characters in total plus the 2 custom figures which can be made by the players and a few extras only playable on certain levels. Each character featured in the game has his/her own unique ability, which are required to access new areas when replaying a level in Free Play mode. Lego Indiana Jones allows players to mix and match parts to customize characters and make their own creation like "Belloq Jones" or "colonel Toht". 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 5 other Star Wars characters in various levels.

New features were added 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. The game also incorporates character phobias from the films; 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.

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. Also, the characters do not suffer from fear of creatures as they do in the console versions.

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

Bonus Levels

• Young Indy
• Ancient City
• Warehouse

DS Levels

Raiders of the Lost Ark

• The Lost Temple-Indy explores the temple in South America with Stipano
• Gunfight at The Raven-Indy meets Marion and fights hired Sherpa goons in her bar
• Cairo Street Fight-Indy and Marion get chased by goons in the streets of Cairo
• The Well of Souls-Indy and Sallah go to an excavation site near Cairo to find the Ark of the Covenant
• Rescue the Ark-Indy, Sallah, and Marion chase down the Nazis by doing impossible stunts, like leaping from the tops of trucks
• The Opening of the Ark-Indy and Marion are captured on a boat and taken to an island...

Temple of Doom

• Shanghai Showdown-Indy's bargaining with Shanghai gangsters gets violent..
• Rapids-Indy, Willie, and Short Round have to raft through mountains and jungles to survive...
• Pankot Palace-Indy decides to help a poor village by going to Pankot Palace to recover the Shivalingam
• Temple of Doom-Indy's in trouble, and Short Round has to save him and Willie..
• Escape the Mineshaft-Let's save all the kids and take a crazy ride through the tunnels of Pankot Palace...
• Battle on the Bridge-The vicious Thuggees try to make a final attempt to kill Indy...

Last Crusade

• Retrieving the Cross-Young Indy decides to go hunting for a stupid cross and nearly kills himself...
• The Tomb of Sir Richard-Indy and Dr. Schneider go trying to find some stupid old knight's grave... and guys with guns show up.
• Rescue Professor Jones-Now, Indy goes to find his dad but get's double crossed...
• The Zeppelin-Whoa, another mad chase after a worthless object...
• Canyon of the Crescent Moon-Indy and daddy find out where they have to go...about time, too.
• Temple of the Grail-Indy, Kazim, and Henry have found it!

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."

External links

• Official site
• Games for Windows listing
• The Lego Indiana Jones Wiki