Summer Gaming – Lego Indiana Jones (Wii)
Summer is a time for blockbuster movies, and one of the big hopefuls this past summer was a new Indiana Jones sequel. Hot on the heels of the new movie, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, is the latest videogame in the family friendly Lego adventure series. So many movies turned video games fail to deliver, but LucasArts once again shows that Legos plus action movie theme equals some great gaming.
The game is available on most platforms and I’ve had a chance to spend a good chunk of time with the Wii version – an excellent choice as the use of the Wiimote is quite natural for control of so many of the characters’ actions. Fans of previous Lego titles (based off the Star Wars franchise) know what to expect, lots of fun exploration interspersed with a bit of action and a good dose of tongue in cheek humor. There are humorous nods to fans of the Star Wars Lego series and fans of the Indiana movies. As in all great kids programming there is occasional humor only the grown-ups will catch as well as things that all ages will enjoy.
Classic scenes from all the Indiana movies are included in the adventure along with 60 or so playable characters. The marquee Indy character is there, of course, along with his trademark Fedora and whip. Indy’s whip is handy for solving many obstacles including swinging across gaps, hitting distant objects, as well as the expected use in combat. One or two players can play the game cooperatively, switching between characters to bring each character’s unique abilities into play to solve problems. New players can even join or leave midgame.
Unless your family has a particular phobia for spiders or snakes, the game is very safe for gamers of all ages. The E10+ rating is primarily there due to the cartoon violence, which almost exclusively results in characters “harmlessly” falling into Lego pieces when they fall prey to obstacles or antagonists. The 10+ rating is a fine guideline, but I would have no problems with kids even a few years younger playing the game with a more experienced partner. I had an enjoyable afternoon playing with a five year old girl who wasn’t a regular videogamer. As long as I gave a bit of occasional help with jumping, took care of combat, and ran any of the two-character simultaneous tasks, she had a grand old time helping me explore and using her character’s special ability to dig up hidden Lego block rewards.
My compliments to LucasArts for another fine Lego game that I look forward to sharing with my son in a few years.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:43 am
It is interesting to me that despite the fact that I have proclaimed my love for all three LEGO Star Wars games far and wide and continue to declare them some of the better games of recent years, I failed to connect with this. To me it felt like a derivative knock-off of games with better and more varied source material – sort of like comparing the High School Musical rhythm game to Elite Beat Agents.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
I could see that. I, personally, am much more of a fan of the Star Wars setting than the Indiana Jones one. Plus, I see more opportunity for lampooning the Star Wars setting than Indy.
That said, I felt the game stayed true to its previous roots. I didn’t play both (all 3?) of the previous Star Wars Lego games, so I may be less innoculated to the game.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
All 3 = LEGO Star Wars (prequels), LSW Orig Trilogy (obvious), LSW Complete Saga (enough differences and different platforms to call it a third).
I think that one thing that I really liked with LSW was the real variety in characters – they really felt different in more ways than in Indy. Plus, there really aren’t many other characters I (and my kids) want to play as other than the man with the hat & whip 😉
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Very true. The Star Wars universe lends itself to a far more diverse set of characters than the Indy Saga. (After all, there were really very few characters that stuck with Indy throughout all four movies.)
The Lego Batman game has more possibilities for characters (particularly on the villan side of things) but I’m concerned to see what they do with the mature/dark themes that have been in the franchise in the past couple decades… (I can’t imagine they’d go overboard with it, but it is always a danger…)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Me and my munchkin are thoroughly enjoying Lego Indy. I haven’t played the Star Wars games (although they’re somewhere on my tings to do list).
I don’t think a Lego Batman would be too dark though – not when you consider that they managed to do Indiana jones without undue nastiness. Cast your mind back to the opening sequence of Raiders – and all those impaled corpses. Or the heart-ripping, lava-burning, baddie-crushing, blood-drinking, croc-munching ickiness of the Temple of Doom.
Has a Lego Batman been confirmed though? I would have thought it would have happened long before now, as Lego has been selling Batman stuff much longer than its Indy range.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am
LEGO Batman is for real and coming this fall – check out a trailer here (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53463)
July 31st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I wish all games came out in the LEGO-verse. I love them that much. And my 7-yr-old is almost better than I am at LIJ! I am eagerly awaiting Batman this September- the trailers look so amazing.
I was surprised that Temple of Doom was probably the most playable of the three chapters, since it’s my least favorite movie of the three. I did appreciate how much of the darkness was removed from the series to make it okay (in my opinion, again) for children.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
But of course, Temple of Doom the movie looks like a video game, so it makes sense it was a natural 😉