Published: Wednesday, 11th June, 2008 12:00
Lego Indiana Jones
By Narin Bahar
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George Lucas needs to stop. After the horror of the Star Wars prequels, this summer sees Indiana Jones dusted off - with the almost-septugenarian Harrison Ford putting the iconic hat on one more time. The film is, well, disappointingly mediocre.
But, rest assured there is something good coming out of the franchise this year. And it turns out the trick is in the brick.
After the joys of the Lego Star Wars films, Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures takes three more film classics and provides a fun, cheery and tongue-in-cheek gaming homage to them.
It takes the familiar gameplay of the Lego games but gives it its own Indy twist - from Junior himself freezing up around snakes so you have to get another character to help, Sallah digging up artefacts with his spade, Short Round helping crawl into small spaces and Indy's whip proving helpful for getting across difficult ravines. Meanwhile, in a fight Indiana is as scrappy as you'd expect - and can pick up the weapons of fallen enemies to help him when his fists get sore.
This game also feels like more of a puzzler than the Star Wars incarnation - which ended up mainly involving smashing walls and collecting studs. As you'd hope there are booby traps, and the puzzles you need to solve are difficult enough that you feel a genuine sense of achievement when you get through them. The lateral thinking element really comes into its own in Co-op mode, making it much more fun with friends.
After two previous Lego games you know what you're going to get with this release - so there's no surprises and nothing going to set the world afire.
That said the game is solid, packed full of unlockables, charm and good humour and is great for two players so why mess with (almost) perfection?
Four stars out of five
* Lego Indiana Jones is out now on all formats.
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