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Lego Indiana Jones Review - Wii

Introduction

Ever wondered what the Indiana Jones films would look like if the world was made of Lego? You probably haven’t, but in LucasArts’s new release, you’re about to find out anyway. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, which has been released for the Wii, 360, PS3, PS2, DS, PSP and PC chronicles the stories of the original movies (those that came before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which means Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade). I’m reviewing the Wii version of the game, which, while the weakest of the home console versions graphically, has its own unique elements.

Gameplay

As this is another Lego game by Traveller’s Tales, you’ll most likely be unsurprised when I say that the game looks, and plays almost exactly the same as the Lego Star Wars titles that have come before it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as these games were very popular with a large number of gamers, and the appeal of Lego is surprisingly strong. However, if you’ve played the previous games, unless you’re a big fan of Indiana Jones, or really, really enjoyed playing the Lego Star Wars games, you’ll probably feel like you’re playing the same game all over again.

Now that the negatives are out of the way, time to move onto the actual gameplay, for the uninformed. Lego Indiana Jones allows you to take control of a range of characters, from the series’ most well known and prominent personalities, to the less seen ones. As to which characters you control, it all depends on which level (and thus part of one of the movies) you are playing at the time. You can unlock more and more characters as you go through the game, with any new characters that you play as during the story being automatically unlocked at the end of each level.

The gameplay controls are quite simple. The game makes use of a two handed play style, and the controls go like this: Move using the stick on the nunchuk, press A on the remote to jump and press B on the nunchuk to attack with whatever weapon the particularly character you are controlling uses, whether it be a whip, gun or something else. You can also swing the remote a bit like a whip to swing Indiana’s whip when you are using him, but this can also be done by pressing the Z button on the back of the nunchuk, just as force powers were usable in Lego Star Wars. In fact, Indiana’s whip is almost like the force itself, as it’s able to grab nearby items and enemies, and can help solve some of the game’s puzzles.

Switching between the many characters on offer is an essential part of the gameplay since some have unique abilities that you’ll need to progress farther. There are parts of levels where you’ll have to use Indiana’s whip to get further, as well as certain doors that can only ...

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