Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

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 in order to fit the movies into six subsections per movie. Barnett College, Dr. Indiana Jones' teaching location from Last Crusade (but is known as "Marshall College" in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), serves as the main hub of the game, and different maps on the walls allow access to each of the missions, extra unlockable content and options are found in the different classrooms. 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, or Walter Donovan choosing the incorrect Holy Grail.

The music from the films was used in this game, but also some music was extracted from "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" e.g. "Attack of the Hawkmen" or "Daredevils of the desert" or "Masks of evil", etc. They were placed in various spots such as Indy and Satipo approaching the temple in "The Lost Temple", or when Indy, Willie and Short Round are preparing the mine cart in "Escape the mines" or when Indy is finding the true Grail in "Temple of the Grail". The early year trilogy soundtrack would be used in Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues.

Characters

There are 82 (standard) playable characters in total, 23 characters which are given to players in the story, and 59 characters which may be purchased from the in-game Library. Then, there are the two custom figures which can be made by the players, and the bonus character Han Solo (much like Indiana Jones was a playable character in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga). A few other characters can also be played with the "Secret Characters" extra on, only playable on certain levels (such as Santa Claus in "Into the mountains" or Dancing girl 2 in "Shanghai Showdown". 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 customise characters and make their own creation like "Belloq Jones" or "Colonel Toht". LEGO Indiana Jones also allows players to customise characters and make their own creation. In addition, players can play as their custom creation in the Art Room to test their character's abilities. However, all custom characters have the Whip ability, which may clash with their custom character's appearance.

Features

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 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 dead or out of range. Also, new melee attacks, such as the Whip snag (trips enemies), have been added.

Nintendo DS

The DS 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. Thuggee 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, Marion (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 Skywalker frozen in an ice cave resembling the Wampa's, but unlike the console versions none of the characters are playable. An interesting thing to note is that if you chase Wicket, you might be able to kill him with one hit. In the final scene of "The Last Crusade" The Grail Knight is first shown as a shadow on the wall which looks like Darth Vader, when the shadow draws a sword the blade extends like a Lightsaber. Santa Claus, Strong Man, Castle Knight, 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.

Development

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 or the PlayStation Network.

The Xbox 360 version is backwards compatible with Xbox One.

Sequel

A sequel titled Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues has been released. It includes game levels for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) as well as completely redesigned levels for the other three movies among other new features.

Reception

Reviews for the game were generally positive. 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 similar to the Lego Star Wars games. X-Play gave it a 4 out of 5, saying that it has everything that a fan of the films 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' 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. Also, the magazine stated that, "In general, this game could possibly be one of the greatest games ever." 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."

The Nintendo DS version of Lego Indiana Jones was nominated for two DS-specific awards from IGN.com, namely Best Action Game and Best Local Multiplayer Game. The Wii version has also been nominated for multiple Wii-specific awards by IGN, including Best Action Game and Best Local Multiplayer Game. As of April 2009, the game has sold around 7.91 million copies combining sales of all platforms.As of May 2012, the game has sold over 11 million copies.