PS3 Xbox 360

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

PlatformPuzzleAdventure

Time to beat: about 18.5 hours

Overview

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a 2008 Lego-themed action-adventure video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts. Based on the Indiana Jones franchise and the eponymous Lego Indiana Jones toy line, it follows the events of the first three Indiana Jones films: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Temple of Doom (1984), and the Last Crusade (1989). The game allows up to two players to play locally at a time, offers puzzle and platformer aspects, and has 84 playable characters with a variety of special abilities. As the players go through the stages, they collect the currency of Lego games known as Studs, avoid traps, assemble Lego constructions, and engage in combat. Climbing, swinging, and throwing objects as weapons were new inclusions not seen in previous Lego video games by Traveller's Tales.

LucasArts announced the game in 2007, with the developers basing its mechanics on their prior Lego Star Wars games. The design of puzzles was altered to fit the Indiana Jones franchise. Any mentions of Nazism from the franchise were removed, as Lego replaced the figures with characters that resemble them visually in its Indiana Jones Lego sets. Traveller's Tales also attempted to make Lego Indiana Jones more family-friendly. The game was advertised at conventions: a game demo, Flash Player web game, and computer-animated short film were published during the development. Lego Indiana Jones was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Wii, and Xbox 360 platforms in June 2008, while Feral Interactive released the Mac OS X version in November 2008. It was made available on the Steam digital distribution service in 2009.

Lego Indiana Jones received generally favourable reviews from critics. Its gameplay, retelling of the films, and co-op mode were commended by reviewers. However, they had conflicting opinions about the second player's artificial intelligence and game mechanics. Reviewers also praised the game's graphics, environments, and soundtrack, but disagreed on the sound effects. The Wii and Xbox 360 versions garnered praise, but the PSP version was criticised for its puzzles, excessive loading times, and lack of multiplayer support. A Java platformer Lego Indiana Jones mobile game was released in 2008 and a sequel, Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, was released in 2009.