Indy just doesn't work in Legoland
This is a bit of an embarassing admission for someone who's supposed to be a gamer, but for the sake of full disclosure, I've got to admit it: I couldn't finish "Lego Indiana Jones." 95% of the game is very easy for adults, as it should be, but there are a few places where lights don't shine on the places you have to go to solve the puzzle and you're constantly being attacked and I just had no idea what I was supposed to do. In particular, the final battle on the bridge against Mola-Ram in "Temple of Doom" is completely indecipherable. I know I'm supposed to use Indy's whip to destroy the bridge's anchor points somehow, but I have no idea how to do it and Mola and his goons keep killing me before I can take any time to figure it out. It's intensely frustrating and while it's possible that I'm just a total idiot, I find it hard to imagine that it would be a breeze for a seven year-old.
However, as I wrote in my review in today's Daily Variety, that's far from "Lego Indiana Jones'" only problems. Yes, the game works fine and has its amusing moments. But "Indiana Jones" just fundamentally isn't suited for the Lego world the way that "Star Wars" was. There aren't many cute characters, there are barely any interesting settings, and the storyline is too detail-driven to make sense (if you care) when it's being acted out by Lego characters muttering their version of Simlish. The whole experience feels more like LucasArts trying to mix their other huge internal property with the successful Lego formula that's already gone as far as it can in "Star Wars."
As I wrote in today's review:
Fundamentally, Indiana Jones and his pals are just poorly suited for the Lego videogame world, which depends on breadth and cuteness. “Star Wars” has the advantage of dozens of identifiable characters and settings, many of which already look like they could be built out of blocks. “Indy,” on the other hand, has barely a handful of memorable characters and few locations of particular note or that could be classified as “adorable.” Indy, Short Round, Marion and Henry Sr. hardly stack up as Lego characters to Luke, Chewie, R2-D2 and the Ewoks, nor are deserts, jungles and libraries nearly as fun as the Death Star, Hoth and Jabba’s cruiser.
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
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Posted by: knight online noah | March 11, 2009 at 09:09 PM
Have you ever watched the Indy Movies? i thought the thing was great and cute. it did the cute thing well IMO. Indiana Jones has always had more comedy than Star Wars so if anything i think it lends itself more so to Lego than Star Wars. Anyway everyones entitled to their opinion.
Posted by: Chris | June 10, 2008 at 07:35 AM
Found your blog when I was trying to figure out how to pass the battle on the bridge boss. I finally figured it out. Here's what I think you have to do. The boss does a little hypnosis-like thing to you. You have to let him do it, and when he does, switch characters and attack him. Each time you do this, you can throw a sword to destroy one of the bridge's anchor points.
They really did a poor job on that boss scene. The rest of the game has been really fun.
Posted by: Brian | June 08, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Most of the characters and settings are outstanding in Indiana Jones film. The characters became famous because of there costumes designing as similarly designed by eastern toys stores.
Posted by: jett | June 03, 2008 at 01:13 AM