Video Games : Lego: Indiana Jones (Wii)

Rating: - Fantastic, if a little frustrating at times!
Well, I've had this about a week now, and I'm thoroughly enjoying spending my spare time exploring the different storylines that have been so carefully recreated in the Lego world. More to the point my flatmate's enjoying being able to play alongside me too. This is a fantastic little game, especially if you're like me and can't quite be bothered with the ultra-serious-blood-and-guts-everywhere games, but want something more than than little party games to play.

The levels are well-thought out, and while the controls and graphics are more than suitable for a younger audience, I still frequently find I've overlooked some part of the puzzle and I'm wandering round a level trying to see what I've missed to allow me to progress. The enforced use of "teamwork" between the different on-screen characters is particularly nice and works equally well whether you're controlling them all yourself or playing in multi-player mode. I also particlulary like the fact that once a level is unlocked you can jump back into any scene you like without having to work through systematically from the beginning - particularly important because there are a lot of hidden items that you aren't able to pick up with the characters you're assigned on the first go!

The tongue-in-cheek cut scenes between and mid-levels are a very nice touch and do make me laugh, although I wouldn't complain if there was a way to short-cut through them, as you don't always want to wait for a minute or two for them to run for the 5th time!

All-in-all a welcome addition to the series - my friends have the star wars version for the ps3 which is also fantastic, and I think I will be similarly investing for the wii once this one's done and dusted.

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Rating: - Amazing fun, easy to pick up, but may not satisfy the hardcore gamer
If you're into blood and guts, Beat-em-ups or first person shooting, look away now.

As a sequel (in the loosest sense of the word) to the immense Lego Star Wars (LSW), Lucasarts - as the designers - knew it had a lot to live up to.

Using the same formula that made LSW so enthralling and utterly hilarious - the amusing cut scenes, the ridiculous use of Lego on everything and anything, and the ease of a second player joining - Lego Indiana Jones builds on this and well, does little to change it. The lack of change though is not necessarily a bad thing - many sequels have failed trying to 'improve' an already successful game.

However, despite Lego Indiana Jones adding new items and techniques (for example Indiana's whip as opposed to lightsabers) many gamers will feel let down by the little change to LSW, but also many others may feel that despite the lack of change, it is still a masterpiece of a game.

I personally enjoyed the game right up until completion, but felt no need to return to unlock everything else.

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Rating: - Complete Rubbish
Walk to a lever. Pull the lever. Lever Does something.
Hit something. Jump over somewhere.

Yeah, brilliant...

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Rating: - Excellent Wii game - even better than Lego Star Wars!
Number 1 son and I have become big fans of the Lego Star Wars on the Wii. I like it as it requires a lot of co-operative game play, which encourages working together to work out the challenges. The whole family have been getting into the Indiana Jones films over the last year and we were very excited when they announced a Wii Lego Indy game...

The makers of Lego Indiana Jones have evolved the teamwork aspects from Star Wars and make the whole gaming experience even better. The games are relatively hard to crack on your first attempt and when you do fail, you have to watch the film story through again on your next attempt, but the video content is very funny, so you'll cope with this repetition.

When you have cracked the first few chapters of the first film 'Raiders', you will have got used to the game and should find it much easier.

Overall, this is a fantastically fun adventure game, probably the best on the Wii so far.

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Rating: - My son even prefers this game to the superb Lego Star Wars
No Crystal Skulls, this is a romp through the old Indiana Jones locales, giving you the typical jungle, cave and Indian mountain scenes. Naturally the game-play has similarities to the great Lego Star Wars games, although The Whip replaces The Force. Indiana's world is one full of hidden levers, spear traps and abyss's, and there is some puzzle element in finding the trap-door/bridge to the next level. Again, like Lego Star Wars, you need to play the story mode to unlock a lot of the game content (which keeps my son [12] glued to the campaign game-play). Once you get past the first level, all three movie levels are available. You can move about these three, but must play each of the movie's six chapters in order. When you have completed each chapter in story mode, a free play mode is allowed. You build stuff on the way and collect Lego coins to unlock new characters. This game looks and handles well on the Wii, and we are now glad we chose it over the PS2 version, although it takes me a time to get used to the button controls, plus you need the Nunchuck thingy. The game does feel strangely more like Tomb Raider if you play the lady character, probably as it has rather similar themes [e.g. tomb raiding and the canals of Venice].

It's all fairly easy and you have infinite lives, plus the character's Lego pieces just explode apart when 'killed' and reform, so it's pretty non-violent for little ones. Should you succumb you just lose your Lego coins. Some of the puzzles seem rather harder to crack than in Lego Star Wars though [even for adults]. You play with another film character that has different abilities, as in Lego Star Wars, and you can toggle between them. There's plenty of jokey humour to amuse players (e.g. you can snog your co-star anytime) and this game is entertaining enough to draw in adult Indiana film fans. The game has the fun two-player twin character mode, which feels very, very similar to the Star Wars twin player mode, although don't expect your young son to let you play as Indiana. My son's verdict ' It's even better than Lego Star Wars, with more to do, find and control' [and he prefers the Wii remote implementation over the old PS2 controls]. Plus he likes the fact that when fighting you can pick up the baddies dropped weapons, e.g. swords, and use them. My son is a dedicated Star Wars and Indiana Jones fan, which no doubt helps him really love these games. And unlike the old but fantastic Lego PC games (Rock Raiders, Island II, Drome Racers, etc..) there seems to be no serious software bugs on the Wii/PS2 console versions. Perhaps this twin character Lego game format may start to get a bit samey now that Lego Batman & Robin has been released [hope not], but at the moment this Wii Lego Indiana Jones game feels fresh, different and fun. That said, my son has just rejected the Wii Lego Batman & Robin when I offered it [got 'Transformers: The game' instead], although he says this is just because he's not into these two film characters that much. But anyway, he highly recommends this Wii Lego Indiana Jones [for any kid over 7] - although apparently the less 'violent' and easier DS version is particularly suitable for under 9s.