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Lego Indiana Jones - The XBox 360 Review

HE CHOSE...WISELY

Through a lucky coincidence, I stumbled across a rental copy of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures for the XBox 360 on Friday (4 days before its release). After a few days of pre-release playing, I thought I'd give you my spoiler free review. Spoiler free in that if you don’t know how the movies start and end, STOP READING NOW!

Go and buy the DVDs and don't waste any more time. Okay, now that they're gone, we can talk frankly. I'll give a few small game spoilers at the end but I'll give you time to look away from the ark before it melts your face Toht-style.

Onto the review...

WE GO FOR A RIDE

If you're familiar with the Lego Star Wars series, then you already know how enjoyable and fun the Lego games can be. No time limits. No 3 lives and you're out. Everything can be destroyed for profit. Oh yeah, everyone can be punched to death, however, their death is merely them breaking into little Lego pieces. Family friendly and fun for all ages. Not much has changed since the Star Wars games. Just a few minor tweaks for the good and the bad that I shall go over now...

FORTUNE AND GLORY

The few changes for the better include:

- Increased Puzzles - What would Indiana Jones be if there weren't traps and obstacles to overcome and hieroglyphs to decipher. They fit really well with the theme and play well mechanically. Even my 5 yr old was able to get past many of them.

- Increased Use of Separate Characters Perform Different Duties - In Star Wars, you were heavily limited to different characters being able to open doors. This time, many of the 80+ available characters have unique abilities that have in-game functions. Some of those abilities work with anyone, such as digging or reading hieroglyphs, but you would first need to find the appropriate tool to do so. Characters such as Belloq or Brody come equipped at all times with the cipher book enabling them to crack a code. The same goes for Bazooka Troopers, Diggers, etc. The women in the game can all jump higher than men. (Developers must remember Princess Peach in SMB3...) Marion is pretty much the same as a guy with the exception of the aforementioned jump, but Willie and Elsa the Nazi can scream. This scream will break glass and, after enabling an accessible modifier, the scream will knock out baddies too.

- Longer levels - Star Wars: The Complete Saga took me like 2 days to beat 100%. This one is proving to be a little longer. Lego Indiana Jones has the same basic breakout, 6 levels per movie. 3 movies. Hence 18 levels. (With maybe a few more hidden). The levels themselves are broken into as many as 8 segments. Unfortunately, you can't save mid-level so you must play through before saving. The good thing is that because there's no time limit, you can just pause, change the channel, eat your Mac 'n Cheese, or go answer nature's call and come back later. If you die, you start right where you died minus a few studs (in game equivalent of coins)

While I'm mentioning it, the use of Lego Studs is the same in this one. The home base for your journeys is Barnett College (like the Diner in SW). This college comes complete with your office where there's all sorts of things going on, a character creator in the art room, a library which is used to buy unlocked characters, a theater to watch previously unlocked cut scenes and a classroom where you mark cheat codes on the chalkboard (if you're the cheating type). If you are the type, try this FJUR31 it's an exclusive GameStop code only for people who reserve the game (or who are smart enough, like my 10 year old, to look at the poster of the free t-shirt and notice the code printed on the shirt...) Astute viewers will also catch another good code during the first cut scene of level 2, when he's standing at the chalkboard.

However, since it all can't be wine and roses...

HE CHOSE...POORLY

Unfortunately there are some cons to this game.

- First and foremost- NO ONLINE PLAY. Why the Hell do I have Live service? Even the crappy online co-op from Star Wars TCS was better than nothing at all. Don’t get me wrong. I love playing co-op 2 player with my kids. But they're not up at 2am when I wanna play. Someone on XBox live is.

- Hit Detection Was Not Improved - Same as Lego Star Wars, so it's a little faulty but when there's no points and unlimited lives, I guess that's not really an issue.

- Cannot Skip a Cut Scene - I know its minor but the cut scenes, no matter how funny or well done they are, can be long and you cannot skip them. In Free Play mode, after you've beaten a level, you don't get them at all but if you're playing a level over, you should be able to skip through those mini movies.

- There's a Big Con - However, it's kind of a spoiler so I'll post that a ways down
the page.

YOU WILL BECOME A TRUE BELIEVER

All in all, I give this game a high 9 of 10 for its playability, replay value and
over-all clean family fun. Even if the movies can be a little frightening for
younger geeks, this game will be high on their lists of must-play. As it should be
for geeks of all ages. If you're a fan of the series or of the Lego Star Wars games, this is a must buy. If you're a casual fan of either, I highly recommend at least renting it and you may find yourself buying it afterward as did this reviewer.

Do as Short Round says... There may not be time for love, but there's always time for video games.

Now for those who want to see a few small spoilers, page down a little bit. For
those uninterested: KEEP YOUR EYES SHUT!
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YOU CHEAT VERY BIG!
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The biggest spoiler that I will give is that along with the lack of any online play,
there is no mention of Crystal Skull at all. No bonus level for it. No character for
it. Nothing. Also, there is a TERRIFIC Lego Batman trailer found on the startup screen under coming soon. If you played Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, you know that Indy was a hidden character from watching the trailer. No Bat-Love this time, Dr. Jones. Batman has left the building.

For 360 users, all the achievements are quotes from the movie and of 50, 16 are
secret; I know most of them already and by the time you read this, they'll probably all be available on the major achievement whore sites (I know, because I've submitted a good number of them).

There are 3 hidden levels and 3 separate hidden characters. 2 of these hidden characters suck and one, whom I will NOT SPOIL, is very predictable but awesome anyways and the manner in which you collect the characters is righteous in of itself. If you don't cheat and look up how, it could take you awhile but is so worth it. The levels are kinda the same. 2 are blah and don't do much for me. One is fun and I expected it to be one of the 6 for one of the trilogy but it was separate. Small, but fun.

Have fun with Lego Indiana Jones. If you have for questions for me, drop me a MySpace message and I can probably tell you what you need.

Just don’t buy the cheat book, Prima cranked out another stinker. It is poorly made and is actually inaccurate on a LOT of things that I have already completed and confirmed. I have no problems with cheat guides. They're especially good for little kids who want some help advancing (now that we can't just call Redmond like the good old days) but stay with Brady Games and boycott anything made by Prima. (in addition, the author Stephen Stratton should commit ritual suicide out of shame and dishonor, for he’s betrayed Shiva).

Enjoy.