I never played the Lego Star Wars games that have come out. I grew out of the whole fandom of Star Wars and I don’t think I can really go back. Indiana Jones is still fresh on my mind after seeing that fourth movie that nobody really wants to talk about. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was okay but if you didn’t see, it’s not a big deal. The game can be two players or you can play it with an A.I. controlled partner. It looks like I will be going through the trilogy’s greatest moments(in Lego form) and beating up lots of stuff.

Anyways, I kinda forget what happened in the former trilogy for the most part, however the gameplay is similar to an old action sidescroller with “puzzle” elements. So I start of the game with what appears to be Indy and some guy with a shovel looking for the Lost Ark. I think. Indy can punch the crap out of pretty much everything and that is awesome. So I break Lego bushes and get Lego coins that I can use in groups of a thousand every time I fall into a cliff when I think I am jumping at a vine but not really.

Early on, the game seems to lack visual depth when you are trying to get past obstacles. You will fall off cliffs because they don’t look like cliffs at first. But in all honesty, I don’t think that you can get a game over in this game. When I relaized this, I started to play sloppy because there was no penalty for dying. This game is supposed to be for kids but when I was a kid, the games I played would make ou start over when you failed. I guess kids today are pussies. You have a partner with you throughout the levels and you can beat each other into pieces for enjoyment. When characters in the game are defeated they break into little lego man parts. So the shovel dude and I are journeying through a jungle and there’s not a lot going on. There are no enemies for a while and I am just collecting coins and pressing the red button to build stuff so that I can advance.

I spent much of the first level wondering where i am supposed to go as the level seems to lack visual clues that tell you where to go. Later on, I learn that I am supposed to jump on random hanging vines to open up doors. There are some spiders that keep dropping down but they are easy to kill. Spikes also come out of the ground and if they hit you, you die. if they miss, you can pull them out of the ground and throw them at enemies. There were also alligators in the lake I beat with a whip while on land.

We make it in the temple after wondering around on a raft for a while and discovering the aforementioned vine trick. In here is a puzzle where one player presses a switch to lower spikes in the area and the other player will cross. When you are playing alone, you can switch between the two characters and the other will usually follow you around. I was afraid that when I switched characters, Indy would leave the switch; however, it appears that certain puzzles like this will cause the A.I. character to accomplish the task you want it to do on it’s own as Indy presses the right switches. So far the co-op A.I. has behaved quite well which is something modern games do not execute correctly. I suppose since this a very linear game, set up like a side scroller or top-down game, that setting up event triggers and navigation points for the A.I. is quite easy compared to FPS games where your allies are bullet shield and can’t drive vehicles.

I eventually get the artifact and re-enact the scene where Indy escapes from a rolling boulder, while jumping over pits. I keep falling into pits and eventually the boulder runs me over and takes me outside to meet people that probably want to kill me. I escape, and have a new parter with a wrench to team up with me as we fight the tribals and get the plane fixed to fly away. It was more or less a back and forth between the two objectives. The dude with the wrench had to do the fixing and upon completion, we were off.

After that I save and go to the college and explore and see all the various things going on, while breaking tables and getting money for it. I love the old school game logic here. I discover that I can unlock characters I don’t care about with the money i have saved and that I can either continue to the next stage of Raiders of the Lost Arc or try one of the other two movies. I must say that is a pretty cool feature in the game as it gives the player choices on how they will play. But I decide to continue Raiders and I have a female partner this time, and she has some important artifact. We end up in a bar for some reason and she can jump higher than Indy(because women can automatically jump higher than men, according to the designers) to solve the bar’s puzzles of going somewhere and holding the red button down. Man these puzzles are really well-though out and creative! After that, we have a bar fight against what might be Nazis but they aren’t wearing their swastikas. I could have sworn there were Nazis in the movie, what happened?

After we beat a bunch of people up, we go outside where it is snowing and I build a couple Lego snowmen and fight people who have guns. Shooting with a gun in this game is very simple. All you have to do is face the enemy you want to shoot and press a button. Why can’t all action games be quite like this? For giggles, I try to hit the woman I am with but whe is not affected. I switch to her and pound Indy into a pulp. What the hell? You can’t beat women in this game? How is it fair to be able to beat up your male partners for amusement, but not your female ones? I call shenanigans!

Back to the game. There’s also a horse that does nothing but I made him stand on a switch. you can ride him, but there really isn’t a point in that. To get across a bridge, I built something and carried it to a place that had an arrow over it. And then I killed more not-Nazis and blew up a truck. After that the level was pretty much over. It was quick with plenty of well-paced action, which I liked. Unfortunately, because I don’t remember the movies that well, I have no idea what is going on. All I know if that there is stuff to punch.