Like the wildly successful LEGO Star Wars games, Indiana Jones’ brick-ified adventures cover the first three movies’ stories, allowing you to explore their exotic environments in more depth while using those ubiquitous blocks in creative ways. LEGO Indiana Jones also takes a cue from its predecessors by treating you to off-the-cuff moments of levity inspired by the narrative beats. For example, when rival archeologist Rene Belloq forces Indy to hand over the just-obtained fertility idol, our hero first pulls a variety of other objects out of his satchel, including the head of C-3PO.

This is Where Forrestall Cashed In. Indy and Satipo prepare to face the unknown.

Ricks also notes that the game builds on his company’s previous digital LEGO experience by enhancing the ways in which you manipulate the environment through the game’s 83 characters. “In LEGO Star Wars II, all characters could build things from piles of LEGO,” he explains. “With this in mind, we introduced the concept of moving LEGO objects around so they can be combined and rebuilt in lots of interesting ways. This in turn allowed us to introduce different puzzles and obstacles for players to overcome.” In addition, LEGO characters can now build and ride in vehicles, and some of them have the ability to fix broken machines.

“Indy’s adventures are a concoction of discovery and excitement, danger and fun, something that works brilliantly with a LEGO framework.”

- producer Nick Ricks

Ricks adds: “We’ve also assigned the abilities previously associated with characters — [such as Jedi Knights’ ability to use the Force on objects in LEGO Star Wars I and II] — to the tools they carry. For example, if Indy finds an excavation site, he knows he needs to find a shovel, or use Sallah, who comes with the appropriate tool. Characters also no longer need to be in close proximity with each other for you to swap between them, which allowed us to design traps and encounters with greater flexibility.”

Adios, Stupido. Indy and the traitorous Satipo try to outrun the boulder.

True Adventurers Wanted

After Indy finds the fertility idol, runs away from that famous boulder, and suffers defeat at the hands of Rene Belloq, all of which opens the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” portion of the game, you travel to Barnett College. Functioning like the Mos Eisley cantina in LEGO Star Wars II, with places to admire collected treasures and access the game’s levels, Indy’s place of employment is an even larger playground, complete with secret environments to discover and enter. We’ll give you a hint: One of the secret levels involves a, shall we say, less chronologically-advanced version of our hero.

Something That Man Was Not Meant to Disturb. The Ark of the Covenant is found.

The game’s 18 levels also offer all kinds of treasures, in-jokes, and other goodies to excavate. We recommend taking your time as you explore, rather than rushing to the end, although you’ll often need to return in free play mode to access some a reas with other characters, if they possess abilities you didn’t have the first time through.

“We’ve worked with [LucasArts] closely for a long period of time, so they were able to help us distill the Indiana Jones game experience very quickly.”

- producer Nick Ricks

For example, Short Round, Indy’s sidekick in the movie “Temple of Doom,” is small enough to access areas that normal-size characters can’t crawl into.

That’s a concept carried forward from the LEGO Star Wars games, as is the imperative to collect all the LEGO studs you come across. They’re the game’s currency, allowing you to purchase unlocked characters, extras, and cheats at Barnett College. Complete a level with a minimum number of them to achieve True Adventurer status, keeping in mind the fact that you lose 2,000 studs each time your character dies. Once you reach the magic threshold, however, you can’t lose True Adventurer status even if you die several times in a row.

There is Nothing to Fear Here. Puzzles abound in each level of the game.

A Close Partnership

Just as filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, along with their screenwriters, researched actual history to develop their stories of an archeologist with the alter ego of a true adventurer, Ricks’ team partnered with LucasArts to ensure that they captured the proper Indiana Jones spirit. “We’ve worked with them closely for a long period of time, so they were able to help us distill the Indiana Jones game experience very quickly,” he explains. “Their input was really helpful, especially when we lampooned the films’ more serious moments. And they provided us with an abundance of reference materials as well as the music and sound effects from the films.”

Nothing You Possess Which I Cannot Take Away. Belloq shows up to steal Indy’s vaunted prize.

During their research, Ricks’ team uncovered an intriguing fact that they decided to slip into the game. “We found that during the making of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’” he recalls, “sequences shot in Cairo had to have all of the TV aerials and satellite dishes removed from the roofs to maintain continuity with the 1930s setting. Players should keep their eyes peeled as they may be able to find them in the game.”

Ricks adds that one overriding principle drove development of the game: “Indiana Jones is an ordinary guy who, using his guile and daring, does extraordinary things. ‘Temple of Doom’ had a tagline, ‘If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones,’ that I think sums up the Indy experience nicely.”

If you liked this game, check out:

• Ankh: Heart of Osiris
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb
• LEGO Bionicle
• LEGO Star Wars
• LEGO Star Wars II
• Tomb Raider Anniversary