Review: Lego Indiana Jones (PSP)

The folks over at Traveler's Tales must have spent a good portion of their youth stacking those colored blocks on top of each other endlessly to form great landscapes, because they have yet again brought a fun an exciting world into the magical realm of Lego's. After previously tackling the galaxy with Lego Star Wars, the team has decided to capture the world of Indiana Jones in their latest endeavor. Lego Indiana Jones is a stand-alone game for the PSP which encapsulates all three of the original movies showcasing everyone's favorite adventurer. Bringing the Indy universe into a blocky Lego world ensures plenty of laughs, fun and clever puzzles, even amidst the poor camera, sluggish controls and lackluster detail.

You begin the game as you should by following the misadventures of Indy and his compadres through the jungles of South America as if watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. You'll follow along the Lego shenanigans solving puzzles, engaging in some light combat and otherwise progressing through the story much like you would the movie. After the introduction sequence, and a few light-hearted cutscenes, you'll eventually end up in Barlett University, which serves as your central hub for the game. Any of the episodes can be accessed straight away from this point, so it
becomes up to the gamer as to which branch of the story they'd like to play first. Each story captures the feel of the Indiana Jones movies and the quirkiness of Lego's with great effect. One cant help but smile at the screen while watching your favorite scenes from Temple of Doom act out in front of you in Lego style. The team at Traveler's Tales have gone to great lengths to recreate the movies quite accurately. Fans and non-fans alike would be able to follow the story without much effort at all.

Gameplay mirrors that of what gamers did in Lego Star Wars. The game emphasises keen puzzle solving over combat,even though light combat situations are thrown in to keep the game exciting. You'll spend most of your time in the game attempting to figure out just how to get Indy and crew out of their particular predicament. These puzzles however are not always apparent and often lead to aimlessly wandering around the board hoping the clue to the next stage of the puzzle will jump out. A fault made widely apparent when compared to the same game on larger consoles.

The PSP's limited screen size makes finding certain objects on screen quite difficult at times. If the developers had taken their time to grant camera controls to the gamer, some of these aspects may have been a lot easier to deal with. Instead, the developers simply ported the same game from the larger console counterparts, leaving the aspect ratio the same and in turn making puzzle solving more annoying than fun at times. The game does benefit from unique puzzles for every board. Gamers will be treated to new obstacles to figure out during each step of their progression. Other platforming aspects of the game do keep the game fresh though as swinging from ropes, using your teammate's unique skills and figuring out creative ways to crack Indy's whip all add to the experience.

In a game focused so intently on teamwork, we expected this one to have some sort of multiplayer capabilities to it, be it Ad-hoc or infrastructure, but sadly the game has none. The title would have definitely benefited from linking up with friends to take the roll of Short Round or any of the other many teammates available during the course of the game. Instead you're left with solo micromanagement of rather ignorant in-game AI to deal with the complex puzzles and action sequences. At many different points during the game, it isn't uncommon to notice your AI
controller characters plummet off the side of a cliff because they didn't remember they cant jump as far as Indy can with his whip. Many puzzle aspects require multiple people to stand on a switch to activate. Beckoning your AI friends to your location quickly becomes a trial in patience in some instances.

Lego Indiana Jones performs well graphically on the PSP by bringing the Lego world to life in a comical and colorful display. Unfortunately you can only enjoy the Lego graphics during the cutscenes as the level of detail is zoomed too far out to really pick out anything specific. Backgrounds are particularly well done, but don't always offer enough differentiation to discern what is an important element and what is just fodder. The limitations however lie on the PSP's small size and not the game itself. It does, however lead one to believe that had the developers taken their time with the camera elements of the game, these issues would be null and void. From a platforming aspect, often the graphics don't give the gamer enough detail to be consistent with jumping and swinging. While your character can often die in one ill-fated leap, it can make platforming rather frustrating when the nonsensical camera inhibits your judgement on exactly how far you need to jump. These aspects however only penalize the player with the amount of Lego pieces they have accumulated and offers a retry rather quickly. This aspect doesn't take away from the overall experience, but does make it a bit frustrating at times.

Traveler's Tales has gone to great lengths to deliver a soundtrack that contains all the excitement and nostalgia of the original movie tracks. All the famous tracks from the movies are instantly recognizable and completely fitting with what's happening in the game. When action ramps up, you'll hear the classic Indiana Jones theme music swell up as if to cheer you on towards your goal. The developers painstakingly got every score dead accurate on this game and is really one of its high points.

The game does offer collectors a virtual mecca of things to do. One simple playthrough of the story mode will net approximately a 45% or less completion percentage. For gamers who love to collect things in games, several playthroughs of each scene with different characters you pick up along the way are almost a must to even come close to the sheer replayability of this title. Even such humorous homage to their earlier works with a C3P0 cameo and other hidden Star Wars references make replaying levels worth it. If fans can forgive the horrendous camera angle, stupid AI and lack of cooperative play, there's fun to be had here. 7.4/10