REVIEW: LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

Developer/Publisher: Lucas Arts Entertainment\Traveller’s Tales
Platform(s): Xbox 360 [reviewed], Playstation 3, Nintendo Ds, Nintendo Wii
Genre(s): Action adventure
Mode(s): Single player/two player co-op
Rating: E
Time clocked: About 10 to 15 hours

Having never seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I was pleased to not find it included in LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. The previous game instead focused on the true film trilogy, giving each movie a solid set of levels to play through and explore. It followed the same formula that won many fans over in the LEGO Star Wars games, and though it had some problems and didn’t tackle every key scene possible, it was a fun game all in all, with plenty to see and do despite no one being able to Force push droids.

And here we are now a year later with LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, a sequel that is both surprising and a great step forward for the LEGO game franchise. But not all is shiny LEGO blocks.

Click below to continue on with the review!

LEGO Harry Potter looks charming

As you can see from the Achievements Ahoy! sidebar, I love the LEGO videogames. At the moment, they are the only two retail games I’ve played full and fully, unlocking every silly and frustratingly challenging achievement. Truth be told, the games are fun and engaging, easy to pick up, as well as highly addicting. I rank them, currently, in this order of affection: LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman, and then LEGO Indiana Jones. I’m fairly sure that list is going to change the day LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 comes out.

Why? Because I’m in Ravenclaw.

The above video offers a first look at the next LEGO game, which covers Harry’s first four years at Hogwarts. It’s the same ol’, same ol’, with the character designs cute and spot-on, and the background details surprisingly vivid. I can only suspect that, after a few tutorial levels, the castle-school itself will act as the hub world for the game, with moving paintings leading to other levels and such. I just hope that each “year” gets a good amount of attention, and that Hagrid’s special attack involves a butt-stomp.

It’s scheduled for release sometime during 2010, and I for one am wishing for a Time-Turner for Christmas so we can speed things up a bit.

Being a hero, always

Well, I’m one step closer to getting my second full 1,000 gamerscore, which is most definitely going to be from LEGO Batman. Last night, I punched and kicked my way through three more levels to find the remaining helpless idiots and save them from…well, save them from being eternally held by goons and clown-faced mercenaries. Upon sending a flaming batarang up one of said goon’s butts, I unlocked this:

Vigilante (25G): Rescue 25 civilians.

Which has me currently sitting at 37/46 achievements. Now, let’s just be clear…the LEGO games are by and far not terribly challenging or hard. Glitchy, sure. Badly designed at times, you got it. In fact, the achievements they offer up are anything but challenging–what they are, however, is time-consuming. Most of the ones I have remaining involve achieving 4,000,000,000 in studs (yes, that’s the correct number of zeros), buying everything in the game, finding all the mini-kits, and generally completing LEGO Batman to 100%. I’ll get there, block by block (LEGO, that is), but man will it take me some time…