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Traveller's Tales  is back and tackling the plastic building block world again. After exhausting the Star Wars franchise with no less than three LEGO Star Wars releases, the company has worked with LucasArts on bringing another of its franchises to the peg-filled universe with LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

If you've played any of the LEGO Star Wars titles, you'll feel right at home as the formula has largely remained exactly the same, right down to the control scheme. There is a bit more adventuring this time around however, with more emphasis placed on solving puzzles and collecting keys or parts to unlock the next area, though mashing everything in sight and collecting as many Studs as possible is still the main gameplay focus.


The game runs through the original three Indy films and while it follows the stories well, there are some segments that have been added or tweaked to better fit the title. For example, after rescuing Marion from her bar towards the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll run through a section where you work along a snowy cliff side, take on some Germans and eventually head out of the area. Similarly, the temple at the end of the Last Crusade has much more than three tests to pass, with plenty of mostly non-deadly puzzles to complete before you get to the Grail. This all works well in terms of how the game plays as well as its pacing, and most all of the segments are fun, though there's certainly a bigger separation between game and films than what we saw with the LEGO Star Wars titles.

The Wii version of the game allows you to use motion controls for many actions, though everything is optional as all of the actions are assigned to buttons as well, allowing you to choose how you want to play. Not everything has a motion control, but what's there works pretty well. You can swing Indy's whip by whipping the Wii Remote, attack by shaking it, or even speed up your building and fixing by moving both the Remote and Nunchuck quickly. Our only gripe is that attacking by shaking the Wii Remote with Indy has him use his whip instead of his fists, which isn't nearly as fast as straight up fisticuffs, so you'll likely resort to just pressing Z while using him to throw punches.

Though there's obviously a lack of Force powers this time around, Traveller's Tales has once again done a good job of providing distinct character groups. Indiana Jones' whip always comes in handy, and he's the only one that can open a number of the game's sections thanks to its numerous uses. Thugees, the bad guys from the Temple of Doom, are able to "talk" to statues of Kali and open up secret areas, while people with manuscripts, like Henry Jones Sr. or Elsa, are able to decipher hieroglyphs and open other secrets. Some characters come with shovels or wrenches, which allow them to dig up objects or fix broken items.

Fights with armed enemies can be a nuisance when all you have is your fists.
The cool thing here is that aside from Indy's whip (or a tiny character's small stature), you're able to find all of these items in-game to help you solve puzzles. So even if you only have Junior and Willie at your disposal, you'll be able to dig up treasure if you can find a shovel nearby, or you can work with hieroglyphs if you can find a book. There are plenty of areas that won't have these things lying around, requiring that you come back in Free Play to unlock more goodies, but the puzzle variety is able to be mixed much better throughout the game thanks to the ability to pick up and use items.

Adding a bit more character to the main cast are phobias that a couple of them have. Indy, for instance, is afraid of snakes, while Willie is scared of spiders. Both will cower in fear when near them, so you'll need to use another character to either clear the way or go ahead and solve a puzzle without them. It's a small touch, but one that works well to bring about some of the characters' traits from the films to the