A somewhat big difference between the Star Wars and Indiana Jones LEGO games is the focus of combat. While most characters either had a lightsaber or blaster in the Star Wars titles, the combat in LEGO Indy is largely hand-to-hand. You can pick up guns that enemies drop, but they're only good for a few shots before they expire. While this is mostly fine, it can be a little frustrating when there are a group of armed enemies on-screen and you have no choice but to repeatedly jump while running at them in order to try and dodge their shots. You will inevitably get hit and probably even die a few times in the scuffle. While you have infinite lives, of course, it's still frustrating to know that you don't really have a good chance of coming out unscathed in these encounters and simply have to bear down and charge until everyone is dead.

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 game. Since the characters don't really talk though, Short Round lacks his funny quips and just winds up being short. Oh well.



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.

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.

On the subject of Lego Indiana Jones:
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 with a snowy cliffside, 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.