Indy fever seems to be setting in again. Now, I should point out that this isn’t a disease you get from wearing jeans several sizes too small for you but the excitement that comes with the new Indiana Jones film! What better way could there be to celebrate the release of the new film than with a tie-in game for us all to play on our console of choice! Whilst most film-game adaptations are about as fun as watching an episode of Ugly Betty, it appears that Lucas Arts have gone the Star Wars route by giving us another Lego based game. Hurrah!

To anyone not familiar with Indiana Jones (is there anyone?), he’s a professor of archaeology who also galavants around the world chasing rare relics. So far he has found the Ark of the Covenant, Sankarah Stones and the Holy Grail. You’ll take part in all 3 of his quests in this game based on the films.

"Yeeehahh, let’s blow this thing kid and go home"

So what can we expect from this attempt to continue the Lego Star Wars cash cow? The Lego Star Wars approach was to allow the player the chance to take part in all the key moments from Star Wars history, with subtle changes to locations so as to make a more compelling gaming environment.

Lego Indiana Jones continues this tradition and you will experience scenes from all 3 of the original films. The first level taking place during Raiders opening sequence. You and Satipo head deep into the shrine from the film, searching for the idol. On your way there you battle giant spiders and ants, all the while collecting a myriad of items to unlock extra game features, a mechanic that worked so well in the previous games. Combat remains largely unchanged, punching is your basic form of attack and Indy’s whip replaces the Star Wars Lightsabers. There are also many different weapons to be picked up dotted about the environment including chairs and spears with which to vanquish your foes. The whip is not only useful in combat, but it can be used to traverse chasms. Likewise Satipo’s shovel is not only good for smiting enemies, but can be used to dig up treasure and traverse a crocodile infested river.

"Who loves yer baby?"

Of course the humour from the previous games has been carried over and this is prevalent throughout your experience. An excellent example of this is the scene where Indy exchanges the idol for a bag of sand. In the game, instead of sand Indy assesses various Lego pieces before finally settling on an item to replace the idol with. Success! However, as in the film the taking of the idol triggers the destruction of the shrine, so Indy must now escape. Cue the massive boulder chasing him from the temple which you must outrun so that you can make your meeting with Belloq. Now I expected that would be the end of the first level but there is more after that, I won’t go into it but it was a welcome addition and rounds the experience out nicely.

"Mine’s a cheeseburger, and make it snappy!"

As per the Star Wars games there are many different characters to unlock. We can expect to play as Sallah, Short Round and the various women Indy has loved throughout the series history. Personally I’m looking forward to being able to play as the Grail Knight from The Last Crusade. All in all there will be more than 60 different characters for us to play with although obviously some of them are very small parts and many exist just to give the player the oppurtunity to play as an enemy character. Once again you can use all the body parts to create your own Lego avatar and obviously there will be many different permutations available. How about Short Jones? Or Molar Brody? The possibilities are (almost) endless.

The action doesn’t end here. A Lego Batman game is also in the works  scheduled for release in September of this year and if anyone from Travellers Tales is reading, I’d like a Lego League of Gentlemen game please! Failing that, how about Lego Father Ted? Surely a Lego Alien game be well worth a punt too?

Lego Indiana Jones will be available on Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable and PC on the 6^th of June 2008 in the UK or the 4^th of June 2008 if you live in America.