Jun 14th, 2008
GAMES REVIEW: Action heroes
By LOU KESTEN – Jun 3, 2008
I don’t envy video game designers who have to work on movie tie-ins. Artists have to duplicate the look of a film with a much smaller budget. Writers have to stick pretty closely to someone else’s script, even as they stretch a two-hour story into an eight-hour game. There’s not much room for creativity.
While the typical schedule for a top-shelf video game is at least two years, movie game developers usually have far less time. Still, movie tie-ins have gotten a lot better since the Atari version of “E.T.” nearly destroyed the video game industry in 1982, and there have even been a few games (”GoldenEye,” “The Chronicles of Riddick”) that outshined their parents.
The licensed games we’ve seen so far this year (”Iron Man,” “Speed Racer”) have been solid if not distinguished. Diehard fans won’t regret buying any of the games reviewed here, and the first of them will appeal to just about anyone.
_”Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures” (LucasArts, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, $49.99; for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, $39.99; for the Nintendo DS, $29.99): Some of the most enjoyable “Star Wars” games have been the kid-oriented adventures in which Luke, Han Solo and the rest of the gang appear as Lego characters. Now developer Traveller’s Tales has turned its attention to LucasArts’ other big franchise, and the results are just as delightful.
“The Original Adventures” draws from the first three Indiana Jones films, skipping this year’s “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Of course, you can always play as Indy, but dozens of other characters, from Marion Ravenwood to Short Round to Henry Jones Sr., help out. The game is especially entertaining in co-op mode, where two players can work together to fight bad guys and explore ancient temples.
Tags: et, game, video