There’s no shortage of popular franchises for LEGO to adapt in a video game format, and it has spent the last two decades making its way through the list.Harry Potter,Star Wars,Lord of the Rings,Jurassic Park, Marvel, DC, and evenThe Incredibleshave all gotten licensed LEGO game adaptations, with some franchises even getting multiple iterations over the years. Thelatest licensed LEGO game,LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, set a new bar for the entire genre of family-friendly action-adventures. While many franchises deserve to be given theSkywalker Sagatreatment, one would be particularly timely.
TheIndiana Jonesfranchise has enjoyed over four decades in the spotlight. Though many have come to challenge it since,Indiana Jonesis still regarded as one of, if not the best series of action-adventure movies out there, with pioneering set pieces, stellar casts, and bombastic scores keeping it in the forefront of pop culture. While there have been twoLEGO Indiana Jonesgames already, another one in a similar vein toLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagaseems like a smart move.
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It’s The Perfect Time For Another LEGO Indiana Jones Game
The firstLEGO Indiana Jonesgame, released in 2008, is still regarded as one of the best entries in LEGO’s linear licensed catalog.LEGO Indiana Jonestook the intuitive and charming formula forged bythe firstLEGO Star Warsand applied it to the three originalIndiana Jonesfilms. Though its runtime is a little short, character library is small, and its collectibles are few (compared to modern LEGO games),LEGO Indiana Jonesstill stands out for its strong level design, phenomenal atmosphere, and high level of charm.
Released just a year later,LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continueswasn’t as well received as its predecessor. Remixing missions from the first three movies and adding in another set based onIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, LEGO Indiana Jones 2doesn’t have its predecessor’s high-quality level design or painstaking attention to detail. Instead,LEGO Indiana Jones 2trips itself up on its most intriguing feature: free-roaming hub-worlds.
While an open-world design became standard for the licensed LEGO game formula after the success ofLEGO Batman 2,LEGO Indiana Jones 2needed to walk, stumble, and fall before the rest could run. Each movie in theIndiana Jonessaga received its own unique hub-world, and players could run around this fairly large environment freely, finding collectibles and characters along the way to the next mission. While these hub-worlds ended up beingthe worst element ofLEGO Indiana Jones 2given the scarce amount of content in each one, they’re the perfect blueprint for a newLEGO Indiana Jonesgame inspired byLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
WithIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destinyaround the corner, it’s the perfect time for a newLEGO Indiana Jonesgame. Much like its maligned predecessor, a newLEGO Indygame could give each movie its own free-roaming hub-world akin toThe Skywalker Saga’s planets. Each hub-world could take players to locations from the respective movie, all traversable via vehicles. To hop between each movie’s hub-world, players could be shown the iconic map screen from the movies with a red dot making its way across the globe. This larger scale would also allow for detailed environments and more complex puzzles in each hub-world, such as dedicatedZelda-like dungeons based on iconic set pieces from each movie. A refined brawling system would also be great to see, withThe Skywalker Sagaalready improving combat from previous LEGO game entries.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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