I haven't played them all but I've played enough of them to know that they can and will make a Lego game out of just about anything. The very first one I played I thought it was awesome because it had replayability, had some elements of metroidvania or at least reasons to go back through each level with a different character in order to unlock certain areas, and it also, without words, did a really good job of showcasing all 3 of the Indiana Jones films that were actually worth watching.
As someone that was a huge fan of the films in the 80's (I think the last one was released in the 90's) These scenes brought back a lot of memories. Certain things everyone was going to remember such as the snakes being something that Indy is very afraid of and the large boulder being a trap in the first temple.
I just loved how that no matter what was going on in the scene that everything was made out of Lego and this probably inspired a lot of people to actually custom make these things in real life.
The marketing opportunities here for Lego were incredible and I am sure it resulted in massive sales for them. The idea behind making these games was a brilliant one and while it might have been difficult for them to conceive as to how they were going to pull it off as well as make it entertaining must have been a bit of a challenge for the designers.
The game was quite simple and it was impossible to actually ever lose, even in a boss fight and this was obviously done intentionally. I can imagine the designers sitting around and thinking "well if you can't lose the hardcore gamers aren't going to like it but since we are marketing to children as well we can't make it too hard... what are we going to do?"
Well the decision to make it so that you really cannot possibly lose even if you are trying to paid out for them because this stays entertaining even though anyone with enough patience can complete the games. You just keep trying to mess about with everything that is on the screen until eventually you get it right. Every now and then you are going to encounter something where it isn't so clear what you are meant to do next, but eventually you get it and overcome.
I am not normally a fan of cutscenes in games but I actually really enjoyed the ones that were in the Lego games. They were humorous enough to seriously entertain younger viewers but they were filled with enough of the actual "lore" that older gamers were going to have a fun trip down memory lane while playing it. The existence of these games not only made money on the games themselves but likely resulted in many new Lego build set customers as well as having other people, like me that had a ton of Lego as a kid getting more of them. It also likely resulted in a renewed interest in seeing the classic films, especially since most people were rather nonplussed with the newer ones.
This game was my first foray into Lego games and I was extremely impressed with it. I've played many ever since then but I can honestly say that I don't really think most of them are as good as this one. This was my first so I suppose it is kind of fitting that it is the best in my book as well.
Did you play it, did you like it? Let me know in the comments!