LucasArts had several enticing games this year at E3, including a remake of the classic Monkey Island, a sequel to the Monkey Island series and Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is basically the stories of Knights of the Old Republic three, four, five and six all rolled into one huge, massively multiplayer, online, story-driven, RPG. (That’s almost a direct quote from one of the BioWare representatives, by the way.) Unfortunately, none of that was for us as Nintendo users, so let’s forget about them and the fact that I decided to forgo another key game demonstration to attend the Old Republic demo.
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues looks like it will be a very exiting upgrade from the first LEGO Indiana Jones game. The Adventure continues covers all four Indiana Jones movies with six completely original levels for each of the movies. Since the first three movies were already covered by the previous game, all new levels have been created for these movies. Several scenes that were only cutscenes in the first game are now fully playable in the sequel. Also new this time is a huge level builder that will let players construct their own missions from the ground up and share them with other players. You can even combine your levels with the ones already in the game.
Once you beat a level, you can go back through it to explore in Free Play mode. I’m pretty sure this feature was in the original (I didn’t play it) but new this time is a really interesting split screen feature for when two players are exploring. If the two players get too far apart, the screen automatically splits and the two players can go their separate ways. The line that splits the screen always stays perpendicular to an imaginary straight line between the players so it can be followed back if the players want to meet up again. Once they get close enough, the line disappears and the screen is no longer split.
The scope of this game is much larger than the first, and everything seems to be very well thought out. Even the ability to drive cars and boats, fly planes and then rebuild any of those vehicles into something new is pretty exciting. The level building looked almost unlimited. You could start with some prefabricated parts, or you could build everything from scratch brick by brick. I’d almost get the game just for that because I used to love just building random crap out of my other sets. To me, building with LEGO’s is serious business. Of course, all the LEGO humor and silliness is still a major factor in the game, so you are guaranteed good times for all.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is a new adventure coming to the Wii, DS and pretty much every other game-capable system out there. The plot in this game ties together the stories of season one and two of the Clone Wars TV series. This game promises fast-paced, run-and-gun action starring several Jedi from the series as well as a several clone troopers that have names. Before seeing this game at E3, I was not aware that any of the troopers actually had names. Interesting. The game is designed for two-player coop and each level features challenges that players can compete in to earn points to upgrade characters and unlock bonuses. This is a well-designed game that kids between 10 and 15 could appreciate. Other than that, not much can be said about it.
