All of the LEGO games I've played, regardless of platform, have made me feel as though I were part of the story. Despite being rendered in LEGO form, I felt like a Jedi, or Batman, or Indiana Jones; I felt a connection to the characters, but not with LEGO Indiana Jones 2.

The Raiders, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade campaigns promised in the game's announcement were nonexistent. Perhaps it was never intended for them to be on the PSP version, but they are available on the larger console versions of the game. In any case, I was disappointed to find them missing. However, the earlier films are represented in the Challenges shown in Figure G.

FIGURE G


Challenges are the only way to experience the earlier movies. Roll over picture for a larger image.

As these Challenges are merely live-out-the-timer, beat-the-clock, collect a certain number of items, or a combination of these elements in a setting from one of those films, like the Rumble Bridge in Figure H, they're kind of a bust as far as entertainment value.

FIGURE H


The Rumble Bridge from Temple of Doom. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The Build Your Own Adventure was a colossal letdown as well. In the PSP version, it consists of the ability to string together up to ten of these very same Challenges to create an "adventure" of your own making. Yet another disappointment in what turned into a series of disappointments in Indy 2.

What about the multiplayer? Sure, it works; but with a game this lousy who cares? All you're doing is ruining the Indy experience for two people instead of just one.

By no stretch of the imagination is this game worth the $30 retail cost. My daughter tells me it looks and feels like a glossed-over, redressed version of the first game on the Nintendo DS, which may be the truth. Those action-oriented pads and reduced graphic quality came straight from the DS.

This game is nothing less than an insulting slap in the face to all the loyal PSP LEGO fans. The Challenges and Build Your Own Adventure are just so much fluff designed as filler in order to justify a full, separate product release. And the alterations in game mechanics are definitely not an improvement over the previous game.

At best, the Crystal Skull storyline is worth a $10 download as add-on content to the original game, but with the decline in graphics quality, altered play mechanics, flat, lackluster plot and characters, LEGO Indiana Jones 2 The Adventure Continues is without question a huge miss on the part of Lucasarts and Traveller's Tales. Earning only one out of five, I highly recommend you take a pass on this title.

OUR RATING: 1 of 5

Richard H. Siderits MD is an assistant professor at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School and is an avid proponent of wireless technologies in medicine.