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Lego Indiana Jones - first details

DS version gets stylus-controlled whip, torches to blow out

Lego Indiana Jones - first details

Lego Indiana Jones will be released on June 3rd, a week after the new Indy film, and the DS version will enable you to control Indy's whip with the stylus, and blow out torches or blow up rafts using the microphone.

Perhaps more excitingly, you'll also be able to control the monkey that starred in Raiders of the Lost Ark in the DS game – at least according to a preview posted today on the MTV Multiplayer blog.

The game will take content purely from the original Indiana Jones trilogy and not the new film, while the gameplay sounds quite similar to the previous Lego Star Wars games, with the single-player game also playable in multiplayer and puzzles that are solved using teamwork between two characters.

Of course, the most important thing is that the story and all of the game's levels are all classic Indiana Jones with a Lego twist. The preview is of the Xbox 360 version of the game, but there are likely to be similarities with the content across all the formats so we're hoping the handhelds too will get the giant boulder-escaping opening Raiders of the Lost Ark level described in it (as if they wouldn't feature that bit, eh?).

The game's central hub is apparently Barnett College where Dr Jones teaches (the equivalent of the Mos Eisley cantina in the Lego Star Wars games) and there are 18 levels accessible from it (six from each film).

The game producers say characters in the game have more specialist skills that individual ones did in Lego Star Wars. So Indy can use his whip to swing across gaps and pick up items, while Satipo has a shovel to dig for treasure.

Like Lego Star Wars, though, there's still plenty of Lego block humour – in the prologue segment of Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy is greeted by rival archaeologist Rene Belloq waiting outside with a group of Hovitos, our favourite archaeologist apparently offers his enemies C3PO's Lego head before handing over the idol.

We stress these details are taken from an Xbox 360 preview and it's likely the DS version in particular could differ quite a bit. But it at least gives us a flavour of what to expect when the game is released in the summer. We're looking forward to Lego Indiana Jones possibly more than is healthy so you can count on us to update you with any more news as it materialises.

Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.