Three years ago, we saw the release of LEGO Star Wars. The combination of the two wildly disparate elements seemed totally ludicrous at first but given the lasting appeal of both the Star Wars universe and LEGO bricks the world over, no matter the age group, it actually made perfect sense. Coinciding with the recent release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, LucasArts and developer Traveler's Tales have resurrected the same level of accessibility and fun from the previous titles while significantly upping the adventure stakes. As an added bonus, you get to play the world's most popular archaeologist on a rip-snorting adventure through a very destructible LEGO world. What's not to like?

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is an almost faithful re-creation of the first three Indiana films. Broken down into six playable segments per film, fans of the previous games will feel utterly at home with the familiar control systems and the same amount of cheesy, slapstick type of humour (watch out for C3PO's head!). Unlike the LEGO Star Wars titles, you'll discover a greater emphasis on character role definition. While Indiana Jones waving about his whip comes in very handy, certain characters come with their own specialist equipment. For example, you might have the odd puzzle requiring either a shovel to dig out a missing piece, a book that allows you to translate hieroglyphs which open secrets rooms or a wrench to repair machines. Fortunately, gameplay won't be impaired by not having the right character around when needed as everything you'll need for the immediate puzzles at hand can be found easily enough.

Another difference is the massive increase in hand-to hand fighting. With no lasers in sight, you're forced to either use the whip or come in close using the fists. Certain objects do allow you to dish out damage from a distance, such as rocket launchers, machine guns and pistols dropped by defeated Germans troops. But it's a given the ammo won't last so more often than not you'll be knocking the blocks off the bad guys up close and personal. While dying in fights is sometimes inevitable (not a problem with infinite lives), enemies do drop health boosts in the form of hearts, increasing the chance of survival. Enemies seem to gravitate towards the controlled character so employing a Benny Hill form of running around in circles while the computer controlled character clobbers the bad guys with a shovel is also possible.

An important addition to the game is the increased complexity and variety of the platform puzzles; repair an engine, move a platform to reach a certain area, pull a lever which opens the door, grab a shovel and dig a certain bit necessary for a ladder that takes you to a part required for... you get the drift. It's incredibly fluid, never annoying and so, so damn (re)playable. The house could be burning and you'd be tempted to keep playing, that's how bloody addictive the puzzles are. Cooperation between the two playable characters is still an important ingredient to success as it has been in every LEGO title. While some puzzles require the coordinated efforts of both characters to succeed, an additional game play element adds to the fun and that's phobias. We've known for years that Indy turns to jelly near snakes. When you approach a snake in-game he cowers in fear, totally useless, and requiring you to switch characters and continue with the puzzle at hand. It's a decent attempt at bringing over characteristics of the film you'd wouldn't necessarily expect.

The other aspect that translates over well is the use and range of vehicles. Control-wise it's not problem to hop from a horse to a truck then to a motor bike effortlessly then commence to mow down incoming enemies.

The level of destructibility is all encompassing – just about every object can be destroyed – and anything that cannot be destroyed the first round is something to be savored the next time – which leads me to an intriguing aspect of the game. Leaving levels incomplete will start to gnaw on you slowly but surely. Eventually, you'll give in, hit freeplay mode and repeat the level making a decent attempt at every puzzle or unexplored area you thought initially was not possible. Everything destroyed? Tick. Found all the hidden treasures? Tick and so on... The gameplay is similarly structured as in the previous LEGO games but with an added emphasis on puzzles with cooperative leanings to solve you'll be playing you're little LEGO heart out tirelessly till you see that 100% accomplishment figure. In terms of replay value, the amount of hidden items, the puzzles, hidden areas and extra characters translate into a tremendously addictive experience, whether that's playing solo or co-op.

Additionally, you have Barnett College serving as the game's focal resting point, similarly to Dexter's Diner in LEGO Star Wars. Here you can invest the coins you've picked up through the different stages (while turning me into a weird kleptomaniac / obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferer), purchase new characters, repeatedly watch all those incredibly funny movies sprinkled throughout the game within the movie room or even insert very hard-to-see in-game codes onto a blackboard for extra special unlockable items. To be honest, I could conjure up some sort of figure on how long it takes to finish this game but I'll be off by probably 40 hours or so. Generally speaking, it will take aaaaaages, perhaps time enough to see in the next Indiana Jones film (that's if Harrison Ford makes it that far...).

The only gripe I had with this title and as such the same problem I had with the previous titles is the camera system. As in the past, both characters must remain on the same screen otherwise you simply lose them, either by getting stuck at a door or falling off a ledge. While inhibiting movement and somewhat annoying, it's not that big a deal.

So you've heard the term 'All Ages' attributed to all sorts of games in the past but never believed it? Well believe it for this one. I've had a host of different people having a go at this title, ranging from a 5 year old right up to a grumpy old man with two remaining teeth, smelly breath and curled toes. In the majority of cases (except for the old man) LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a game that's very entertaining, very addictive and well worth the time spent playing it. Its mixture of frivolous fun and wicked puzzles equates to a lasting enjoyment – something that's certainly lacking in most titles these days.

If there's one thing I'm grateful to Traveler's Tales for, it's allowing me the chance to play LEGO without anyone's eyebrows being raised. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is out now on pretty much every current gaming platform you care to name.