What "Indiana Jones" proved is that the LEGO formula doesn't work perfectly with every universe. There aren't enough action sequences or memorable characters in the Indy franchise to make a LEGO game about it nearly as pleasurable as the "Star Wars" installments.

That's not a problem for "LEGO Batman." My recent 20 minutes of playtime with the latest LEGO game avoided every pitfall "Indiana Jones" fell in.

The reasons "LEGO Indiana Jones" failed to connect with me in the same way as "Star Wars" has less to do with the efforts of Traveller's Tales and more to do with the constraints of what the studio had to work with. "Batman" doesn't have the same issues; the world of "Batman" has a rich variety of heroes and villains. Like "Star Wars," there's more than enough from which the developers can choose.

The demo station at PAX 2008 where I played "Batman" had three scenarios to play through. I had time to try two of them. I decided to pick the ones that didn't involve Batman and Robin, instead taking control of one mission with The Joker and Harley Quinn and another with Mr. Freeze and The Riddler. The best part? They played differently. The variety in the characters produced variety in the gameplay and made two-player co-operation feel distinct and natural.

Mr. Freeze can create icy platforms in the lava and create destructible blocks of ice out of enemies. The Riddler can execute mind control on some characters to do his bidding. The Joker has an electrifying handshake that can also supercharge certain machines. Harley Quinn can double jump. The demo showcased dynamic co-op puzzles -- i.e. The Joker charging a machine that allows Harley Quinn to access an out-of-reach platform that houses a button. Those moments came fast and hard in just the demo sections of "Batman," while they are few and far between in "Indiana Jones."

"Batman" also looks significantly better than "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars," but that's a moot point compared to the improved gameplay. You don't play the LEGO series for high-definition fidelity; you play them for fun. In its demo form, "Batman" succeeds on this where the last LEGO game didn't.

In just a few weeks, we'll find out if the rest of the game managed to hold up that elevated standard.

***

Have a hot tip? Is there a topic that Multiplayer should be covering and isn't? Who's your favorite Batman character? Drop me an e-mail.

And as fans of the "Lego Star Wars" games, we had a few questions about LucasArts' and Traveller's Tales' new blockbuster game.

For one, we wondered how difficult and different it was to translate "Indiana Jones" into a Lego game. After all, "Star Wars" is a vast science-fiction universe rich in diverse settings, vehicles and characters. The world of "Indiana Jones" is much smaller and based more in reality -- his vehicles are cars (no Millennium Falcon), his weapon is a whip (not a lightsaber), and his enemies are Nazis (not the Sith).

"Lego Indy' is a much more physically active game," LucasArts producer Shawn Storc told us via e-mail. "With respect to the interactions between the player and their environment and other characters, we've really opened the door for players to have a more in-depth experience as it relates to the game world around them."

Evidenced by more puzzle elements, the ability to use more vehicles, and aim more objects (everything from bazooka shells to bananas), the developers have done their best to take what we love the Indiana Jones universe to fit a Lego-style game. But it wasn't always easy.

"['Temple of Doom'] was definitely pretty tough to tackle," Storc said of the most challenging movie in terms of level design. While action-packed, the film seemed to have fewer environments that could be fodder for levels. "However, everyone on the team is a fan of the series," he said, "so that passion for the stories and their incredible creativity enabled the creation of an exciting experience across the board."

As for the number of characters, the game promises 60 playable ones that can be unlocked. Since there certainly aren't 60 characters in the "Indiana Jones" universe, it seems that Traveller's Tales had to do a bit of stretching on their part (i.e. having many of the main characters available in various outfits).

"It took a bit of watching the films multiple times," Storc admitted, "but it did allow us to expand on the individual ability range quite a bit. We wanted to make sure that each character had value and contributed to the experience as a whole, quite like the companion characters function in the film. For example, Satipo's skill is excavation and Willie Scott's high-pitched scream breaks glass."

To boot, the game's developers added the phobias of each character -- like Indy's famous phobia of snakes. "And Indy isn't the only one with phobias," Storc said. "Willie is scared of bugs and Senior doesn't like rats. The game is steeped in Indy lore, but one of the best ways you can see it is in the collection of artifacts and complex puzzle-solving in the game."

Though there are plenty pf puzzle elements, provided by some of Indy's death-defying escapes in the films, the game doesn't take as many run-throughs to get to 100% as in the "Lego Star Wars" titles. For instance, players had to play straight through an entire movie (six levels) to obtain a gold brick needed to get 100%, but "Lego Indy" doesn't make players endure the marathon sessions.

"Our goal was to emphasize the nature of Indy as he is an adventurer, an archaeologist, a collector, and a great action hero," Storc said. "I wouldn't say that the requirements were lowered; they are just different."

When we asked about why the new "Indiana Jones" movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" wasn't included, he claimed, "There is so much content in the first three 'Indy' movies that we wanted to maintain focus on those adventures," he said.

But then does that leave room for another "Lego Indy" game? "We don’t have anything to announce, but there’s always a chance."

Additional reporting by Stephen Totilo.

*I got to the bottom of my new-game stack and reached into my old-games-I-need-to-mess-around-with pile. In there I found "Silent Hill 4," "Rogue Galaxy," and "Final Fantasy XII" all for the PS2.

I tried them each but don't plan on finishing any of them unless any reader of this diary can change my mind.

I've played "FF XII" for more than 20 hours and have already been advised to quit. I loaded up my save on Sunday and the game immediately failed by not catching me up on where I'd left off. It made it easy to re-quit.

I skipped "Silent Hill"s One and Three, rather enjoyed Two and was intrigued by the locked-in-a-room premise of the Fourth. Unfortunately, the reviews I scouted make the gameplay sound terrible. The portion of the combat I sampled on Sunday reinforced that impression. I can live without finishing this game, yes?

"Rogue Galaxy" is as pretty as any Level 5-developed game -- all of which are beauties, all of which are stuffed with gameplay and all of which have felt flat when I play them. Even rave reviews of this game claim it's monotonous. I didn't even get off the first planet. Is that okay?

*I also finished "Lego Indiana Jones," and decided to stop playing after discovering 75% of the game's content. There are some cool hidden bonuses in the game but it's also healthy to not be obsessive compulsive.

*Dabbled a little more with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl"'s Subspace Emissary (I'm now at 12%) and returned to an old misunderstood favorite "P.N. 03," which I'll write about more in a future diary.

*Tried "Haze," though it was competent but unexciting. It's too bad. I'm still waiting for the first great anti-war game.

*Oh, yeah, I also played the game I thought would dominate my weekend: "Ninja Gaiden II." I'm basically a newcomer to the series, having only spent much time with the DS' "Dragon Sword" edition. This Xbox 360 sequel features some of the bloodiest, most deftly controllable action I've ever choreographed with a game controller/ But it does not have the level design or enemy variety to compel me to battle past the game's second level. I respect the achievement of its combat but, like the flashier yet clunkier "Devil May Cry 4," the game feels imbalanced. It's far more fun during its hero's fights than in its hero's travels from corridor to corridor.

Next: I go on vacation. I'll be back Monday.

*Finished "Trauma Center: New Blood" in absurd fashion. I reached the final surgery and failed at it multiple times. I decided the game was too hard. I put the game on my game shelf, resigned that it would join "Final Fantasy X" and "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" as games that contain final encounters that I couldn't overcome. A day later, I couldn't deal with leaving the game unfinished, so I took it back off the shelf, consulted GameFAQs to deduce a better strategy. And I beat it.

*Cleared "Secret Agent Clank" but am embargoed from talking about it for a few more weeks.

*Played through two of the three movies that were Lego-ized for "Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures." But mum's the word on that one too until early next week.

*Tried unsuccessfully to unlock new balance games on "Wii Fit." Not sure what I need to do to have the privilege to find out what the penguin game is all about. I ran four miles in the park. For real. That doesn't count?

Next: I return to "The World Ends With You."

The movie did fine despite "GTA IV" pulling in $500 million dollars, but not much has been said about the game (though it seems that people are renting it).

Would the "Iron Man" game have generated more buzz away from its movie release but also away from the release of "GTA IV"?

Other movie games planned for this summer are sticking with the standard practice of coming out with the film. The "Speed Racer" movie and game are out this week, next week is "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" and later on this summer "Kung Fu Panda," "The Incredible Hulk," "Wall-E"... well, you get the idea. Summer blockbusters typically come with video games in tow.

However, this got us thinking about the new "Batman" movie. In summer 2005, "Batman Begins" had a game published by EA and developed by Eurocom that was released day and date with the film. Then the movie sequel "Dark Knight" was officially announced in August 2006 and hits theaters on July 18. Yet so far, we haven't heard anything about a "Batman" game for July.

Last May, IGN reported a rumor that EA tapped Pandemic Studios to create a new Batman title based on the "Dark Knight" movie. Not much else was known. On April 2, 2008, IGN confirmed the rumor but the information was then immediately taken down. Multiplayer reached out to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, but representatives would not comment on the status of the game.

Also, "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull," which enters theaters on May 22 does not have a scheduled movie-based game. We asked Lucasarts why there isn't a "Crystal Skull" game but received no response before press time. In 2005, an "Indiana Jones" game for next-gen consoles was announced, but no release date has been given. Meanwhile, "LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures" hits retail on June 3, but does not include the storyline from "Crystal Skull."

Maybe the people behind the "Dark Knight" and the "Indiana Jones" games (as well as 2006's "Superman Returns" game) know something we don't.

Could licensed games benefit by not coming out day and date with the film?

Are movie-based games still relevant to gamers when the it comes out much later than the film, and perhaps tied to a DVD release?

Or does the game really miss out by not being released with the movie?

There have been triumphs and defeats.

And now, LucasArts, determined to make things right again has offered us a nice exclusive. Or, really, an evil exclusive.

Click below to see a full shot of the game's very own version of Mola Ram, the bad guy from "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom."

And no, we don't know if he rips any hearts out in this game.

My notes about "LEGO Indiana Jones" and my recollection of my interview with two LucasArts people who showed me the game indicated that the Indy game would support four-player co-op. That's why I wrote that it did.

But on Wednesday I found out that the actual design plans for the game do not call for four-player co-op. That feature is not planned for the game.

A producer for the game has confirmed that. "'LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures' will feature the user friendly drop-in/drop-out two-player cooperative feature that players have come to know and love," the game's producer, Shawn Storc, said to me in an e-mail provided by LucasArts public relations. "However, we are not expanding this feature to a higher player count. I certainly do apologize for any confusion that has arisen; we must have been in a LEGO induced haze at the Collector’s Party."

How could things have gone so wrong?

I'm told that the game will allow up to four character on the screen, but apparently only a maximum of two players can ever control the game and the characters on screen at once.

Multiplayer readers, I take great pride in the accuracy of my work. I would not have reported it as fact if I didn't think I had it 100% solid, in this case from an official demonstration of the game. But, unfortunately, that was not the case.

UPDATE, 2/1: The following story erroneously reports that "LEGO Indiana Jones" has four-player co-op. This error arose from a miscommunication about the game's features during an official demonstration that led to an inaccurate impression of the game. For more details, see this follow-up post. We regret the error.

I spent an hour this past Saturday exploring a room full of LEGOs, and getting a quick demo of "LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures."

The meeting was at the Times Square Westin hotel where my last game demo was a week-early marathon with "Halo 3." It was in a conference room where LEGO toys and LEGO statues stood (see some pictures below).

And amid all the toys, two LucasArts producers has a level to show in the LEGO "Indy" game. So I sat down to watch a yellow-headed LEGO Indy try to retrieve the idol and outrun a boulder. I was being shown the first scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as re-done by developer Traveller's Tales.

But I couldn't just watch. I asked questions and learned about some other stuff too. Read on…

The game's hub area is Barnett College, the place where Dr. Jones teaches class. This area functions the way the "Attack Of The Clones" bar and the Mos Eisley cantina did in the two "LEGO Star Wars" games. The hub provides access to 18 levels, six for each of the first three Indy movies.

The opening "Raiders" level is called "Lost Temple of Hovitos." I was shown the level with Indiana Jones and his assistant, Satipo, as the playable characters. A LucasArts producer controlled the game, and switching back and forth between the two characters, while the XBox 360 he was demoing the game on took care of whichever one he wasn't controlling.

They showed me Indy avoiding alligators, jumping over a spiky floor, making a bad step and exploding into LEGO bits, retrieving the idol (which he tries replacing with a pink coffee mug), trying to outrun the famous boulder and getting caught outside the temple. Curiously, there was no "throw me the idol" moment -- but Indy did offer his enemies C3PO's head before handing over the idol they demanded. The LEGO series is still playing its source material for extra laughs.

The producers of the game told me that Indy's whip will be used as an important tool: it picks up items, it lets him swing across gaps. Characters in this game are more specialized than they were in the "Star Wars" games, they said. Satipo had a shovel, for example, that let him dig treasure. How diverse the characters' abilities will be, I'm not sure. I was told that in the game's Free Play mode, as in the "Star Wars" games, a player will be assigned enough characters to accomplish every main and hidden task in a mission.

I saw more adventure than combat in the one level they showed me. That seemed true to the movie but not exactly true to the "LEGO Star Wars" precedent. The producers said that, overall, the LEGO Indy game does have more of an adventure style than the "Star Wars" games but that there will be plenty of fighting, say, in the bar scene that apparently they're also using from "Raiders."

Some other things I picked up:

• I learned that even though the game's puzzles will never be designed for more than two characters that, on the console versions, up to four players will be able to run through levels together.

• I was told that the Wii game will have motion-triggered bull-whipping. When I asked if it would function the same as the lightsaber-swinging did in the Wii version of "LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga or if it would offer 1:1 remote-to-whip synchronized control, the producers said to expect something akin to the "Star Wars" interface.

• The console versions of the "Indy" game are being made by the same team at Traveller's Tales that did the "Star Wars" games; it's a different team that's doing "LEGO Batman."

• I was told not to worry about reports that the Nazis have been removed form the LEGO version of the trilogy. The plot will stay intact; the bad guys just won't wear swastikas.

• I was only shown the Xbox 360 version of the game, but PC, PS2, PS3, and Wii versions are al slated for June 3, 2008. So are DS and PSP versions. I didn't learn much about them except that the DS stylus will handle whipping and that the microphone will be used for blowing up rafts (in a "Temple of Doom" scene, I presume) and blowing out torches. Oh, and you'll be able to control the "Raiders" monkey in the DS game.

• Lastly, they're saying that the game is only about the original trilogy. So no references to the new movie, even though it comes out a week after it? They're saying no.