I’m probably more excited about this than I should be, but LucasArts is developing a Lego Indiana Jones video game as a follow-up to its wildly successful Lego Star Wars franchise. I’ve been a fan of the lego-themed Star Wars games for a few years (they follow the storyline of the Star Wars films, but with lego characters, vehicles, creatures and sets).

The Lego Star Wars games offer simple, puzzle-based, cooperative gameplay with great in-game visuals and funny animatics (short videos that play between levels) that make light of well-known Star Wars scenes. The menus are well-designed and the control style is simple enough for my 4-year-old.

The Indiana Jones game will be successful for the same reasons as the Star Wars games – simplicity of gameplay, humorous presentation of familiar content, and widespread appeal (in our random survey of roughly two occupants of my home, reviewers aged 4 to 31 gave the games a thumbs up).

With the success of simple games like these (and of the Nintendo Wii which is winning the console war against systems with more advanced technology) it will be interesting to see if other game publishers answer the call for fun, simple games that appeal to a broader audience than hardcore gamers.