Lego  : Ninjago

By Reardon Jones

Marked as a follow-up to Lego Battles, Ninjago : The Videogame focuses on the art of Spinjitzu, a ninja technique that uses powerful spinning (almost tornado like) attacks to defeat enemies and change the environment around you.

Master of Spinjitzu, Sensei Wu, starts on a quest to protect the four Golden Weapons (a task handed down from his father) and one made pretty difficult due to his evil brother, Lord Garmadon, and his need to control and use the Golden weapons for some good ol' fashioned evil.

Ninjago is one of Lego’s newest attacks on the video game world, the second Real Time Strategy (RTS) game developed by Hellbent Games after Lego Battles.

It differs from the standard Lego games, that until recently were mostly based on film franchises (like the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and most recently The Pirates of the Caribbean films) but is no less exciting.

Ninjago as an RTS game requires the DS operator to use the Stylus for everything, from selecting combatants to moving characters towards targets and objectives. The RTS component of the game is created via random attacks on Sensei Wu and his ninja pupils from Lord Garmadon and his army of skeletons.

The general aim of the game is to move through 2 separate stories (Good & Evil) broken down into 4 acts, each act containing 5 or 6 individual levels, The Evil story being unlocked upon completion of Good.

Easy enough, right? That's what I thought.

While the Nintendo DS isn't my preferred platform I don’t mind using if for portable gaming, however this game provided me some headaches. Having to use the stylus for everything within the game made the process feel sluggish.

When battle scenes come along it really will test the best stylus users to control and coordinate you’re army of Ninjago effectively.

Some familiar elements from other Lego games are present. The need to build while on missions has become more important and necessary with Ninja Dojo’s and special “builder factories” being the only way to gather enough strength and experience to take on Lord Garmadons army who tend to drop past and start ripping villages apart.

In terms of game play Ninjago moves quickly enough if you have DS experience, however you need to have a certain level of strategic ability to complete some of the campaigns.

It’s not as easy as going into the enemy camp with five warriors and hope you can knock them off quick. A decent level of patience is required as there can be a few “almost complete” moments, then defeat. 

The story is pretty solid with some funny and action packed cut-scenes before and after missions. I just wish that the visual level had of carried over into the gameplay as the graphics seem pretty out-dated for any game in this era. This also assists in letting down the look of combat and battle scenes as you can’t really see who is who or what moves they are performing.

As far as Lego games are concerned Ninjago has opened a door to a whole new franchise of games.

The RTS titles will provide a lot of game time and enjoyment for those interested.

With different modes of play including training stages and multiplayer capability Ninjago is a solid DS game that has some minor issues with the aesthetic however challenging enough to be entertaining, Worth building upon.

Game: Ninjago
System: Nintendo DS
Developer/Co-Developer: Hellbent Games
Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)