The LEGO Company has a lot of franchises to create some games. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Marvel… All of those worlds could be the setting for a new LEGO game. The newest LEGO game however, takes inspiration out of an in-house franchise: Ninjago. Let’s see how good those LEGO ninjas really are.
LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids is developed by Traveller’s Tales and Hellbent Games and follows the story of the popular kids-show on television. The game follows the story of a group of brave ninjas in the big city of New Ninjago City. The evil overlord and his army of Nindroids disrupted their peace. It’s up to you and your gang of ninjas to take down the overlord and his Nindroids in thirty-ish levels.
The game is obviously meant for a younger audience and fans of the Ninjago show. Both developers put a lot of effort in creating an environment that looks like it’s taken straight from the television show. Just like in other LEGO games, you’ll be able to control a set of different characters. This game includes famous television show characters such as Nya, Sensei Garmadon, PIXAL, Cyrus Borg, Lloyd, Kai, Cole, Zane and Jay. Aside of the main characters, the game even adds some new supporting characters that didn’t appear on the show. Based on the amount of playable characters you could say this is fanservice in its purest form. You can even replay every level with your favorite character if you want, this option can be picked in the central HUB of the game.
The HUB is located in New Ninjago City but isn’t used that much. In the city you could train with the Sensei to gain new skills or just wander around to kill some time. The main part of the game is of course the set of different, short missions. Since the game aims at a younger audience, those short missions are really perfect. They never ask too much of the gamer and thanks to their scale, they really are rather straightforward to complete. This could bother the more skilled player since the game is rather easy, even for a LEGO game.
LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids, is built on the standard LEGO principle. This means that combat and puzzle solving are the key gameplay aspects. The combat is very high-paced and lets you face a set of different enemies. Starting rather easy with harmless cleaning robots but resulting in epic battles with giant mech. Although the combat pace is high for a LEGO game, the combat segments never get too hard. One of the reasons for this is the high level of forgiveness. When you die, your character will hop straight back into combat. No need to load a checkpoint or start over, LEGO forgives your mistake and lets you try again without losing any of your progress. Not challenging at all for die-hard gamers but really is satisfying for the target audience of younger gamers.
A great action game for the young gamer.
So aside of the combat you’ll also need to solve a bunch of puzzles on your way towards victory. The puzzles you’ll face are typical LEGO type puzzles you’ve already solved in other LEGO games. Most of the puzzles can be solved by breaking or creating pieces of LEGO in order to advance. Aside of those, you’ll have to ‘harder’ yet obvious puzzles such as ‘call in an innocent cleaning robot in order to deactivate the laser beams’. Again, older gamers won’t find any challenge in those puzzles but younger gamers will definitely be in for a little challenge!
Since neither the puzzles nor the battles offer any challenge, it’s good that you’ll be able to control a different set of characters. Like in most other LEGO games, you’re able to switch between the characters in certain missions. Every character has its own unique skill. One is good at computer hacking while the other knows how to deal with complicated mechanics for example. Switching between your characters at the right time is key to make it to the finish. There are less playable characters in this LEGO game but that’s all because the levels are way too small to include a lot more characters. Getting to know every character and its skill is without a doubt the true power of the game.
Aside of multiple characters, the famous LEGO humor also makes a return. LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids isn’t that funny as let’s say a LEGO Hobbit game but thanks to the cheesy one-liners you’ll have a smile on your face nevertheless. A fun fact about the humor is that the same actors who also did the animated series voiced every character. Thanks to the voice acting and optional subtitles, nobody has to miss out on a joke.
So all in all we can say that this LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids offers a great deal of fun for the younger audience. It has the key characters, enough variation in the gameplay and short levels to keep the pace going. If you’re older than lets say twelve years, you’d better stay away from this game since it won’t offer much challenge. Consider this as one of the better games for your kids available on Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita nowadays.
