Thank you, Mr Ice, for that intro. Your
money’s on the fridge.
The latest proper LEGO movie (so, not
a direct-to-video thing), this Ninjago one is basically a daddy
issues tale with lots of classic martial arts movie references, some
really cool LEGO mechs and Jackie Chan. Well, his voice at least.
The latest LEGO game adheres reasonably strictly to the
story of the movie – obligatory note NOT TO PLAY THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T
SEEN THE MOVIE YET - and replaces the movie’s cool voice actors with
average want-to-sound-alikes. Bummer that.
But the game
itself isn’t a bummer, in fact it mixes up the standard LEGO game
formula that’s existed since time immemorial (or thereabouts).
That’s good! But the loading times? We could knock out evil ol’
Garmadon ourselves while waiting for levels to load. That's bad.
WTF is a ‘Garmadon” you may ask? Uh, stop reading, see the movie,
then come back. After all, four-armed is forewarned...
The
tale exists outside standard LEGO Ninjago canon, but features the
same characters with their same elemental powers (we think) – which
are mastered as the story progresses. These are used to solve
various puzzles, but the emphasis here is more on combat – as you’d
hope for a game with ‘ninja’ absorbed into the title. This combat is
cool fun, with many free-flowing attacking moves rather than just
the standard LEGO game punch.
Yellow bricks remain, but red
bricks make way for ancient scrolls, although they basically have
similar functions. Ninjanuity tokens also function in a
combat-dedicated reddish fashion.
Mix in some four-player
battle modes and in all this is another fab-fun LEGO game, based on a
fantastic LEGO movie.
So, feel it if you know
what I mean, give it up for the heroes in green... and red, and
black, and white, and...
