Although I'm an open fan of LEGO games, I was skeptical going into LEGO Battles Ninjago. For the most part, LEGO games are a comical take on a well-established franchise, so everything in the game is instantly familiar to fans. It skips over establishing a story because we already know the plot, we're just here to see our favorite characters explode into an infinitesimal amount of LEGO bricks.

With that said, LEGO Battles Ninjago isn't actually a terrible game. The story, which still manages to be full of light-hearted comedy, follows four students of “Spinjitzu” who are trying to stop an evil overlord from acquiring four powerful weapons and conquering the world. These four ninjas, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane act as your heroes when you're actually engaged in combat and are distinguished by color. Outside of this, there isn't much that tells them apart on the actual battlefield. Did I mention that LEGO Battles Ninjago is an RTS game?

- This isn't your standard LEGO experience -

This was probably the biggest surprise for me. I knew there was a previous LEGO Battles game, but I hadn't played it, so the RTS set up of Ninjago caught me wholly off guard. That being said, I love RTS games, so Ninjago actually instilled a justifiable amount of hope in me. This hope quickly faded once I played the game, though; LEGO Battles Ninjago doesn't truly live up to the standards set by other RTS games, even with the extra leeway given for it being on a portable system.

The first thing I noticed about LEGO Battles Ninjago was the way the game looked. Nothing here looks truly terrible, and the cut-scenes that take place during the story are actually nothing short of amazing to look at on the DS, but the battlefield can quickly become the scene of repetitive animations. One of the things I've come to enjoy about RTS games is the liveliness of the battlefield. Bodies fly left and right or individual units branch off into their own skirmishes. In LEGO Battles Ninjago, the fighting consists of you highlighting all your units and tapping on an enemy; basic stuff. Then your units stand in front of the enemy and flail their arms, legs, swords, or pickaxes around aimlessly until the enemy releases studs. Rinse and repeat. Constantly. Perhaps the monotony wouldn't be so troublesome if it wasn't so hard to actually direct your units. Oftentimes I found myself wildly tapping on an enemy so my units would actually attack them instead of standing next to them daydreaming. 

This isn't the only issue with Ninjago, though. As an RTS game, it feels extremely cramped for a majority of the experience. I realize that this is a side effect of it being a portable game, but several games have found a way around this. Maybe if EVERYTHING wasn't delegated to just the touch screen the experience would feel smoother. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and it leaves Ninjago's interface feeling almost clumsy. Things like building outlines, which need to be dragged in tandem whilst you adjust the camera, instead of it just moving alongside the camera, keeps the experience sluggish -- and sluggish is a problem when your AI adversaries don't share the same hindrances you do. Enemies build quickly and effectively, just like in any other RTS game. You, however, are stuck with moving the camera, then moving a unit, then moving the camera or moving a unit into the fog, getting ambushed meanwhile for your lack of attention. 

- The interface will drive you crazy -

Ultimately, LEGO Battles Ninjago is an incomplete experience for me. It has all the elements of a decent RTS game, but the interface cripples its overall gameplay. The tedium of constantly working with inaccurate stylus presses and the slow moving camera makes the game minimally fun to play. Another detrimental factor is that this is an RTS game. As such, there are going to be multiple units on the screen all doing actions. However, I still saw the occasional slowdown when there were several units onscreen flailing at one another. With all that being said, I'd like to reiterate that LEGO Battles Ninjago isn't a terrible game and the rarity of RTS games on the DS makes it an interesting experience, though among the few games out there for the DS there are those which brought this genre to the DS correctly. LEGO Battles Ninjago isn't one of them.

GameDynamo's Score for LEGO Battles Ninjago (DS/DSi)

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