The highly popular LEGO Ninjago videogame franchise is back with high-kicking action and adventure! LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids comes to the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita this summer. Based on the first five new episodes of the animated TV series, "LEGO Ninjago Rebooted,” players will battle and defend the New Ninjago City where the Ninjas face a technological threat by the evil Overlord and his robotic army of Nindroids. Using swift combo attacks, unique fighting moves, special weapons and new vehicles, the Ninjas must fight with all their might to save Ninjago.
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meh
Not a very good lego game. Poor graphics as it's only on handhelds. Not a good story and not very funny
I dont remember anything. Just got it one time randomly on my Birthday together with Link between Worlds. I mean I just played this for two days and then never again according to my 3DS
I remember literally nothing about this game
Lego Ninjago Nindroids might just be the weirdest Lego game I've played yet.
It is some kind of blend between the modern TT mainline games and the (at the time) mostly faded out of existence isometric handheld games, which were most prevalent during the GBA era.
While somebody could say this is a consequence of hardware limitations you also have to consider the time of release. Not only have TT games been ported to the 3DS since its release 3 years before this game came out, but the 3DS also got its own original TT Lego game 1 year prior to this games release.
This game is also the sequel of some sort to Hellbents' previous Lego game Lego Battles: Ninjago, while at the same time being a tie-in for Ninjagos 3rd season.
As I have already mentioned the gameplay loop is fairly similar to the TT games, with one significant difference being the combat system.
This should not be a surprise to anyone who has played more than one Lego Ninjago game, which have, for the most part, always had an unconventional combat system, usually based their systems features.
Lego Ninjago Nindroids in particular doesn't completely alter the TT combat system but much rather add to what is already there.
First off enemies tank more hits than the one or two in other Lego games, due to different characters also having different kinds of attacks. As an example Zain might attack quicker than Cole, but Cole will inflict more damage.
Due to the enemies bigger health pool combat is now more centered around putting attacking enemies, which are now marked by a thick red outline, in hit-stun/dodging their attacks using the new roll, while preventing to be hit by of the rest of them.
There are two other kinds of other common enemy types.
Firstly the enemy that can either block incoming attacks or has a shield. These can not be defeated using regular attacks, but much rather have to be picked up using the grab move and in that state either pummeled or thrown. My biggest problem with these enemies is that the pummel does little to no damage, so does the throw, and that there is no obvious indicator as to when they will break out of the grab.
The second kind of new enemy type is the big robot enemy, which can technically be defeated if you hit them for long enough, but a way easier way to defeat them is to get behind them and climbing on to of them. I also have a problem with them, which is kind of already solved within the game, which is that when trying to get behind them they turn around almost the same speed as you.
Now if you defeat enough enemies in the right way you will start to build up a combo meter, which increases your characters base movement speed, increases their attack damage and allows your character to perform a special attack, if they are able to perform one.
I believe this combat system to be pretty good overall, but I also have some gripes with it.
If you are in a group of enemies you can focus on individual enemies and zip to them, kind of like the Batman Arkham games(if I had to compare it to anything), now my problem with this is that this just sometimes doesn't work, I couldn't identify why this happens but it has something to do with too many enemies being on screen.
My only other (bigger) problem with the combat system is that, as I already mentioned, attacking enemies will be indicated by a red outline. You will only be able to counter attack or dodge while this outline is on screen, which in it self is good, but there is a small moment during the outline disappearing where the enemy will glitch out and attack multiple times. Now the span for this to happen isn't particularly big, but it did happen more than once during my only 7hr playthrough.
I also wanted to mention that the boss fights are surprisingly well designed, but I didn't know where to put it.
Hellbent didn't change all to much from the rest of the gameplay loop of the TT Lego games. You will still be able to platform and collect studs in various levels.
During platforming segments you might have problems with the depth perception due to the isometric perspective, but this is mitigated in the 3DS version using the 3D feature, but it might still be a problem for anyone playing on a PSVita or 2DS.
The levels themes are usually very interesting. One of the first levels sees you break into a building using the automated cleaning robots to open doors you aren't able to open otherwise.
Two levels later in the game see you first sneak into the rogue civilians "secret hiding place" and in the second of them play a mini game which takes no longer than a minute in said hiding place.
These two levels are a perfect example for this games biggest flaw, which is that there are too many levels,which is made even worse by the long loading times.
My main problem with this "design decision" is the quest system, now popularized by The Skywalker Saga, which this game actually introduced.
Unfortunately it is inserted quite poorly.
Not only are there 10 per level, but you also can not see which are in said levels unless you are already playing it and open the pause menu, meaning you might have to replay levels with character requirements. Furthermore some of them contradict each other like "don't take more than this amount of damage" and "take more than this amount of damage". These quests are totally optional to complete, but did somewhat decrease the fun I had with the game, as I usually try to 100% Lego games.
Now as I said, I like the levels overall, but there is no reason to not combine some of them other than padding.
I want to end this off by saying that I still after all its flaws really enjoyed my time with this game.
This is still Hellbents' first attempt at making this type of game and it does make for a great proof of concept.
Yes some of the mechanics are flawed, but they are still solid ideas that could be ironed out in a hypothetical sequel.
Unfortunately we will probably never see that sequel as TT-Fusion, a subsidiary of TT Games would go on to work on the next Ninjago game Shadow of Ronin and after the recent change in trajectory after the Skywalker Saga I doubt we will ever see another game in this style.
Hellbent would technically still develop another Ninjago game on IOS called Lego Ninjago Tournament, but I never got to play it and from what I could gather about it, it looks like a port of this games fighting mechanics into a wave based PvE game, so my point still stands.
I did not expect to like this game as much as I eventually did as little to no-one talks about it and its Avg. Rating (currently 2.6/5) is below average. If you are only a little interested in this game after reading this and are able to play it, I would give it a try as it is incredibly cheap to buy second hand; I got my complete in box copy for around 3-4€ (including shipping) which it is definitely worth.
It is some kind of blend between the modern TT mainline games and the (at the time) mostly faded out of existence isometric handheld games, which were most prevalent during the GBA era.
While somebody could say this is a consequence of hardware limitations you also have to consider the time of release. Not only have TT games been ported to the 3DS since its release 3 years before this game came out, but the 3DS also got its own original TT Lego game 1 year prior to this games release.
This game is also the sequel of some sort to Hellbents' previous Lego game Lego Battles: Ninjago, while at the same time being a tie-in for Ninjagos 3rd season.
As I have already mentioned the gameplay loop is fairly similar to the TT games, with one significant difference being the combat system.
This should not be a surprise to anyone who has played more than one Lego Ninjago game, which have, for the most part, always had an unconventional combat system, usually based their systems features.
Lego Ninjago Nindroids in particular doesn't completely alter the TT combat system but much rather add to what is already there.
First off enemies tank more hits than the one or two in other Lego games, due to different characters also having different kinds of attacks. As an example Zain might attack quicker than Cole, but Cole will inflict more damage.
Due to the enemies bigger health pool combat is now more centered around putting attacking enemies, which are now marked by a thick red outline, in hit-stun/dodging their attacks using the new roll, while preventing to be hit by of the rest of them.
There are two other kinds of other common enemy types.
Firstly the enemy that can either block incoming attacks or has a shield. These can not be defeated using regular attacks, but much rather have to be picked up using the grab move and in that state either pummeled or thrown. My biggest problem with these enemies is that the pummel does little to no damage, so does the throw, and that there is no obvious indicator as to when they will break out of the grab.
The second kind of new enemy type is the big robot enemy, which can technically be defeated if you hit them for long enough, but a way easier way to defeat them is to get behind them and climbing on to of them. I also have a problem with them, which is kind of already solved within the game, which is that when trying to get behind them they turn around almost the same speed as you.
Now if you defeat enough enemies in the right way you will start to build up a combo meter, which increases your characters base movement speed, increases their attack damage and allows your character to perform a special attack, if they are able to perform one.
I believe this combat system to be pretty good overall, but I also have some gripes with it.
If you are in a group of enemies you can focus on individual enemies and zip to them, kind of like the Batman Arkham games
My only other (bigger) problem with the combat system is that, as I already mentioned, attacking enemies will be indicated by a red outline. You will only be able to counter attack or dodge while this outline is on screen, which in it self is good, but there is a small moment during the outline disappearing where the enemy will glitch out and attack multiple times. Now the span for this to happen isn't particularly big, but it did happen more than once during my only 7hr playthrough.
I also wanted to mention that the boss fights are surprisingly well designed, but I didn't know where to put it.
Hellbent didn't change all to much from the rest of the gameplay loop of the TT Lego games. You will still be able to platform and collect studs in various levels.
During platforming segments you might have problems with the depth perception due to the isometric perspective, but this is mitigated in the 3DS version using the 3D feature, but it might still be a problem for anyone playing on a PSVita or 2DS.
The levels themes are usually very interesting. One of the first levels sees you break into a building using the automated cleaning robots to open doors you aren't able to open otherwise.
Two levels later in the game see you first sneak into the rogue civilians "secret hiding place" and in the second of them play a mini game which takes no longer than a minute in said hiding place.
These two levels are a perfect example for this games biggest flaw, which is that there are too many levels,which is made even worse by the long loading times.
My main problem with this "design decision" is the quest system, now popularized by The Skywalker Saga, which this game actually introduced.
Unfortunately it is inserted quite poorly.
Not only are there 10 per level, but you also can not see which are in said levels unless you are already playing it and open the pause menu, meaning you might have to replay levels with character requirements. Furthermore some of them contradict each other like "don't take more than this amount of damage" and "take more than this amount of damage". These quests are totally optional to complete, but did somewhat decrease the fun I had with the game, as I usually try to 100% Lego games.
Now as I said, I like the levels overall, but there is no reason to not combine some of them other than padding.
I want to end this off by saying that I still after all its flaws really enjoyed my time with this game.
This is still Hellbents' first attempt at making this type of game and it does make for a great proof of concept.
Yes some of the mechanics are flawed, but they are still solid ideas that could be ironed out in a hypothetical sequel.
Unfortunately we will probably never see that sequel as TT-Fusion, a subsidiary of TT Games would go on to work on the next Ninjago game Shadow of Ronin and after the recent change in trajectory after the Skywalker Saga I doubt we will ever see another game in this style.
Hellbent would technically still develop another Ninjago game on IOS called Lego Ninjago Tournament, but I never got to play it and from what I could gather about it, it looks like a port of this games fighting mechanics into a wave based PvE game, so my point still stands.
I did not expect to like this game as much as I eventually did as little to no-one talks about it and its Avg. Rating (currently 2.6/5) is below average. If you are only a little interested in this game after reading this and are able to play it, I would give it a try as it is incredibly cheap to buy second hand; I got my complete in box copy for around 3-4€ (including shipping) which it is definitely worth.