Okay so I saw LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin for £19.99 pretty much the day it released and decided to give it a punt. Have to say, I'm very pleasantly surprised.
Thought I'd share the impressions I've put elsewhere in case anyone was looking for a new lighter action game for Vita.
Presentation is much better than previous LEGO games I have played have been. Gone are the awfully compressed pixellated video sequences, the videos are now much cleaner. The game is also a proper 3D (fixed camera) title rather than the isometric iOS/Android ports we've been getting.
Gameplay is classic LEGO, lots of little lego pieces to collect, very destructible scenery, multiple characters all with different abilities. You need to replay levels later on with characters you unlock as you progress to be able to collect all the gold pieces (5 per level). Simple hack and slashy/button mashy combat and a ridiculous plot but some nice humour.
If you like LEGO games, you can do a lot worse than get this, especially if you're looking for something new for Vita.
Graphically it's not the best game on the system, but it's got a solid frame rate, and looks nice enough. I'm not sure if it's Vita's native resolution as it does look a little bit blurry, but that could also just be overkill on the anti aliasing. (I'm no expert in this stuff) but overall the graphics do their job and there's certainly nothing that looks ugly. It certainly looks good enough for me to wonder if the Vita version was actually the lead platform for this release (whereas previously the DS/iOS ones were). Though it could also just be that the 3DS version is actually one of the better looking 3DS titles.
Length of the game to 100% complete is looking like approx 10-15 hours or so with replaying levels for completion? I played for 45 minutes and completed 9.9% of the game.
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
