Enter the Jayster in LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire

LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire is a tribute to everything I love in video games.

LEGO Ninjago Prime Empire PosterEpisodes 1-6 available through Cartoon Network app / on demand

Airdate:
North America – July 19, 2020
Other Territories – Repeat

TT Games can learn a lot from Prime Empire, the latest season of LEGO Ninjago finally airing in North America. I’ve played enough of their products to see their licenced products from this toy line have hardly ever changed. The platform puzzle solving coin gathering engine rarely includes concepts unique to each franchise. For the most part, players are blasting or punching enemies in a non-violent manner rather than fully reliving highlight moments—ranging from racing simulations to martial arts fighting—from their favourite movie.

The story for season twelve offers a lot of ideas I wish to see in a game and in a TRON: Legacy sequel. Unagami is essentially MCP. He’s a self-aware program created by Milton Dyer to deliver players the ultimate experience and he’s also feeling very confused. He wants to find his creator and go mono a mono.

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Is Garmadon the Oni One in Season 10 of LEGO Ninjago?

NinjagoBy Ed Sum

(The Vintage Tempest)

It’s an end of an era for LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu Videos. March of the Oni, the latest season, is essentially a movie split into four episodes. It brings the Oni arc (which started in Sons of, season eight) to an end. In what keeps me coming back, despite a retcon of this villain is in how the good guys value brotherhood above all else. Bad guys rarely give their fellow warriors their due and, as a result, consistently fail in a fight.

Jay, Zane, Nya, Cole, and Lloyd have seen how brothers can turn upon brothers in season four, Tournament of the Elements. With season six, Skybound, the pirates whom the Djinn Nadakhan enslaved were not truly honour bound. Even the serpents, skeletons and ghosts they faced had snide remarks amongst the ranks. Even when Lloyd was trying to do bad things, the Serpentine clan recognised problems and did little because of a misfired attempt by the leader to hypnotise the tyke.

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Laying it On The Line with The LEGO Movie 2

Ninjago

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

  • Spoiler Alert

Everything is not quite awesome in Bricksburg in The LEGO Movie Part Two. Now dubbed Apocalypseburg, the Mad Max theme plays throughout as the citizens attempt to thwart an invading species of bricks. The set up is simple: In the real world, events continue after younger sister Bianca is allowed to the basement where this “world” lives and she can bring her Duplo. And sometimes, certain characters are not who they are. This sense of accepting who they inside define what makes this sequel special.

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The Freemakers are Back in LEGO Star Wars: All Stars!

NinjagoBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

The Freemakers are back! Well, sort of… time has passed since they joined the Resistance. Just when this story takes place is in the present, and Moxie Freemaker is the main protagonist of LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars.  The family makes appearances and we get an origin tale that is not convoluted. In these shorts, we also see Rowan making waves since meeting Luke in “The Power at Jakku.” Much has he become in the ways of the Force.

The shorts made its debut back in October as a series of shorts, and not everyone noticed. The longer 24-minute episodes have two tales and I’m in favour of these because the tales are meatier. They are a lot more enjoyable since it does not focus on Roger. They also help complete the roster of translating the diverse cast into LEGO mini-figure format. Although they are technically non-canon material, references to key moments in the series are made. Should this transition into casting real-life performers to play the animated characters, I would appreciate it. The shorts are being repeated on Disney XD, are available on Disney NOW (to cable tv subscribers) and freely available on YouTube. Altogether, they make for a terrific filler while waiting for the next live-action film.

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Lego Ninjago, Masters of Spinjitzu Season 9 is Coming! But is it The End?

NinjagoBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

* Mild Spoiler Alert
* This analysis is based on reading online episode summaries.

The wait should not be long for Season Nine of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu to air in North America. It’s currently broadcasting in Australia, and nearby territories. The previous chapter, Sons of Garmadon, played April of this year in the States and left viewers with one doozy of a cliffhanger. Half of the team were tossed into the Realm of the Oni and Dragon. Meanwhile, back home, the remaining team are rallying resistance fighters.

Lord Garmadon is back and now rules the capital city with a clenched fist. The way he sees life (including his own minions) and that it’s all disposable makes him far worse than Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. To defeat him will not be easy. He’s pure hatred. When his son confronts him, it gets televised and most of the world believes the boy is dead. Fortunately, the lad is not and the series bounces back and forth between this story arc and the ninjas with baby Wu trapped in a Mad Max type of world.

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Everybody can be Kung-Fu Fighting with the LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game

The LEGO Ninjago Movie Videogame | PC - Steam | Game KeysArriving at the same time as the movie, The LEGO® Ninjago Movie Video Game is now available in the Americas for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™ and Steam. Developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, this product allows players to extend the non-stop action and humour of the new big-screen animated adventure. Players can battle their way through waves of enemies with honour and skill as their favourite Ninjago heroes – Lloyd, Nya, Jay, Kai, Cole, Zane and Master Wu – to defend Ninjago Island from Lord Garmadon and his Shark Army.

With new, powerful combat moves, players can jump into the action with adrenaline pumping fighting sequences that let them jump higher, kick harder, swing further and defy gravity to conquer their enemies. Players can master the art of Ninja-gility by running on walls, high-jumping and battling foes of NINJAGO to rank up and upgrade the ninja’s combat skills, and traverse across Ninjago Island fluidly with parkour-like moves. The new combat moves include Rushing Boar, a dash attack to bridge the gap between characters, Floating Butterfly, a jump lunge attack that allows the ninja to leap and attack from above, Swooping Hawk, a jump slam attack, and Stinging Bee, a flurry of very fast strikes.

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