Subtly combining the words 'ninja' and 'Lego' since 2011, Shadow follows last year's similarly handheld-aimed Nindroids.
This one goes something like: bad guy turns up, saps some memories and skillsets from good guys using a mystical weapon, good guys take off searching for similar weapons in order to pull themselves together.
And it's fine.
Which is sad, because I expect more than just 'fine' from my Lego games. I understand the Vita doesn't pack the same punch as its older console brothers, but to offer up such a pitiful 'home' area as this is pretty poor. Nindroids had a (very) small street map, and Chima - Laval's Journey stumped up an impressively vast world from which the levels branched. Shadow of Ronin gives us a mouldy dragon wobbling about over a miniature archipelago, with a handful of statues to destroy.
In-game action is identical to previous Vita entries and, save for the Spinjitzu attack, there's very little to differentiate matters, aside from the characters and setting.
I hope TT Games aren't becoming complacent after so many Lego gaming entries, but Shadow of Ronin is a title with its eyes half closed.
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