LEGO announces LEGO Battles: Ninjago for DS, new Ninjago area for LEGO Universe

To coincide with the release of its new Ninjago product line, the LEGO Group, Warner Brothers, and Traveller's Tales has announced a DS game called LEGO Battles: Ninjago.

The game is a follow-up title to the LEGO Battles videogame, and is scheduled for release in the spring.

In it, players are set to become a master of Spinjitzu, an art form in which characters spin and become tornadoes to defeat their enemies, as they "restore harmony to the world". Players can choose to play both good and evil single-player campaigns, "test their skills in a variety of Battle Mode challenges", or play with others via multiplayer showdowns

Players will be able to do battle with dragons, and play through a storyline featuring cameos by fan favorites from LEGO Battles. The game also allows players to build and customize their own army of Spinjitzu heroes or Skulkin villains.

The game features enhanced graphics and effects, four new multiplayer challenges, and two of the original multiplayer challenges from LEGO Battles.

To celebrate the game's impending release, LEGO has also announced that a Ninjago world within the LEGO Universe MMO would open soon called Crux Prime, which contains over 100 new missions, achievements, new peice of gear, decals, and weapons.

The new zone has players "seek out Sensei Wu among the ruins of the Ninjago Monastery to learn the secrets to the powerful skill of Spinjitzu". It is filled with "Nefarious Maelstrom Skeletons" which are attempting to steal the beam of Imagination protected within Crux Prime’s Nexus Tower, and only by "spinning in a tornado of pure Imagination can players defeat these bony villains".