14 DAY TRIAL // The LEGO Group has announced that one of its flagship products, the MMO LEGO Universe, will be getting a new zone, based around the Ninjago product line and called Crux Prime, that will deliver a set of story-based challenges that will be expanded all through the year and will be built around the new spinning ninja characters.
Crux Prime will see players seeking out an old master called Sensei Wu, who lives in the Ninjago monastery and the only one who can spread the teachings of the Spinjitzu style of combat, represented in the game as a new skill.
The fighting style will be needed as gamers band together to create a tornado powered by Imagination, the only force that will be able to destroy the army of Maelstrom-powered skeletons that will be assaulting the Nexus Tower in Crux Prime to steal the beam of Imagination protected there.
The developers are NetDevil and the LEGO Group are saying that players will be able to perform no less than 100 missions in the new zone, the largest unveiled for the game until now, and there are another 100 new pieces of gear, weapons and other items that can be uncovered and can then be collected or shared with other players.
The Ninjago line of LEGO products is also being delivered in brick and mortar stores and will be getting a spin off on the Nintendo DS handheld.
LEGO Universe is designed to allow players to both engage in free form building, with complex sharing tools that allow those who are creative to show off their stuff to others, and to experience story lines built around the brick-powered characters of the game world.
The MMO is designed to appeal to the whole family, with a strong emphasis on children, with a suite of tools available for parents to control the content that their kids can access.