Can you and your fellow ninja claim the four golden weapons and keep them away from the skeleton general and his army before they overrun the ninja fortress? You would think so, given that the weapons are hidden within your fortress, but ninja are sometimes so sneaky that they forget where they hid things. Start looking, ninja!

In Ninjago: The Board Game, a spin-off of the 2011 line of Ninjago spin-and-attack figures from LEGO, players must work together to claim the weapons and fight back the skeleton guards you'll encounter. On a turn, you spin the die, then take one of the following actions:

• On a two, you move your ninja up to two spaces, searching a guardhouse for a weapon if you stop in a space where a guardhouse is located.
• On a one/guard, move one space, then place a skeleton guard on a space occupied by a ninja.
• On a one/general, move one space, then move the skeleton general one space down the temple steps.
• On a rope/general, attach a rope to your ninja's head (!) and a nearby guardhouse, then swing to any space that you can reach and land there, then move the general down the temple steps one space.

If a skeleton guard is in your space at the start of your turn, spin the spinner. If it lands on your color or the color of any other ninja in that space, you defeat the guard and take a normal turn; otherwise, move the general down one step and lose your turn.

If the general reaches the bottom of the steps, he steal one weapon from you, then climbs to the top of the steps once again to begin another descent. If you have claimed no weapons by the time this happens, you all lose the game.

Once all the weapons are claimed or captured by the general, enter the final battle, taking turns with the spinner to see whether the general captures another weapon, whether the ninja do, or whether nothing happens. Your sensei awaits on the side of the board, ready to aide you once during this final battle to protect the weapons – unless you've already used his power during the game.

As with all the LEGO games, Ninjago: The Board Game includes multiple variants, such as adjusting the power of the sensei, adding a memory component, adding or removing steps in the temple to tweak the general's effect.

Games