Players: 2-4
Age: 8+
Duration: +- 30 minutes
Distributor: Asmodee
LEGO: NINJAGO – Destiny’s Bounty Adventures – Board Game Review
Recently, after a long break, we’ve started covering board games again, with the last one being the highly entertaining Wispwood. This cute forest-building game proved to be highly accessible, and we found ourselves playing within minutes. The game had a cute aesthetic and has since become a title we regularly play during our board game nights. Today, however, we ditch the cute forest setting for cool LEGO ninjas who have to work together to defeat villains. We were lucky enough to try out this cooperative board game recently, and we rather enjoyed what it had to offer.
Contents
- 124 LEGO elements
- 6 Event Cards
- 24 Potential Cards
- 24 Adventure Cards
- 60 Villain Tokens
- 16 Mastery Tokens
- 1 Victory Marker
- 1 Serpent Head
- 8 Adventure Tokens
- 4 Ninja Chests
- 1 Token Chest
- 1 Adventure Chest
- 1 game board
- 1 assembly sheet
- 1 set of rules
We truly felt like kids again when opening the box of Destiny’s Bounty Adventures, simply because it came with 124 LEGO pieces that we could assemble and use during our play sessions. In the box are also four minifigures, with Nya being an exclusive one here. Other than the minifigures, you’ll also find normal studs, weapons, flashy custom pieces, and so on. Outside of the LEGO components, there are also quite a few cards that serve different purposes and sturdy tokens. To store everything, the game comes with different marked ‘chests’, which are made out of cardboard and will allow you to easily put away the LEGO components, the cards, and the tokens. While the chests were a very nice (and original) touch, we did find the material a bit on the flimsier side.
Mechanics
In LEGO: NINJAGO – Destiny’s Bounty Adventures, your goal is to work together to defeat villains and collect mastery tokens. You do this by going through different rooms on the board to reveal and defeat villains with the help of the other players. Teamwork is key here, as you’ll need to discuss your next move(s), what Potential Cards to use, and so on. The game looked a bit complex at first, but after a few minutes we realized the gameplay loop was really accessible. We were playing within minutes (after assembling some LEGO pieces).
The game comes with six scenarios to play through. Each of these scenarios is represented by a few Adventure Cards that you will need to flip in order after going through each of the Event Cards. You’ll need to flip six Event Cards each round to advance to the next Adventure Card in your scenario. When an Event Card is flipped, every player gets to play before the next one is flipped, and so on. Players will use their chosen Ninjago character to move around the board, defeat enemies, collect Mastery Tokens or complete other side objectives, like fixing a broken-down cannon. As you get more and more points, you’ll be able to gather Potential Cards, which will upgrade your chosen character. This can mean that you get weapons to deal more damage to villains, or that you can move around the map more easily. You’ll gain more movement and damage points as the game progresses as well. Villains will always have to be defeated by your ninjas in the same room, and you’ll have to at least match the power of the villains to vanquish them. When multiple villains are in the room, you can choose which ones you defeat, or if you have enough attack power, you can defeat all of them. Luckily, you’re not on your own, and you can ask players in adjacent rooms to come and back you up.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. You try to prevent villains from scoring points, and you do your best to work together with the other players to score points yourselves. The board does change depending on the number of players that play, to make sure things remain balanced. That being said, if you’re playing with a full team of adults, you’ll probably find what the game has to offer a bit on the easy side. We never struggled clearing any of the scenarios and even often beat them without the villains scoring a single point. For children, however, we reckon the challenge is adequate.
Luck or Strategy?
While there is a bit of luck involved in Destiny’s Bounty Adventures when it comes to the order of the Event Cards being flipped, the game has a lot more strategic components. You can confer at all times with the other players on where you should move, what upgrades you may get for your character, what possible actions you could take during your next turns, and so on. While we found the experience perhaps a bit too easy for an adult audience, we think this one is great for children and young teens to learn how to work together. Communication is key here, and coming up with tactics is very satisfying.
Conclusion
LEGO: NINJAGO – Destiny’s Bounty Adventures is a great cooperative board game that is amazing to teach younger players the value of teamwork. While for an adult-only audience the difficulty may be a bit too low at times, this one has all the right elements for children and young teens to play through the different scenarios. With the fun theme comes a lot of cool LEGO items, an interesting setup, and a low threshold to delve right into the action. If you’re looking for something accessible to play together with the kids, we can easily suggest looking into this one.
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