Welcome to the thinking kids’ Lego Battles. It’s not exactly like previous Lego Battles games, so adjust your expectations and forget past Lego’s platform action-adventures.

There’s a storyline: Two brothers, one good, the other evil, face off. In the lineage and spirit of real-time strategy games (RTS), you must create stronger warriors through training to become a Spinjitzu master—learning the art of turbulent spinning battle skills to defeat enemies.

Meanwhile, collect powerful ninja weapons and resources to build fortresses and bolster your army. Conquer the sinister skeleton forces and unlock ninja heroes who help you win battles and conquer new lands and levels. Along the way, there are dragons to encounter, extensive territories to travel, and exciting and dangerous missions to undertake. Of course, the fate of the world depends on your success.

One fun aspect of this new take on Legos is that players can choose to play the good or the bad side. Still, no matter how incredibly cool and promising the movie-like animated cut away scenes are, the rather rudimentary play-by-play graphics pale by comparison.

While Lego Battles: Ninjago is meant to be a new direction for the Lego’s brand of videogame play, namely into the RTS genre that requires players to think ahead, use some logic and create something of a pan, this gameplay is underwhelming. It will work best for young players new to the RTS genre.