Bionicle Heroes

"Heroes, Meaning This Game Needs More than One."

Remember when you were a kid, playing with those wonderful little blocks that help build your imagination and had no limit to what you built? Well your friends at LEGO made a new series of toys, called Bionicle. They also allowed some bad things to happen to the reputation of that series with some funky games.

Graphics: 5.5
It's not much to be expecting from a licensed game based off a toy collection. The graphics in this are mediocre and fairly gritty as far as in-game animation goes. The graphics sometimes "sputter out" when you enter some rooms that causes an automatic animation to trigger as you go into the room. Some of the enemies hardly look like some of the actual toys they are based on as well, which doesn't help drawing the interest in for the game.

Gameplay: 5.0
The game immediately lets you know the Wii remote's motion control is just for show and has minimal purpose but to pan the screen. The game's length is fairly short, and the unlockable content is minimal, and most of it is hardly enjoyable. The game has a lobby in which you can purchase upgrades to the Bionicle characters you play, as well as some hints on how to play the game and a handful of things that are merely for show. Your currency is a bunch of silver and gold Bionicle LEGO parts, which is spent by the thousands just for some hints about what you already know.

Sound: 6.0
Not sure how to explain some of the sounds in the game. Honestly, how would anyone really know how LEGO characters sound? The game consists of your standard, garden variety of explosions and clanking noises, which is nothing anyone has heard before in tons of other B-rated games. Nothing too new, everything too old.

Control: 3.0
This is where the Wii version of this game has some frustrating issues. The game has had earlier installments of the game on the older generation of consoles, all of which wasn't added on or improved upon in the Wii version. Instead, they give you a crosshair in which the Wii remote is used to aim and select your options as well as pan the screen around in the game as you play. Beyond that, however, it's just for show. The crosshair in-game give you this expectation that you get to actually control where your character shoots, yet instead it relies more on the character to "lock on" to the enemy before it actually aims the right way and hits. The range of where you can aim is even more limited by how high and low you can pan the screen to aim at closer enemies. If any enemy is so close they're at your feet, you actually have to step back a great amount before it even "locked on" to.

Replay Value: 2.0
Honestly, the game's control hurts it's own score than anything else about this game. The game's level design is bland as well. Level after level feels like you already did that stage before just in a different tint to the atmosphere. The variety of enemies are minimal and repetitive, and bosses all require very similar tactics to defeat every single one of them.

The game had a lot of potential in making a decent, and relatively fun game. However, it opted for a quicker release with some shoddy character design and even worse control schemes. The game is worth a rental at best, and that's if the other games have already been conquered on your list.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/07