The Battle For MATA NUI was an interesting idea, but the implementation leaves quite a bit to be desired.

The first thing that I noticed was the lack of proper documentation. While you are advised about the general types of items available, no specifics are given on any of them. I’ve been able to figure out what all four Nature icons do (Fireballs and Rust Bees destroy Bohrok in the general area, Magnetic Force pulls them into one collected area, and Magic cleans up the slimy mess they’ve been leaving behind.), and what WHENUA’S Drill does (it digs through walls), but I’ve been unable to get any of the other three TURAGA weapons to do anything, and I have not seen any specific use for the various KANOHI that are available.

Nothing is mentioned about how to move the screen focus, but experimenting with it has revealed that you can click-and-drag the focus icon in the map (lower right corner), though I found it to be a bit sluggish in responding. You can also click directly on the map, but the focus icon might not end up exactly where you wanted it. The only reliable means of adjusting the focus is by hovering your mouse over the edge of the window in whichever direction you want to move, but it’s extremely slow.

In each screen, your goal is to destroy all of the BOHROK, wherever they may be. While each scenario is loading, you are told how many BOHROK swarms are present. Each swarm consists of eight BOHROK, and there is a KRANA tally bar that shows you how many total BOHROK you’ve defeated.

To destroy a BOHROK, you either have to drop the Nature icons near them, or you need to engage them in melee combat. Your TOA is pretty well suited to physical combat, your TURAGA is pretty good for cleaning up wounded BOHROK, and your MATORAN pack…well, let’s just say that there’s a good reason that the TOA showed up to defend them (best save them for scouting, since they move much faster than the TOA or TURAGA). No characters are required to be present for using the Nature effects, so you can drop them on any BOHROK that a MATORAN scout runs across, and save the two larger characters for more hands-on situations. I did notice that the TOA and TURAGA have greater reach with their weapons than the BOHROK have, so if you can manage to get them to stop just close enough to start thwacking a BOHROK, they don’t seem to take any damage, but if you get them right up close, you’ll probably lose your TURAGA before (s)he can defeat more than one BOHROK. If you’re really not careful, you could even lose your TOA.

The game currently consists of LE-WAHI (small board, one swarm), TA-WAHI (medium board, two swarms), and GA-WAHI (large board, three swarms), and with each progressively larger board, you get more MATORAN characters to scout the terrain.

Finally, you’ve got a point total in the upper right corner. If you are logged in to your LEGO® Club account, your high score will be recorded and, if you do well enough, everyone will be able to see your name on the Top Ten ranking board. As the game progresses, your score counts down (so the longer it takes you to clean the board, the lower your score will be), but if you clean up the green slime-spots, more points are added back on, even though you don’t actually need to clean up the slime to finish the level.

I found it to be moderately fun, but improving the responsiveness of the control system would go a long way towards making it a seriously enjoyable game. So would throwing in levels for the other three villages…