BIONICLE® HEROES so far has been an interesting title and came out on many platforms to accomadate it’s fan base, between Nindendo DS, Playstation 2, Gamecube and GameBoy Advance, and eventually has plans to be on the WII.

In particular, I really think the DS version was closer to what the fans were hoping for and had more of a story-line than the main console version which seems to just have the opening sequence with a squeaky matoran talking. The game has a bit more depth to it in some respects and I still haven’t made the time to give it the proper review it deserves, so think of this an an appatiser review. In the DS version you get a sort of musical slide-show that depicts the Toa Inika being captured and a Matoran diving into protodermis, who apparently became a toa at that point, and journeyed off to rescue the toa. From there you receive a little narrative note as you begin each level.

In each area of the six elemental regions (wahis as we know them) you can either play all the way through or one from each area, depending on the angle you want to go. Each of the elemental areas contains three masks, starting with a lower equivelant of that mask and working its way up as you progress, the first mask giving you an elemental weapon, the second upgrading that weapon, and the last one obtained by defeating the Piraka gives you the respective Inika’s power. The masks are placed evenly apart, one within the first level or two, the second within the middle and as mentioned the sentence before after defeating a Piraka boss. You could probably play the first of each area and grab all the weapons but I decided to go wahi by wahi.

As far as details go expect to be somewhat impressed, somewhat disapointed, as some of the graphical details are rather cool, in particular the details on the characters, Bohrock roll up into their ball forms, and rahkshi hover in the same fashion as they do from the toy videos and movie. Other details are a let down, such as the gears that act as points being reminiscent of cardboard cut outs spinning in a slow frame-rate. Some levels are detailed and one even reminds me of the arena from the second movie (The floor would rise in hexagon platforms as the battleground changed for one area) and some lovely greenery, flowing magma, and icy caves, while others are simply room after room of the same basic thing. The bosses had more detail compared to the console version with Zaktan breaking up into a cloud of dust as a result of him being made of tiny robot/protodytes. Avak, the inventor of the bunch sits in a chair guarded by zamor cannons and minions, you fight Zaktan in a room with criss crossing bridges where the lava is slowly rising, though I probably make it sound more detailed than it actually is as you simply shoot the Piraka till they explode, but some effort to match their persona was made. It is also commendable that, as far as I can tell, all the enemies had the proper tools and staffs to match thier color, with the downside being you don’t see more than one variation of some enemies…In other words you’l see fire bohrok, but no other elemental variations show up.

The overall game has a sort of “Doom” or “Duke Knukem3D” feel to it, which may appeal to gamers who have played those titles, but is also comparable to Metroid Prime Hunters which I’ve played, beaten, and on occasions play with other MoD members online, so I think it may have affected my thoughts on this little in some ways. The gist of how these games differ is that Metroid Prime Hunters is a more strategic first person shooter loosely resembling it’s console versions (Which ive also played and beaten) and you select where to go as you find the weapons needed to unlock other areas to beat the game. In Bionicle Heroes, its an almost oversimplified run and gun game, which you can probably beat with simply the starting Zamor gun if you cared to go through the effort. While you need to first obtain certain masks to reach hidden areas of the game you don’t really need to go back unless you want to unlock the extra content cheat codes, similarly to how you can optionally hunt down missile packs and health containers. To do this you must find the right runes to spell out a name on the extras screen and then purchase it with the points you’ve gained. So far I have yet to unlock any of them but they sound funny by reading the descriptions. In the console versions (For 360, and playstation2) however you need only to play any three levels and you can probably afford to fully upgrade any one toa to his most powerful armor,weapons, and skills. Since after all my work Ive yet to unlock one cheat in this version Ill feel like I’ve actually earned it. With all the toa at my disposal and Hahli’s mask of detection at my disposal I’ve been focusing on replaying the levels and searching out the rest of the hidden items, some of which I suspect only become visable when the mask of detection is used. Hunting the different runes and fighting for the points to buy the power ups nicley reinforces the basic game-play.

Sorta trailed off there, going back to the comparison of the two games, you can play online with MPH, and offline to do single card play where you and three friends with a DS can play off your one copy, so in that sense MPH has a definite jump on this game’s multi-player since in BH you each must have your own copy and be in the same room as there is no online play. That said my brother is a pretty serious gamer, by that I means he’s constantly buying new games and trading in his older titles and has played at least half the FPS games on the market. He was also my test subject for the multi-player mode which I still haven’t tested as much as I’d like. He actually prefers this game’s multi-player over MPH, and I admit MPH can seem unbalanced at times since each selectable character has his own attributes and a morph mode with some being a bit too powerful, while in BH except for differences in shape and color, the Piraka bosses you play as are exactly the same, leaving it strictly up to your knowledge of FPS games to defeat your opponent(s) during multi-player. My brother went on to say (not an exact quote) that it felt like what MPH should have been. Hardcore FPS fans can enjoy both games while picky ones might want to go for just MPH which of the two has a few better control tweaks and the online multi-player support. Ill admit yes I am a metroid fan but for story mode between the two games I’d rather play BH because after being delayed for more than a year MPH’s story mode does not live up to it’s name and didn’t translate into a hand-held FPS very well. But then again maybe it’s just not a good idea to compare these two games because for one they appeal to two different audiences and each have their good points, but anyone who’s played both games will have the tendency to compare them.

For now my standing on the game is that it’s a worthwhile title for both fans of BIONICLE® and fans of FPS games. The story is lacking but the fun isn’t. It’s not exaclty a must have title, it lacks some features and control tweaks (Ill add the controls are easier by far to work with than the console versions and reminiscent of Halo), but is is a good game and not too long, not too challenging, and the depth of it varies depending on how much you want to put into it.