While playing
Bionicle Heroes, I constantly felt like I was playing a more grown up version of
Lego Star Wars. The characters aren't quite as cartoony, both in appearance and demeanor, and the enemies and bosses are a bit more complicated.
In the past, Bionicle games have been fairly low rated and never gave me much enjoyment. Everything from those simple top-down or side-scrolling GBA games to the Mask of Light title just felt wanting. But when I heard Eidos handed the game over to Traveller's Tales, I felt like this game had a lot of promise, and quite frankly, Tt Games has realized that promise.
You take on the role of the Hero. A lone matoran gives you one of the Toa Inika masks and asks you to save Voya Nui from the evil Paraka. The game starts you off in a hub world similar to Dex's Diner in the first Lego Star Wars game. Here you can purchase upgrades and various unlockables with the Lego pieces you collect. This is also where you go to choose between six different Paraka locations. Each location has six or seven levels and require you to go through all of the levels before facing off against that location's big baddie.
In the levels, you will destroy everything that looks breakable for Lego pieces and collect Toa masks. Each mask has a set of powers it can perform (and a set that can be purchased in the hub). For instance, the Mask of Water lets you walk across the water, while the Mask of Earth lets you levitate objects and build Lego devices. As you take damage, your heart count decreases and whichever mask you are currently wearing when the hearts go away will be lost.
One interesting difference between Bionicle Heroes and Star Wars is the Hero Gauge. This is a lot like the Jedi Gauge from the other game, except that you will have to fill it up several times within a level to even progress. To explain, this gauge keeps track of how many Lego pieces you have collected and once filled, turns your character gold and gives him extra power. In the Lego games, this didn't give you any kind of boost, but was just one of the various goals you were trying to obtain. Now, in order to progress at certain times, you need to be gold in order to bring to life certain gold Lego creatures that will open passageways or make bridges or reveal boats. Once you call upon one of these gold Rahi, your gauge will go back down and you will have to fill it up again for the next summoning (don't worry, you don't lose your Lego pieces, you just have to collect more).
