Even if there were more restrictions on energy collection, Bionicle wouldn't likely be very challenging. The oft-invisible baddies don't put up much of a fight. Auto-aiming ensures that almost every shot finds its way to an enemy, so you can take out opponents by simply tearing around and circle-strafing. If you alternate hitting the shield button and the fire button, you can make it through even the boss battles without breaking a sweat, regardless as to whether or not you can see your adversaries. A few puzzles that involve opening doors and activating machinery help to spice things up, and you can even build some Lego-like creatures at certain points. However, all such conundrums can be easily solved by freeing captive Matorans. Regions are so small that it's difficult to miss these peeping robotic hostages. Platform-jumping is the only serious challenge and that's only because of the horrific camera work.
All this makes it a breeze to tear through everything in a single sitting. Some levels--most notably the second one where you just snowboard down a mountain--can be zipped through in under five minutes. It's actually possible to save Mata Nui in less time than it takes to watch the Bionicle movie. And when you're done, you're done, as there is no multiplayer mode.
Getting that far can be something of a struggle, though. Every time we came to the end of the first level while playing on a Pentium 4 equipped with a Radeon 9800 Pro video card, the game crashed hard, thus resetting the machine. This happened whether the game was saved at this point or not. Tinkering with the video drivers (we tried ATI Catalyst versions 3.7 though 3.9) and adjusting various settings had no effect. Only shifting to an AMD Athlon XP system with a GeForce III Ti 500 and the latest Nvidia drivers allowed us to get past this bug. We were able to continue playing on the Radeon machine after moving a save file. Since recent ATI drivers for the Radeon family have been a little shy of stable, it's hard to blame Argonaut for this. But still, Radeon owners beware.
Befitting its status as a quickie console port, Bionicle isn't much of a looker, either. Screen resolution maxes out at a grainy 1024x768, and the overall sharpness is equivalent to what you see on PlayStation 2 games, which isn't surprising when you consider that the game was likely designed for that platform. Regions do have a fair bit of character, though mostly because they encompass extremes suited to the different elements. Colors are bright, particularly in the vivid red volcanic and the bright white and blue ice levels. Robot animations are also excellent. All of the Toa scamper about with a mechanical lurch that seems authentic to anyone who's watched enough sci-fi movies to know that's how robots move.
Audio consists of flat special effects and an old-school musical score that evokes memories of console systems like the NES. These bleepy-bloopy tunes are past their best-before date, though they still hold a certain nostalgic charm. There isn't a lot in the way of voice acting, aside from the occasional "Oof!" when a Toa gets hit by an enemy. What is there seems to have been provided by enthusiastic youngsters and beret-wearing adults with a taste for histrionics, so much of the dialogue is read in a style similar to afternoon cartoons like Pokemon. It's amusing and annoying in turn.
When it comes right down to it, Bionicle is more marketing ploy than a game. It's as blatant as a billboard. Argonaut has done a great job for Lego in getting the franchise name front and center, but that's about it. Beyond promoting brand recognition in advance of the busy holiday shopping season, there really aren't any good reasons for this title to exist. And when you consider the many design flaws and the Radeon bug, there are even fewer reasons for you to buy it.
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