Bionicle The Game (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.7 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Brett Todd
• Reviewed on: 12/16/2003
• Released on: 10/31/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Bionicle The Game (PC) Review

One of the contenders for the title of hottest toy franchise this holiday season is Lego's Bionicle. The line of action figures is reminiscent of Micronauts and Transformers, so it's a certainty that the colorful little robots will end up under a lot of Christmas trees. Lego and Disney have even teamed up to offer Bionicle: Mask of Light, a straight-to-video animated film that garnered good reviews when it was released in September.

The same kind words can't be offered up for Bionicle the game. Argonaut, a British developer that made its biggest splash in the industry with Starfox for the Super Nintendo way back in 1993, has cranked out a derivative action adventure that's nothing more than an interactive advertisement. All the wonder of the Bionicle universe has been bled dry by a vapid design, an atrocious camera system, and one noteworthy bug. Though the game has obviously been designed for kids, it's hard to imagine even tykes with the briefest attention spans--and the biggest Bioncle figure collections--staying interested enough to finish it. This is really saying something when you consider that the game is also incredibly short.

For a game and toy franchise aimed at children, the storyline is remarkably convoluted. Lego has concocted a detailed mythology complete with prophecies, evil forces, heroes with the power of demigods, and just about everything else that Joseph Campbell ever studied or wrote about. The setting is the island of Mata Nui, a paradise where robots of the Matoran tribe live under the protection of six colorful guardians--Tahu, Kopaka, Pohatu, Onua, Lewa, and Gali Nuva--collectively named the Toa. All of their tropical tranquility is shattered by the arrival of the evil spirit Makuta, who has summoned a swarm of wasplike robots called the Bohrok to devour everything on the island. These creatures are aided by their smarter bug brethren Bohrok-Kal, in addition to corrupted Rahi island creatures, like robotic fish and bulls.

Kids presumably understand this stuff better than grown-ups, who are apt to throw their hands up in frustration over all of the Polynesian names. Basically, though, Bionicle is about six good robots fighting bad ones in a slightly surreal take on Hawaii. Gameplay mirrors the simplicity of the story and setting. You may not have ever played a third-person action adventure with robots named after words in Don Ho songs, but this style of game is as familiar as dirt.

The only real difference between Bionicle and its thousands of predecessors is the encyclopedic narrative and game mechanics based on the elements. All six of the Toa power their weapon blasts (which, oddly enough, come from bladed weapons like swords and axes that cannot be used in melee combat) by drawing light elemental energy from the island surroundings and dark elemental energy from foes (stamina is restored by the more traditional way of collecting power-ups). Each Toa is also linked to the elements of fire, ice, water, stone, earth, and air. Tahu, for instance, is the Toa of Fire, and he wields a fiery sword, of course. Gali is the Toa of Water and is good at holding her breath and swimming like Mark Spitz. Kopaka is the Toa of Ice, and he is skilled at snowboarding his way down mountains. And so on, and so forth. You guide each character--in sequence--in appropriate areas. So Tahu is your man in the volcanic region of Ta-Wahi, Gali in the pools of Ga-Wahi, and so forth.

While these traits do set the game apart from everything else on the shelf, they don't move play beyond action adventure norms. From a behind-the-shoulders perspective, you run around blasting enemies, jumping across chasms, and collecting power-ups. Even something this simple isn't well handled. The camera is obsessed with showing your robotic mug from the front, thus leaving you to fight a lot of offscreen enemies and having you jump to platforms that you can't see. You can rotate the camera with the keyboard or right analog stick on a gamepad, though battles are so fast-paced that the function isn't very useful. The same goes for jumping, as a lot of platforms in the game appear and disappear. Just when you've moved the camera into the right position to attempt a jump, the platform vanishes, disappears beneath lava, etc. On those occasions when you're doing something special, like snowboarding or swimming, the camera wheels about in a way that's almost calculated to induce motion sickness, especially during certain boss battles when enemies whirl around you in a circle.

This not only makes you feel like you're not in control of the game, but it almost eliminates the somewhat nifty ability to collect dark elemental energy. Since these blasts come from unseen foes, it can be very difficult to move your shield into a position to repel and then gather the energy for your own uses. Not that this is much of a problem. You don't really need to harvest energy like this, since you can suck it out of the air by pressing a button while standing still. This isn't much help in combat, of course, although areas where the fiercest fighting takes place often have at least one convenient alcove you can duck into for restoring your juice.

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