14 DAY TRIAL // 
Childhood - that's the beautiful time of hero fighting, princess saving, princesses dressed up to wait for their princes. It's the time to play and save the world a million times a day by defeating the bad guys. Aside from car racing and crashes, LEGO was one of the most entertaining spare time activities; building up your hero as well as your enemies just to arrange a fight that would always end up with tiny blocks scattered all over the house. TT Games - the creators of LEGO Star Wars - are back just in time for Christmas with a dazzling 3rd person heroic adventure featuring the 2006 BIONICLE toy range from LEGO. Although children are the main target of the game, it promises to be an entertaining adventure for every wannabe hero. Meet BIONICLE Heroes.
Story The mystical island of Voya Nui has been taken over by vicious Piraka. And that is just the start of it as they have stolen the all-powerful "Mask of Life". Being in the wrong hands, the mask enslaved all the inhabitants of the island providing the dreadful rulers with huge armies of obeying Bionicle creatures. Things cannot proceed like this. The island needs a hero - that'll be your stage entry. Take control over the Toa Inika and restore the balance of the region. Make good use of the unique abilities of the six Toa and destroy the bad guys.
Concept The eternal Good versus Evil battle is on again. Six special abilities masks will turn you into powerful Toa heroes, granting you the necessary weaponry to deal with the menace of the Piraka. Make your way through jungle, desert, mountains and volcano terrain, clear the coastline and the stronghold. Face Hakann - the lava bolts firing Piraka - and Vezok - in charge of the coastline. Cross the desert in search of Reidak and attack the stronghold to defeat Avak. Challenge the two smarter evil characters: the lone jungle ruler Zaktan and the ice mountains high Thok. The road is long and enemies are everywhere, just waiting for a mistake. But for the well being of the island you have to prove you are a worthy hero.
Nuparu will give you the strength to climb walls and cliffs. Water and fire abilities will prove very useful in the harsh environment. Hahli takes care of the water walking, while Jaller teaches you the fire and lava crossing techniques (seems the secret is to run very fast). Kongu leaps over long distances and Matoro is like the hawk eye - shooting enemies from a long range. Hewkii introduces you to the ancient knowledge of constraction - assembling structures and other objects from the Bionicle elements scattered through the island.
Gameplay Thin, red eyed robots push each other around to take over my screen. Pushing, growling and self admiring, one by one, each Piraka makes a fool of himself. The thing is they already got to you by now - you're either laughing or just smiling with curiosity written all over your face; either way, you're drawn into the game. And straight into the action you go.
Meet Jaller. He's the red fire spark of the party. Go down a few steps and face the challenge - six entirely different environment regions await you (the Piraka and his according lair). You'll have to defeat all the Piraka no matter what, so it makes no difference which way you go first (well, not every path is unlocked just now anyway). You're not sure yet of what you're supposed to do and what to expect, but you open heartedly jump into the first adventure.
Spider approaching! Aaahhh! Shooting, shooting? It's finally dead. Another kill follows? and another. By now you already got used to the control (although you're free to use the gamepad, the keypad is still the easiest option). Keep an eye out for masks of all kinds. Some you can collect, others tell you that you need the specified mask to unlock the secret of the given place (even if you only need it to cross a river let's say). The island hides many things - from bonus areas to great power ups. Although each level offers a rather linear experience, you can always go back to any of the previous areas in the adventure. The fact is that you can't just find everything from the first try. You'll be able to get a hold of the main road, but some enhanced abilities will be needed to unlock certain fields. So don't worry if you failed to get all the silver and gold canisters. Just collect as many LEGO pieces as you can find and than trade them in for upgrades and hints (not that the same hints are shown in-game too).
Although you may find the need to use several well upgraded characters per level, I'd advise you to fully upgrade the armor and weapon of one character for starters so that you can quickly concentrate on the immense multitude of puzzles on the island rather than have troubles in chasing down a poor birdie robot. You'll have to visit each area again (maybe even more than once) anyhow if you want to know all its secrets.
Spread your enemies into their basic Bionical components and then steal them piece by piece (well, just walk over them). The view seems a little awkward at first as the hero is shown more to the left of the screen, but don't worry - the target is still in the middle usually. Now, if an enemy comes too close, your attention turns automatically to him. It doesn't exactly lock on to it, but it offers you the possibility to shoot him quickly. The green laser look always informs you about the most important encounters you have during the game (enemies or locked areas). Once you collect a fairly large amount of pieces you'll go gold (into the hero mode) and make a profit out of the imbued fire power and armor. The hero mode also allows the use of great golden giants that'll open your way to the next chapter (new area or the way to defeat the bosses).
There are hilarious animations all through the game, so be sure to take some laughing breaks. Despite the checkpoint autosave system, it is yet an easy game to play with not too long battles before saving and no interruptions to the gaming experience except for the moments that provide animations. Don't really worry about loosing some life. If you're completely running out of life you'll only loose the mask that you are currently wearing for the rest of the adventure (one of the four levels each Piraka ruler proposes to you) and if you're lucky you can even get it back - although it is advisable to try and keep all your Toa heroes alive.
Video Being mainly a children's game there is nothing really magnificent about the graphics, yet it looks appealing. It is all about combining realistic looking landscapes with LEGO blocks (the mechanical devices, enemies and a little bit of your hero as well). Cool looking effects were used for blasting evil. Additionally, funny cinematic moments are used to specify the goal of the given map as well as provide you with relaxing videos of the actions (and disassemble) of the villainous Piraka.
Sound The game concentrates on visual communication. You'll understand everything even without actual words. The only sounds the characters play are nothing more than growls, but don't worry about it - it's still just as fun to watch the videos. Moreover, the game needed to be an easy (in terms of learning too) relaxing pass time. Besides, you don't expect your LEGO creatures to be able to speak, do you? On the other hand, you're presented with entertaining, fast action background music. I admit, it's no masterpiece, but it does a good job accompanying you all through the island.
Multiplayer Not this time. Sorry.
Conclusion We have short range firing (I enjoyed Jaller's Flame Sword best), grenade like attacks (the most powerful weapon in the game - the Laser Drill shooting an earthburst ball that explodes few moments later creating a shockwave that can knock down entire rows of enemies) and even sniping - long range weapons (the Advanced Ice Sword). All dressed up to comply with the fabulous world of LEGO toys that inspired the Toa Inika hero. The game is above all fun and offers an extensive gaming experience that will probably keep children (and any arcade fan) busy all throughout winter.
