Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#118: Bionicle Heroes

Rating: E10+

Players: 1

Price Range: ~$14 USD

A game based on the Lego toy line in the title.

I remember playing with Bionicle toys once upon a time as a child, and even got this game on the Xbox 360.

However, the GameCube version is not only inferior in terms of graphics, effects, and performance, but the game itself is not good.

As an experience, there is nothing wrong with it. It is just too repetitive for my liking.

Being a linear third-person shooter in the style of the other Lego games, you play as the elemental heroes, the Toa, of Mata Nui, with each having their own weapons. This sounds cool on paper, but given the fact that the water and fire Toas have virtually the same gameplay minus special abilities, and the technology, ice, and earth ones being very slow in terms of movement and attack, and the life one just being the oddball out with a spread gun, they all feel the same at the end of the day. The only reason why you would choose one over the other would either be because you need them to progress, as they each have their own abilities (such as the water one can go in water the game says you need to progress through and scaling on very specific walls with the technology one), or if you die as one, you need to regain their mask lying around in the game's levels.

This game has a currency system of the Lego games in which you can buy upgrades to the characters' damage and even other abilities that are more so required to obtain the MiniKit-like collectables in the game's levels, but it feels like none of it even matters given that the game is so repetitive, it feels as boring as sin.

You fight pretty much the same enemies from stage to stage, with even reskinned bosses across the game's worlds, which is just lazy if you ask me.

Another thing that I dislike about this game is this "Hero Mode" mechanic, in which obtaining enough currency will allow you to become gold and invincible.

While this might sound cool, it isn't.

Why?

Because getting this form is mandatory to progress in the game's levels, as you need it to move golden objects to form something to help, like a bridge or something.

It not only feels inconsequential and mind-numbing doing this over and over again in the game's stages, as you lose Hero Mode once you move that said object that you need to get past, but it is also a missed opportunity while also not making any sense for any reason outside of a game mechanic.

And so, you arrive at a blockade that the game says needs Hero Mode You're just standing there and realize that you have to kill these obnoxious henchmen to do anything.

I do not like games like this. Nope. Not at all.

The developers should have it not be needed to complete the levels but should've instead made it temporary. This would encourage the player to defeat enemies and obtain Lego pieces, which would not only help them in organically picking up currency for upgrades, but also adds strategy as to what enemies to take down, or to pick money up as to not waste the Hero Mode and save it for the boss encounters (you also need Hero Mode to even fight some bosses, which is awful).

But nope, we don't have that.

Also, two-player co-op, a defining feature of the Lego games, especially since the gameplay of Bionicle Heroes is similar to those, was somewhat of a missed opportunity.

Overall, not offensive in any stretch of the imagination, but to me, this game offers little in terms of enjoyability.