A Franchise License Game I Like

Also on my Circuit City bender last week with the 25% off sale was Bionicle Heroes for the Xbox 360.  It got bad reviews and criticized for being repetitive.  It is repetitive, but not necessarily boring.  You see, if you are a Bionicle collector, there is nothing more amazing than controlling one in a shooter.  I mean, they're Legos.  They reconfigure.  One of your forms can build things, and all of them can destroy things.  My favorites are the plants you can blow up, grow "gear-flowers," and blow them up again.  The game has a lot of minigames and upgrades to purchase, so you can play this one for awhile.  The very first level requires you come back with your powered-up forms in order to find all of the secret cannisters (these would be Bionicle cannisters--you just have to know the franchise).

I have but one complaint of the game.  Your over-the-shoulder view of your Bionicle appears that it is super-imposed over the 3D world you're travelling through, much like the guys wisecracking the Sci-Fi in Mystery Science Theater 3000.  I'm pretty sure that is precisely how the animation is done, too.  You soon forget about this little distraction and the game flows.  I think the Metroid Prime style did it best, where you zoom in and out of FPS mode.  Bionicle Heroes is pretty good at mimicking the style of Metroid Prime, but this time your average game player will be able to beat the game.

All the while you play the levels, you earn lego pieces.  These pieces arrive at a rate of about 100,000 pieces (counting by 10's) per level.  You trade these in at the shop for minigames, powerups, hints, and special equipment.  The 50% off all items in the store is 150,000, and I recommend you buy this one early.  The highest priced item is 2.5 million, which is not out of reach, but that gets cut down to 1.25 million and pays for itself very quickly.  Minigames are in the Playground, but I haven't been granted access yet.

So in my own opinion, this is a great game for kids (and middle-aged kids) that want to live out a cyber war in the Bionicle Universe.  It's not dumbed-down, either.  The levels are pretty amazingly designed, too.  Now, if I could just forget the narration in the opening scene of the game....