OK … when I was young, I went outside now and then and had a couple of other hobbies aside from ingesting multiple hours in front of the Intellivision system. Sure I played with Go Bots and Transformers, and yes I collected Star Wars and GI Joe figures … but one of my favorite activities on a rainy weekend was to dump out the umpteen thousand Legos that I had and just build whatever I could think up in my head. Over the years, I still don’t turn down the opportunity to build with my kids using the same Legos that I had when I was younger, but I’ve also noticed some really cool sets that have come out based around a number of themes including Harry Potter, Rescue Workers, and Science Fiction. One that I always found to be a little unique and interesting was the Bionicle series, and now EA has brought the story and characters from the little plastic capsules to your PS2.

For anyone who hasn’t had the chance to hear about the Bionicles, basically they are robotic style creatures that come in their own plastic capsule. The story behind the Bionicles and the PS2 console game takes place on the island of Mata Nui, which is where Bionicles reside. The island is made up of various different realms, like a volcanic region, snow, water, desert, underground, and in the air, and each region is assigned a protector (called a Toa) to watch over the peaceful island inhabitants known as the Matorans. One day, the dark and evil spirit known as Makuta returns, bent on destroying and enslaving the Matorans and the island of Mata Nui. The Toa from each of the realms must unite and journey across Mata Nui to not only rescue the Matorans and face Makuta, but also to unlock the hidden secret of the Toa Nuva in order to destroy him once and for all.

The overall gameplay to Bionicle is pretty reminiscent of a typical platformer style game. In each stage, you guide the Toa through a variety of different scenarios, many of which will have you jumping ledge by ledge over lava pits or diving into deep waters from atop a cliff to ride an undertow to the next part of the stage looking for hidden Matorans and collecting lifestones to unlock bonus items like the movie trailer and such. Each realm and the Toa is represented right from the Bionicle series, so fans of Lego’s creation will get to run through the desert as Pohatu Nuva or hunt for Rahkshi (lizard – like enemies) as Lewa Nuva, guardian of air. Each Bionicle also has their own powers and energy reserves to help them demolish attackers along the way, and some have a super power to help them soar or unleash a sonic blast as well.

One nice thing that you’ll notice about Bionicle is that EA did a good job in mixing up the mission styles so that you won’t just be cliff hanging and solving simple “unlock the door” puzzles all the time. One stage may have you rocketing down a snowy mountainside trying to destroy running Bohrok (creatures that have a need to destroy everything in their path) or outrunning a rolling boulder, or trying to control a high speed mining cart through a dangerous and collapsing mining tunnel to hit six switches and unlock the next door.

Another neat thing about the Bionicle game was the Lego based boss battles and some of the environments that they take place in. For example, one battle takes place in the volcanic region and will have you hopping from platform to platform while trying to fire beams at a giant scorpion boss, and another has you fighting a horde of Bohrok – Kai amidst a high-speed swirling water vortex while trying to stay out of firing range and stay alive. While the battles and stages are challenging enough to give you a run for your money, they are surprisingly well balanced and don’t get annoying, even for people who don’t particularly care for platformer style games or boss battles.

Really, the biggest downside to Bionicle is that the levels seemed to be a lot shorter than a lot of other platformers that are out nowadays which seemed to make the game a lot shorter too. While there are hidden areas or puzzles to solve along the way in order to collect all of the lifestones or Matorans, collecting lifestones doesn’t do much more than unlock extras. While this may be a good thing for some, it may not be enough to go back and replay an entire stage over again just to see concept art or something like that.

Graphically, Bionicle is a good console video game representation of the Lego series that you can buy in the store. People who are fans of the series will get a kick out of sitting and watching their favorite Toa’s get animated on the screen, and the whole look and feel of the characters is what you would probably expect by looking at pictures of them. The environments felt a little too linear in a lot of places compared to some other platformer titles out there, but they still looked nice and some provide hidden areas that will challenge you to find ways to get to them.

The sound in Bionicle was nicely done overall, and each character’s voiceover was done pretty well, with some decent acting and a pretty good script. The music in Bionicle was impressive to me in a lot of areas, and mixes some upbeat kinds of tunes with a tribal theme and pulled it off in a neat fashion which doesn’t get too repetitive, but can tend to just fade into the background from time to time depending on the stage.   

Overall, Bionicle is a fun platformer style game, even if you think that you are too old to play with or enjoy Legos. There is enough challenge to it to make it enjoyable, and enough of a mixture of mission objectives to not have you ledge hopping over and over and over again. For Bionicle fans, this a good title to have, and for platformer fans who may not have heard of Bionicle, it’s a good way to get into the Toa and their little island of Mata Nui … even if your stay may not be as long as you would like.  

Gameplay: 7.4

Bionicle seems like a typical platformer game, and contains a lot of elements that make other similar titles a lot of fun. EA did a good job in mixing different mission objectives together for each of the Toa so that it didn’t get too repetitive, and the controls were easy to figure out and learn. As with many other platformers, there were the usual “annoying camera” moments even though angle could be adjusted, and many of the levels seemed to be way too short and linear.

Graphics: 7.8
The Bionicles themselves were nicely done and animated, and the levels looked pretty good. The coloration was nice in many parts of the game, and there were some nifty effects added in like heat waves in the distance or giant, looming desert staircases to climb.

Sound: 7.8
The music for Bionicle was nicely done, and didn’t tend to get annoying or sound too canned. The voiceovers and scripting for the Toa and the characters and encounters that they had was pretty nicely written overall, and didn’t sound too scripted or “I’m reading off the cue cards” like some other games.

Difficulty: Medium
The levels and boss battles were done really well and most provided a challenge versus being too hard or annoying. The level size might cause a lot of platform veterans to run through the game fairly quickly though.

Concept: 8.0
While Bionicle isn’t perfect, it’s a fun game based on one of Lego’s popular creations that can be enjoyed by both younger and older gamers alike.

Overall: 7.6
Overall, I really enjoyed Bionicle … even though I haven’t really sat down with the Lego toys before (I have a 9 year old who explained all this to me and made me watch the movie to understand it a few months ago). While it may not wind up to be lots of hours of play value, it is enjoyable for both beginners and veterans to the platformer series, and fans of the Lego creation will no doubt have a good time with it.