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Favourite Bionicle Video Games  

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Yes, we all know your favourite Bionicle game was MNOG. No, I'm not here to talk about the online games. Actually, not really the console ones either (though it's safe to discuss in this topic for sure). I want to talk about something people tend to look over. Yes, I'm talking about the handheld games.

 

Man, it's crazy. The only handheld Bionicle game I owned back in the day was the Bionicle The Game GBA version (which is dreadful, BTW). But games like Heroes on the DS and Maze of Shadows really made me want to check out what those were all about. With Bionicle returning, I had an overwhelming urge to fulfill that old desire. So I... er... obtained the games through means I will not disclose and I demoed them out and WOW. I was missing out. 

 

And I'm sure a lot of you did too. I mean honestly - how many people played the GBA version Heroes over the console versions? The sad thing is, some of these games were real gems.

 

Some of my thoughts on what I demoed (and hopefully a starting point for discussion):

 

Tales of the Tohunga: Cute game. Nice sprites and definitely really cool to experience a part of the story that is only available through this source of media. Controls are clunky and it can get very frustrating. Not the ideal Bionicle handheld experience... but it does have a kind of magic to it. Like you know, the rest of 2001 did.

 

Matoran Adventures: Who actually played this? It's a decent platformer with the player switching between Matoran and Turaga. There's fun moments to be had but I can see it getting stale really fast. Regardless, playing this again brought me back to the days of 2D platformers on GBA and the nostalgia was almost overwhelming. There was this Donald Duck game that was difficult as heck and I still have nightmares about it. Not the best memory actually...

 

Bionicle: The Game (GBA): This game is absolutely awful, garbage controls, garbage level design, garbage everything. I grabbed it hoping that I could actually progress now that I'm older and more knowledgeable about game design but nope. This game still REALLY REALLY sucks. Music is good at least.

 

Maze of Shadows: To be honest, I really think I could get into this game. The turn-based RPG style is a nice change of pace from the other action-packed Bionicle games and there is a good bit of strategy involved from what I see. The sprites are awesome and it just feels good to play. And it's the only piece of Bionicle media that is based off of a book that doesn't tell the main plotline. How awesome is that?

 

Bionicle Heroes (GBA): Yo I love Bionicle Heroes on console. How could a handheld version be better, right? Wrong, this game is AMAZING. I can't even express how good it is. It's tight, action packed and just intense. Gameplay feels great and smooth and there is always incentive to keep playing. I almost couldn't put this down-er, shut it down for lack of better term. It's that good. And it's unfortunate, cause I feel like people really under-looked this one, like I did. 

 

Bionicle Heroes (DS): First (and only) LEGO FPS game (and only one to be rated T). Looks really good. Read great reviews about it and always told myself that I'd play it but it never really worked out. I might have to pick this one up, since 3DS can play DS games and a game that requires the touch screen to aim isn't going to work on a laptop. The graphics were nice though.

 

Anyway, hope some people can give their thoughts on these hidden gems (minus Bionicle the Game) of the Bionicle media. 

 

And man, I really hope they make another Bionicle video game when it returns. TT Games, please do it. PLEAAAAAASE (and put it on Vita too)

 

-NotS

Edited by Nidhiki of the Shadows

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I've never played Bionicle: The Game or Bionicle Heroes for GBA, nor have I played Maze of Shadows, regrettably. Of the ones I did play Matoran Adventures was the easiest and the most polished (with very little story content but crisp graphics and arcade-quality gameplay), Tales of the Tohunga/Quest for the Toa was the most interesting (being the only one of the ones I've played which told a canon story covered only by the game itself, making it worth playing despite muddy graphics and difficult controls), and Bionicle Heroes for DS... well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and its low difficulty level makes it maybe the only FPS I've ever been any good at, but otherwise it was nothing exceptional.

Formerly Lyichir: Rachira of Influence

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I haven't tried the handheld versions of BIONICLE Heroes, but I'm very familiar with the rest of the GBA games as I have a rather specific interest in old LEGO video games.

 

Tales of the Tohunga (which, by the way, is officially just titled LEGO BIONICLE. Its working title was Tales of the Tohunga, but then they decided to merge the game with the Legend of Mata Nui, marketing them as different versions of the same game with a more generic title. Quest for the Toa is just the header to the description of the game on the back of the box, for some reason everyone decided it was actually the game's name) is fun. What's really interesting to me about it is the rare window it offers into the bestiary that was created for BIONICLE in 2001. There are a lot of really unique Rahi designs in the game, and even more that were removed from the game before release. The graphics are also really nice-looking, even though they are, as Lyichir said, rather muddy.

 

Matoran Adventures, on the other hand, I've never really been a fan of, even as a kid. I think it boils down to taste more than anything, I've never been fond of 2d platformers. It also really bothered me as a kid that the final boss was Cahdok and Gahdok, because NO THE TOA DEFEATED THE BAHRAG GOSH DARN IT, but since then I've realized it isn't entirely fair to expect canon-adherence from a video game. Also, the Galidor GBA game (yes, I've played it, don't hurt me) is basically a much more interesting and better-executed version of Matoran Adventures, rendering it sort of obsolete to me.

 

I only recently got the handheld version of BIONICLE: The Game. It is indeed really awful. At the same time, I honestly find it more entertaining than Matoran Adventures. I can't really figure out why, as looking at things element-by-element I should vastly prefer Matoran Adventures. But there's something about BTG that makes it sort of addictive, once you get past the initial frustration with how completely terrible it is.

 

And Maze of Shadows is definitely great. It takes a lot of strategy and dedication to get through, and has a lot of creative and unique stuff going on conceptually. I also love how it draws on the villains 2001-03 (as well as combination models!) to use as enemies, building a rather large and varied set of opponents to keep things consistently interesting.

Edited by Pereki

believe victims. its actually not that hard, and youd look kind of bad if you were to, say, side with an abuser because theyre your friend

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Tales of the Tohunga was tons of fun. I would have listed Bionicle: The game, but I have bad memories of trying for hours each day to beat the Bohrok in the Tahu level. I didn't play it again until 2-3 years ago, and I got stuck at Onua. Maybe I should play again... Bionicle Heroes, on the other was awesome. Hero Mode is insanely OP,  though.

I HATE SCORPIOS


 


~Pohatu Master of Stone, 2015

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The only ones that I've really played are... Matoran Adventures (that's the side-scroller one, right?), which I didn't really like, since a lot of places in it were just evil, and Tales of the Tohunga (I think - that's the first one, right?). I haven't played too much of it, but I mostly enjoyed what I did play.

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I've always found it odd that so few major video games were made for Bionicle. The story/universe seems ideal for it: characters who don't die easily, many powers and items, varied and untamed locations, many conflicts and quests. Also interesting is that the majority of the video games that did get made were within 2001-03. There were just two for 05-06, and the other years all went without.

 

Tales of the Tohunga/Quest for the Toa was arguably the best since it was the only one to tell a canon (if slightly unnecessary) story that also leads into the MNOLG (though I doubt many fans made that connection at the time). I think Matoran Adventures would've benefited from a canonical approach - rather than the pretty ludicrous notion of one Matoran taking on the Bahrag, keep the action entirely about the Matoran holding off the Bohrok across the island, maybe with the Bohrok combiner as the last boss. 

 

The Game was simply a disaster due to nearly half the game being cut to rush it to release, possibly related to the fact that it tried to cover three years all at once. Heroes was a bit more polished in terms of structure and gameplay but its lack of canon content made it a bit pointless and irrelevant.

 

Are any of these old games downloadable anywhere now?

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Bionicle heroes is good on the GBA, you say? i'll have to check that out.

 

Anyway, Bionicle: the game for the GBA is hard, hard, hard. You couldn't beat that thing even if you had the strategy guide sitting right next to you(there was no strategy guide).

 

Bionicle heroes on the home console, however, is a masterpiece. It takes a while to beat, but the game itself is amazing. In the realm of 3rd person shooters, you usually get bloody, hack & slash close combat, insane plotlines, and bad language like there's no tomorrow. But Bionicle heroes for the home console is too good to be true, with no gore-filled scenes, a reasonable plot line even non-Bionicle enthusiasts can figure out very quickly. It has to be the best Bionicle game ever made, and in my opinion, even beating MNOLG.

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I haven't tried the handheld versions of BIONICLE Heroes, but I'm very familiar with the rest of the GBA games as I have a rather specific interest in old LEGO video games.

 

Tales of the Tohunga (which, by the way, is officially just titled LEGO BIONICLE. Its working title was Tales of the Tohunga, but then they decided to merge the game with the Legend of Mata Nui, marketing them as different versions of the same game with a more generic title. Quest for the Toa is just the header to the description of the game on the back of the box, for some reason everyone decided it was actually the game's name) is fun. What's really interesting to me about it is the rare window it offers into the bestiary that was created for BIONICLE in 2001. There are a lot of really unique Rahi designs in the game, and even more that were removed from the game before release. The graphics are also really nice-looking, even though they are, as Lyichir said, rather muddy.

Yeah, when I started playing the game, the first thing I noticed was all of the awesome new Rahi models incorporated in the game. Also I refer to it as Tales of the Tohunga to avoid confusion. :P

 

And yeah, I echo your thoughts about Maze of Shadows - Loved that they used Rahi models and didn't really make anything up. I also saw Makuta Nui stand-in for an Ash Bear, that was pretty cool IMO.

 

 

Are any of these old games downloadable anywhere now?

That's how I got them. I can't give you a link, but a quick google search for emulators will lead you there for sure.

 

-NotS

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I haven't played the console games, but Heroes from what I've seen is such a more action-packed game game with tons of awesome bosses.

 

I've played all of the GBA games and MoS definately stands out as an awesome RPG. For a licensed game based off of a toy line, this game has some fun, original and fleshed-out mechanics.

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I voted for Bionicle: The Game in both categories, because it's/they're the only one/ones I've played much of. But reading through the comments section, I'm actually kind of glad to find out the the handheld version is just badly designed. I always thought the reason I couldn't get very far was entirely my own lack of skill. :P

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I haven't played the console games, but Heroes from what I've seen is such a more action-packed game game with tons of awesome bosses.

 

I've played all of the GBA games and MoS definately stands out as an awesome RPG. For a licensed game based off of a toy line, this game has some fun, original and fleshed-out mechanics.

Heroes is indeed very fun. And the environments are just beautiful. The graphical quality in that game is superb. And yeah, most of the bosses rely on the same repetitive pattern but they are fun. 

 

Excited to hear that about MoS. Definitely going to give it a better look. 

 

I voted for Bionicle: The Game in both categories, because it's/they're the only one/ones I've played much of. But reading through the comments section, I'm actually kind of glad to find out the the handheld version is just badly designed. I always thought the reason I couldn't get very far was entirely my own lack of skill. :P

Yeah I thought I was just bad at video games, but the GBA Bionicle The Game is actually just impossible. It shouldn't have to take skill - it's just the game is very poorly designed and makes simple tasks way harder than they need to be.

 

-NotS

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I've played both the console games. I preferred Heroes. BTG was fun but has really clunky gameplay and controls. The music was marvelous, though. As for Heroes, its music and gameplay were great (except for OP hero mode, which was way too easy to get). I've played it endlessly and continue to play it to this day.

 

I decided to emulate the handheld games, starting with Maze of Shadows (I downloaded GBA and DS heroes but they're queued for when I finish MoS) and I'm really enjoying it. The battle mechanics are very fun, the music is outstanding and the fact it's (semi)canon makes it all the better.

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I've played both the console games. I preferred Heroes. BTG was fun but has really clunky gameplay and controls. The music was marvelous, though. As for Heroes, its music and gameplay were great (except for OP hero mode, which was way too easy to get). I've played it endlessly and continue to play it to this day.

 

I decided to emulate the handheld games, starting with Maze of Shadows (I downloaded GBA and DS heroes but they're queued for when I finish MoS) and I'm really enjoying it. The battle mechanics are very fun, the music is outstanding and the fact it's (semi)canon makes it all the better.

Yeah I actually recently replayed the original Bionicle Game after quite a few years. I had good memories of it. But my friend and I just destroyed it. We beat it in less than 2 hours...

 

-NotS

Edited by Nidhiki of the Shadows

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I actually liked Heroes on PC, although it could've used a story, and made it canon. Like all those Rahi and Nektann drones in place of Vahki, Bohrok and Dark Hunters.

I thought it was especially fun to fight past enemies IMO. Really brought everything together.

 

Though yes, it really could have benefited from an actual story. If TT made a Bionicle game now, then it would definitely have a story with full voice-acting, and the graphics would be phenomenal, which is an exciting prospect.

 

-NotS

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Bionicle Heroes was my favorite Bionicle game on the consoles. Even though it lacked a lot of content other Tt Lego games had I thought it was fantastic. The art style, music, and, gameplay were great. I'm really hoping Bionicle gets an even better treatment for a full blown console game again.

 

As for Handheld, Tales of the Tohunga is the best, but at second place is also the Bionicle Heroes GBA version. The arcade style shooter with a just as gamey soundtrack that played was fantastic. The masks that allowed you to play as the Mata, Nuva, and Inika was great. The extras gave the game some replayablity as well.

Maze of Shadows is my third place. Cutscene style and simple RPG mechanics during battle was fun.

 

TAK


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Neither console game were very good, but I'd take BIONICLE: The Game over BIONICLE Heroes any day. It at least wasn't just the same level copy-pasted 24 times.

 

I haven't played any of the handheld games for any substantial amount of time, so I can't really comment on them.

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1. I've played both Bionicle: The Game and Bionicle Heroes on my Gamecube, and I will say that I enjoyed the latter a lot more. Then again, I haven't touched Bionicle: The Game in years. Maybe I should replay it sometime...

 

2. As for handhelds, I've only played Matoran Adventures, Heroes for the GBA, and Maze of Shadows. I don't remember the first one. I should probably replay that one as well. I found GBA Heroes to be an enjoyable side-scrolling shooter. But Maze of Shadows is overall my favorite. While the levels did feel a little bland, I still enjoyed playing the game. The Toa Metru each felt like their own characters, and all of them had their uses in and out of battles. Also, Maze of Shadows was one of my favorite Bionicle books, so I thought that it was cool to play the video game version of it.

Everyone is one choice away from being the bad guy in another person's story.


 


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It's been so long since I played either of them, so I cannot give a completely fair judgement of the games, but Bionicle The Game has more nostalgic value for me than Bionicle Heroes, so I'd go with that as my choice even though I believe that Bionicle Heroes is the better game. As for the handheld games I'd go with Maze of Shadows since that is the only one I've actually played of them. It was a long time since I played that one too, but I remember that I thought it was really good at the time.

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I've never played any BIONICLE video games, other than BIONICLE Heroes on the Wii years ago, which I really got into at the time but looking back, the control scheme seems really stupid and counter-intuitive.

 

But, now that BIONICLE is coming back, I've rediscovered my obsession, and I now plan to read the entire story from beginning to end, starting with Quest for the Toa. I just bought it yesterday, and it's coming in the mail on Thursday. I'll also play Maze of Shadows once I get to that point in the story. But I have resolved to get all the games, canon or not, except for The Game, since everybody seems to hate it. I'll get Heroes for the Xbox 360 this time.

 

A while back I started a topic asking if the two canon games, Quest for the Toa and Maze of Shadows, were any good. I've read pretty mediocre to bad reviews of Quest for the Toa online, but in the aforementioned topic, everyone seems to love it. (Many of the reviewers seemed to be put off by the lack of traditional LEGO elements.) Matoran Adventures also seems to have gotten pretty poor reviews online. The Game everyone seems to hate, as I said before. Maze of Shadows has gotten pretty great reviews online, but many people on that topic seemed not to have played it. The console version of Heroes got okay reviews, but the DS version was actually received much better. I've seen it compared favorably to Metroid Prime Hunters. The GBA version was only reviewed professionally twice, but both were pretty positive. 

I miss BIONICLE.
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  • 2 weeks later...

^ It's true that most of the games weren't very well-received, and probably for good reason. They are very bare-boned video games. But as Bionicle fans we can see a little more in them, which is probably why we can actually enjoy playing through em. I hope come this new era of Bionicle, we will get a new video game with the depth it deserves.

 

-NotS

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I can say with confidence that I've played all of these, except for the DS version of Heroes. Here's my personal ranking of them:

1: Maze of Shadows. I'm not sure if I ever finished this one, I remember getting stuck once or twice in the lava area... But a pretty solid game by itself, very nice as a Bionicle game.
2: Tales of the Tohunga. Year 1 is my favourite, though this game is often troubled by awkward mechanics (i'm looking at you, Po-Wahi). I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend hours playing snowball sling online, though.

3: Bionicle Heroes (GBA). A fun game to just pick up and play, has a lot of rewards for playing it longer, as expected from a Tt LEGO game.

4: Bionicle Heroes (Consoles). I played it on the Wii so maybe those specific controls were lacking, but I did manage to complete the game and a majority of the medals. Playing it for more than an hour at a time left me with headaches though, so unfortunately it's below its mobile counterpart.

5: Matoran Adventures. For an arcade sidescrolling platformer, it's pretty well designed if my memories serve correct. Lots of collectibles, clear objectives, moderately nice controls... I don't think I ever got past the second boss though.

6: Bionicle: The Game (Consoles). While it may butcher the plot, it at least has nice environments that do feel BIONICLE-y. And it could be worse...

7: Bionicle: The Game (GBC). I've never beat a single level of this game. The game is hard solely because it was badly designed. Isometric platforming with absolutely no depth perception and little to no direction towards your objectives. Also, I chuckle every time I see that MNOG-style Takua image, ripped straight from the bohrok animations.

 

Sidenote: had The Legend of Mata Nui been released, it'd probably be above Tales of the Tohunga. From what has been shown, the controls seem to also suffer from awkward mechanics (no movement control while in the air, no slower movement speed for easier platforming, keeping momentum after using the grapple claw, etc) but otherwise a very enjoyable experience.

~Bionicle Online Games Guru~
Current Bionicle Sets: 232/250
2001: 23/24 2002: 20/21 2003: 22/22 2004: 22/22 2005: 23/23
2006: 16/22 2007: 22/22 2008: 25/27 2009: 26/26 2010: 4/6
2015: 18/18 2016: 11/17

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Bionicle: The Game

It was a nice second venture into the digital venture, although a lot of the game was cut which was very disappointing. It would have been better with more freeplay.

 

Bionicle Heroes

I only played the demo of this, but while the mechanics were nice, i hated the over-the-right-shoulder-perspective which gave me headache, so i never played it again.

 

Tales of the Tohunga

I really enjoyed Tales of Tohunga because of the sprites and everything. And it was the first game venture, so it hold a special place in my heart.

 

Matoran Adventures

I played this a couple of times, but it was just an awful game with horrible sprites.

 

Maze of Shadows

A fantastic game, i loved the design and everything, although some of the parts could be better. Still it is clearly the best handheld game.

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I've always found it odd that so few major video games were made for Bionicle. The story/universe seems ideal for it: characters who don't die easily, many powers and items, varied and untamed locations, many conflicts and quests. Also interesting is that the majority of the video games that did get made were within 2001-03. There were just two for 05-06, and the other years all went without.

 

Tales of the Tohunga/Quest for the Toa was arguably the best since it was the only one to tell a canon (if slightly unnecessary) story that also leads into the MNOLG (though I doubt many fans made that connection at the time). I think Matoran Adventures would've benefited from a canonical approach - rather than the pretty ludicrous notion of one Matoran taking on the Bahrag, keep the action entirely about the Matoran holding off the Bohrok across the island, maybe with the Bohrok combiner as the last boss. 

 

The Game was simply a disaster due to nearly half the game being cut to rush it to release, possibly related to the fact that it tried to cover three years all at once. Heroes was a bit more polished in terms of structure and gameplay but its lack of canon content made it a bit pointless and irrelevant.

 

Are any of these old games downloadable anywhere now?

You can get most of the games except The Game and Heroes as a rom, but you need an emulator. Heroes could use an emulator, but I would recommend the DS version with a DS emulator, since it is too darn difficult to get a wii/gamecube emulator. The emulators I would recommend are VirtualBoy Advance for GBA and DeSmuMe for DS.

I HATE SCORPIOS


 


~Pohatu Master of Stone, 2015

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The PC version of what is Bionicle: The Game is on itself a bughive and is overall quite glitchy. But the nostalgia, the variety of the gameplay and the best part of the storyline (2001-2003) gave my hunger for a decent Bionicle game a still. It was way superior to Bionicle: Heroes. Which was also a poor extra to our beloved franchise. The repetitive gameplay of a failed third-person shooter and a boring storyline (yes, I'm talking to you 2006) was a disappointment on itself. I would had prefered the two cancelled games over this disk-o-filth. So that being said...

 

Tales of the Tohunga was a delighting experience. Interesting backstory and time setting. It's worth your time and well earned salary if you find it for small cash.

 

The others I did not play so I can not discuss those.

 

I would like to see a new installment for my dusty PSVita. Like they did with the Lego Chima thing. System sales would also be climbing as the entire BZP-Community will be rushing the stores for buying this almost forgotten console.

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I would tend to agree with the general consensus that Tales of the Tohunga is the best handheld title.  It's more adventurey than actiony, but it has a good deal of both.  I think that collision errors are why people tend to be so hard on it, but if you look at BIONICLE as "wonder fiction," this gives you the most interesting experience for your time.  It's also the game engine they developed for a lot of GBA titles -- they went on to create a version of "The Hobbit" for GBA that was pretty okay too.

 

The only other game (at the time) was Matoran Adventures, and it's hard to imagine something more low budget than that.  Just awful.

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The PC version of what is Bionicle: The Game is on itself a bughive and is overall quite glitchy. But the nostalgia, the variety of the gameplay and the best part of the storyline (2001-2003) gave my hunger for a decent Bionicle game a still. It was way superior to Bionicle: Heroes. Which was also a poor extra to our beloved franchise. The repetitive gameplay of a failed third-person shooter and a boring storyline (yes, I'm talking to you 2006) was a disappointment on itself. I would had prefered the two cancelled games over this disk-o-filth. So that being said...

 

I'd say 2006 had a good storyline - the problem was it didn't really feature in the game at all beyond the setting and characters used.

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