Is Tales of the Tohunga a Good Game?

[Banana Gunz]

I personally have never played it but I was wondering if anyone thought it was good. What is the game-play like?

[Lielac]

If you mean the game now called BIONICLE: Quest for the Toa, I've played it on an emulator a few times. It's fun! It's of questionable canonicity, but fun, and gives a bit of explanation to how the Toa Mata were summoned to the island of Mata Nui and just why Takua woke up with amnesia. I mean, get flung a couple hundred kilometers, a human would be impossibly lucky to only get an amnesia-inducing bump to the head. Matoran are ludicrously sturdy.

[Zidonaro]

Yes, it's a good game. And a canon one. You basically play as Takua in a isometric view through the whole Island trying to find the turaga and you can throw fruits at everyone .

Edited September 13, 2014 by HoloTheWise

[Lielac]

Yes, it's a good game. And a Canon one. You basically play as Takua in a sometric view through the whole Island trying to find the turaga and throwing fruits at everyone .

Throwing fruit, rescuing the Turaga, finding their Badges of Office and collecting the Toa stones... wacky fun!

[Banana Gunz]

Huh. I looked up a review on IGN and it called it bad. I'd rather go with your opinions though, because fans are a lot more willing to like something for the fact it already interests them (though some are just way too picky).

[Zidonaro]

Friend, don't ever trust these game review sites.

[Pranciblad]

It's short but satisfying. A little easy, but it's for kids so its to be expected. Physics can be a bit wonky, especially regarding the grappling hook, but it never becomes game breaking. Minigames are a mixed bag, but you're never required to spend that long on any of them. So, yeah. Try it.

One thing to note though: there's a good deal of optional stuff that you can easily miss if you rush through the game, so try and talk to people and search around. It shouldn't be too hard to find, and it always gives good stuff.

[Boidoh]

HA, IGN.

 

It's because they obviously don't know one peanut about BIONICLE.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Just because it's Bionicle doesn't mean it's instant videogame gold.

 

I once played it for a while... it's not awful, but you can't really give it much praise either. It's interesting as a prequel to MNOLG, and the music's pretty good, but beyond that there's not much you can say about it.

[bonesiii]

It was pretty fun in places, frustrating in others, but not much more than other adventure-games on that platform from my (admittedly limited) experience (like the older Zelda games).

[Aanchir]

CONS: Gameplay was a bit spotty. It's easy to accidentally jump into bottomless pits because the edges of cliffs and what part of your character needs to land on them for a steady footing are poorly defined. And towards the end there was an irritating "point of no return" — entering the volcano in Ta-Wahi prevents you from going back and visiting the other villages permanently, and the only way to leave is to play the lava-surfing minigame and trigger the final cutscene. Some parts of the game are also pretty darn frustrating, with enemies swarming you faster than you can fight them off. The game is not as immersive as the Mata Nui Online Game, and more action-oriented.

 

PROS: Graphically, it was pretty solid for the Game Boy Advance, even though it could be difficult to discern detail in the character and enemy sprites. The villages and the CGI stills used for the cutscenes are gorgeous. The minigames are generally very fun once you figure out the controls, and once unlocked can be replayed at will from the opening menu. The difficulty of the main game was generally pretty forgiving — dying starts you off at the beginning of a Wahi, and your health bar should be fairly substantial as long as you take care to collect all the Amana Volo spheres. The game had a good sense of humor — the guards in each and every village had their own "who's on first" routine, and you got to learn random trivia about the characters such as how incredible Matoro's singing voice is. The story tied into the official BIONICLE continuity almost flawlessly and leads directly into the events of the Mata Nui Online Game.

 

Overall, if you have a system that can play it, the time to complete it, the patience to put up with the deficits of old handheld games, and an interest in experiencing a new part of the classic BIONICLE storyline, I definitely recommend the game.

[Arzeron]

I quite enjoyed the graphics of it, and I generally found most of the game fun. There were some enemies that were really annoying to fight but at the same time I always felt overpowered when I had 3 bamboo discs. A lot of the dialogue was really cheesy but it's also endearing in a way. I'm not sure I would recommend the game to someone that was not already a fan of BIONICLE, but it is a must play if you are a fan.

[Toatapio Nuva]

Just because it's Bionicle doesn't mean it's instant videogame gold.

 

Wh - what?!

 

Anyway, I enjoyed the game very much and would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Bionicle.

[Sir Kohran]

 

Just because it's Bionicle doesn't mean it's instant videogame gold.

 

Wh - what?!

 

Bionicle doesn't have a good reputation when it comes to non-online games. The Legend of Mata Nui looks like it would've been fantastic but it got cancelled. The Game was released with whole levels missing and was a critical and commercial disappointment. Heroes wasn't quite so bad, but its lack of memorable or canon content and easy gameplay left it a bit pointless.

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

IMO it's the opposite of Bionicle Heroes.

 

Heroes: great, fun gameplay, but zero canonicity and the story was lackluster.

 

TotT: Gameplay was nothing special, but the story was almost flawlessly canon and a lot of fun.

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

I never played this game but I always wanted to. Hmmm... emulator time?

 

Seriously though, I thought it was awesome that they explained how the Toa Mata were summoned and it's the only piece of story that contains that so...

 

I think the most I ever played of it was that Huai Snowball game on the website back in 01 or 02.

 

-NotS