My only exposure to this fantasy universe of Lego has been the occasional commercial, and I think my six year old son once rented one of the movies. Sitting down to play the game then, reading about all to the Toa masks available, and the evil Piraka I would soon be battling was as alien to me as my wife’s bathroom cabinet.

Apparently the land in which the Bionicles (or is it simply Bionicle, like moose or deer?) inhabit is divided between the good (Toa) and bad (Piraka). The objects of their battles are masks which grant their wearer different elemental powers. Thrust into this fight, you’ll shoot your way through six different locations with their own respective levels. Much like the Metroid series, the different masks you acquire throughout the game will have you revisiting earlier level to gain access to areas which the newly added powers grant.

The game offers two control schemes which are both solid and you’ll defer to either based on personal preference. I ultimately went with the more traditional control scheme, because it only took a few minutes of using the touch screen to aim before my hands started to cramp. This is only because the smaller DS Lite and my large hands aren’t exactly a match made in heaven.

Once you pick a control scheme you’re dropped into the 3D worlds that are a mix of Quake inspired level design and, well, Lego. Much like another Lego inspired series, you’ll find Lego pieces scattered around which you can piece together to build stairs, ramps or various other structures allowing you access to secrets or shortcuts through levels. Lego pieces also serve as health and ammo pickups. Fighting your way through the game you’ll start to get upgrades to your Toa masks that can be combined to add various moves or guns to your repertoire. Toa powered guns have limited ammo, but finding additional rounds requires little effort in either searching the surroundings or simply destroying enemies. This gives you the pleasure of getting to use the more powerful weapons without feeling like you need to save them for the boss fights at the end of every area.

The graphics are pretty darn good for the little handheld that could. One of the pitfalls many developers seem to fall into is creating 3D landscapes with a color palette that end up camouflaging the architecture and its inhabitants into one muddled mess. Thankfully, Heroes offers crisp models with enough detail and definition to keep everything in eye pleasing contrast. The other necessity for any competent FPS is a smooth frame rate, and once again Heroes doesn’t fail.

Lego Prime Hunters?
Ultimately though, I found myself getting bored of the game after only a few hours of playing. As a single player game, there isn’t enough diversity in the mechanics and levels to keep your attention. The biggest drawback of the title is its lack of Wi-Fi multiplayer. Limiting your chances for human death matches to multicart local wireless means most players will never experience what is a very good multiplayer game. As it stands, I can only recommend this game to serious FPS aficionados and fans of the Bionicle universe.

-- Weston Bass