BIONICLE the Game and BIONICLE Heroes comparison and preference

What you think is better, BIONICLE the Game, or BIONICLE Heroes and how do two compare against other?

I personaly prefer BIONICLE the Game, but concede that some things are better about BIONICLE Heroes. To avoid typing BIONICLE over and over, I decided to omit the word from titles of games starting at this point. I describe both games in detail, including spoilers. To be clear, this is about the PC versions of both games.

To overview structure of the games, the Game has level select, where you unlock a level by beating previous one. There were supposed to be thirteen levels, but five of these were unfortunately cut. Visualy, it is quite cool, using Kini Nui as setting.

In Heroes, you have a hubworld. The game is divided into six themed worlds with branching progression, each having a level select with linear progression. Visualy, it is also quite cool, each world being hidden behind a Piraka head. I certainly appreciate uncut length and branching progression, so in this aspect, I favor Heroes.

The Game has the better gameplay of the two. It consists of mix of platforming, and combat. Platforming makes traveling the Game’s worlds interesting. You can jump and double jump. Sometimes, platforming is made more difficult.

In Tahu’s level, there are two sections with moving platforms, the second harder and involving fight against a giant Nui-Jaga.
In Onua Nuva’s level there is section where you jump over minecarts, sinking platforms, and section where you have to get through Kane-Ra that periodicaly ram into the wall. You also push blocks.
In Lewa Nuva’s level, you can fly, there are vines to swing on, you have to time your double jump, you jump on floating bubbles, ride a Gukko, and the boss is partly based around platforming.
Second half of “Takua Nuva’s” level is mainly platforming based, and will be secribed in detail in boss section.

Gali Nuva’s section is interesting, as it is partly non-linear. The level is divided into several sub-levels, accesed in linear order. Aside from the first sub-level, you can collect Matoran in any order to advance to next sub-level. You also swim, welcome change.

Some sections of the Game are autoscrollers. In Kopaka’s section, you first have to arrive to end in time, then chase a Bohrok, outrun a giant boulder, and chase another Bohrok. I like it.

In Pohatu Nuva’s section, you have an underground minecart section instead of the cool desert you begin in. I dislike this, both because lack of the cool desert, because Onua Nuva does cave level better and partly because unlike Kopaka and Tahu Nuva, you cannot move to sides. Lewa Nuva also has some sections on rails, but these do not make the bulk of level.

In Tahu Nuva’s section, you have to get to Ta-Koro before Kurahk, who has Kanohi Avohkii. It makes for cool stage before the final boss.

Heroes lacks platforming entirely. There is rarely used jump function you can only use on predetermined spots, and you have no control over it. Gameplay variety between levels is also minimal.

What Heroes does have is that you switch between Toa Inika on fly. Each Toa has different attack, different abilities, and are more distinguished than Toa from the Game are. Hahli can walk in water, Jaller on lava, Hewkii can assemble objects, Nuparu climbs walls, Kongu can “jump” and Matoro can shoot switches. Hewkii is the most useful, as his ability is most often used.

Each Toa also has abilities you can buy for parts you get from breaking things and defeating enemies, and you can upgrade their weapons for same parts. These parts certainly have more utility than the Game’s lightstones. If you collect enough, you enter Hero Mode when you can activate golden constructions.

Combat in the Game is also better. You shoot, recharge and time shield to block. If you are not good at blocking, you can dodge and jump over attacks. Enemies are varied visualy, and somewhat mechanicaly. Nui Jaga shoot long lasting beam from the one side to the other side, and Nui-Rama’s and Nui-Kopen’s attacks cannot be jumped over, the frogs jump, the fish are hard to hit due to their swiming. and Kane-Ra cannot be defeated, being more of a obstacle. There is the Nui-Jaga encounter where you fight while platforming. Bohrok in Kopaka Nuva’s level must be first stunned by the shield bubble to be attacked.

Combat in Heroes consists of shooting hordes of enemies. Each enemy last laughably short time, and they are all either Bohrok, Visorak or Vahki. But each Toa’s attacks are very varied, an improvement from the Game.

Bosses in the Game are varied. When you fight Bohrok and Bohrok-kal in Tahu’s and Gali Nuva’s sections, you fight a Bohrok at a time, while avoiding others, and dodge or block their attacks. In Gali Nuva’s case, arena is smaller. In Onua’s level, you have to push blocks into holes to defeat Lerahk. One hole is open at the time, and which one is open rotates. You also have to avoid burrowing attacks. Lewa’s goal is to knock Parahk into water.

Final boss is against Makuta himself. In first phase, he summons various rahi for you to fight. In second phase,you first jump from platform to platform to deactivate Makuta’s shield. Then, you use his attack against himself, disable his shield again, this time with less platforms, and again deflect his attack. In final part of second phase, the platforms begin to fall beneath you. After you defeat Makuta, there is cool cutscene featuring Takutanuva, and credits.

Bosses in the Heroes are mostly samey, featuring heavy use of Hero Mode with some variation. In one particulary memorable instance, you climb insides of a tower while fighting Roodaka. What is cool is that each time you seemingly defeat a Piraka, Vezon shows up. Final boss battle against Vezon is very good, but I do not remember it very well.

Heroes’s funny cutscenes feel somewhat unfitting. The Game does comic relief better, by having hilariously bad voice acting.

Graphicaly and musicaly, the Game is rather good, but Heroes is excelent. Heroes’ worlds each look and sound great, aside from the Vezok’s, which is somewhat underwhelming start. There is variety in look and purpose of constructions. But constant use of dissonantly colorful breakable objects somewhat harms the feel of Heroes.

The Game’s worlds are more interesting at conceptual level. They are composed better, but graphics and music are less good than in Heroes. Smaller size of Game’s worlds is also compensated by greater difficulty. The Game is actualy challenging, as opposed to merely being long like Heroes. Collecting lightstones feels more fitting than breaking everything, and the game as whole feels better and less gamey. Things you do are interesting as well.

Through both the Game and the Heroes have their pros and cons, I personaly prefer BIONICLE the Game.

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I say heroes is miles better the The Game, idk about you but it was always really slow and finiky for me
Heroes on the other hand is filled to the brim with easter eggs and references to the lore and is just more fun for me

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I’ve only played Heroes, which I still love to this day since it was the first video game I ever got. That said, going by the “Let’s Play” series that Meso and Eljay did of BIONICLE: The Game and the frustration it gave them… I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it much even as a kid :stuck_out_tongue:.

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I have a massive soft spot in my heart for The Game. I grew up playing it and it was one of the first substantial pieces of Bionicle media I ever experienced. I love it to death.

I’ve also never played Heroes, nor did I ever really have an interest in it. The marketing alone just felt pretty tone-deaf to the franchise, and the gameplay wasn’t what I would have preferred.

As such, I can say I am incredibly, unbelievably biased in my preferences.

The Game: if you die you have to restart the section.
Heroes: if you die you just instantly respawn.

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I enjoy Heroes for what it is; an easy to grasp run-and-gun shooter that doesn’t take much thought.

The Game meanwhile, while having some fun moments is honestly kind of meh, mostly because in my experience it’s buggy beyond belief and super picky in regards to certain things, such as whether one manages to land on a platform or whether your attack will actually hit an enemy. Not only that, but the game as a whole just feels… unfinished.

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It very sadly is.

I have a feeling that if it had been fully finished it would have been pretty good. Not great, probably, but a very decent action platformer and a good entry for Bionicle in the video game realm.

And from what little we saw of the Bionicle 2 game, that could have been great as well.

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Heroes to become better game, it had to get rid of terrible screen blur at all.

I’ve only played the Game, so I can’t make a comparison. I’m in @Pakari’s boat with Heroes–don’t have much interest in it, tone-wise or gameplay-wise.

That being said, I only played the Game for the first time, like, last year or something, and it was not the best of the multitudinous BIONICLE games I’ve played. The controls on a keyboard are a massive pain. The gameplay itself isn’t bad, though. There’s a good amount of variety between levels (though Kopaka’s is admittedly a bit disappointing since it’s only snowboarding, and Pohatu’s is just… what…). I also found the difficulty to be relatively appropriate, at least for me (except for that darn Kane-Ra hallway in Onua’s level!).

It did feel unfinished, or just… underwhelming. There just wasn’t much to it, ultimately. I would have appreciated more differentiation between Toa apart from the mechanics of their levels, i.e. incorporating their elements (why can only Gali do the cool Nova Blast thing…?). It’s definitely not the worst game (that easily goes to The Legend of Mata Nui Rebuilt), but it falls short of being more than mediocre. Some points are cool (Gali, Lewa, Makuta boss fight), but the majority of others are just meh.

And the controls are really, really, REALLY awful.

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I agree with everything else you’ve said, but while I haven’t played the PC version of the game, I have a suspicion this is really only an issue on keyboard and mouse.

I owned the Gamecube version of the game. Playing with a controller of any sort is definitely the intended (and best) way to play it. Having that analog movement on the stick is really important.

My only complaint with the controls is that Onua doesn’t lock onto the rocks he needs to push in his level, and he slips right off of them. Game could have used a target lock-on feature as well since some of the Rahi can be pretty quick and there isn’t direct camera control.

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I played both, and i’d say they’re equal. Though heroes has Avak’s Dynamo, which is one of my favorite bionicle-related music pieces ever. so, actually, Heroes is better, IMO.

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The Game is REALLY lackluster, with bad CG models and uninteresting gameplay. Heroes is pretty samey, but it’s still much more competently put together and easier to get into. I’d go for Heroes over The Game any day.

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I definitely prefer Bionicle The Game. It just has a lot more of what I like in video games. The environments are vibrant and colorful, and the gameplay has more of an emphasis on acrobatic movements and platforming. Heroes has some color in the environments but overall everything looks bleaker, and the tone of the game in general is much darker/edgier. The gameplay is all about just shooting everything. Bionicle The Game could use some polish, but I still prefer it a lot to Heroes and it has a direction that I think suits the Bionicle universe much more than Heroes.

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