Bionicle: The Game follows the exploits of the Toa, little robot like creatures that inhabit the island of Mata Nui, and their battle against the evil Makuta and his minions.  The island is split into six different elements, such as jungles, volcanoes, snowy mountains, and so on and so forth.  Each Toa reflects the various elements both in color, strengths, and attacks.  In order to advance through the game you must guide each Toa through his environment collecting various items, parts, and the like, while solving simplistic puzzles and of course, battling a decent variety of baddies.  There are also sequences where your Toa must navigate through “vehicle” environments, such as surfing the lake and lava, or “boarding” down the mountain.  Sadly, the vehicle sequences are one of the few redeeming qualities of the game.

Where the game ultimately begins to fall apart is when you begin to try and traverse the environment.  There is a ton of platforming in this game and it is made unnecessarily difficult and frustrating by the bane of most platformers, the camera.  Every couple of steps you constantly, and I mean constantly, have to readjust the fidgety camera, without really ever being capable of finding the appropriate angle, further exposing the game’s clunky control setup.  And that’s when the camera is not getting hung up and stuck on the structure of the environments.  Simple jumps become leaps of faith and exercises in futility, and with a game that is jump happy, that just isn’t a good thing.  Being an adult and the veteran of way-too-many videogame campaigns, both good and bad, I consider myself an extremely patient and forgiving gamer, but this game had me at wit’s end in record time.  Now, if it gets me to those extremes, imagine the frustration a child will go through trying to play it. 

Beyond all of that, the game is buggy as all get out.  You die, which happens frequently, and your system freezes.  Get stuck on a corner of the environment, which also happens frequently, your system freezes.  Traverse random sections of the game, your system freezes.  And the real kicker is, there are no patches available on the website, nor any technical support for this particular game. 

When a game has this many problems, I tend to try and find anything that is remotely positive about it, beyond the box art, which by the way is very nice in this instance.  The graphics of the game, while not groundbreaking or jaw dropping are fairly nice.  All of the characters look decent and are easily recognized, which is always a positive.  The environments, while a little “muddy” looking do a good job of conveying the varied elements.  Let’s see, what else is there, oh, oh, I know, the voice acting is also passable.  While they didn’t use the voice actors from the recently released Bionicle movie, they sound enough alike and deliver their lines well enough to be an asset to the package.  Beyond these things however, as much as it pains me, there really isn’t much else to like.

In closing, I cannot in good conscience recommend this to even the most die-hard of Bionicle fans.  Save your hard earned money to spend on the killer Makuta/Takanuva set that combines to make Takutanuva, if you need a Bionicle fix.  You and the kids will definitely get more enjoyment and far less frustration from this. 

Gameplay: 3.0 

Constantly having to battle the camera is a huge downer.  Also, the jumping in a game that requires much jumping is clunky and difficult to judge.  The precision required just to get to a higher level in the environment is far beyond what should be in any game, let alone a children’s game.  Another huge gaffe is that there is no strafing, which would have made a huge difference in battling some of the more difficult foes.

Graphics:  6.5 

One of the game’s redeeming qualities.  While not of the variety you’ll drag your friends over to see, they do a passable job of conveying the game world and the diverse climates.  The character models are also good, allowing the player, especially those familiar with the Bionicle universe, to immediately recognize their favorite characters.

Sound:  7.0 

The game’s other redeeming quality.  The voice actors do a good job of mimicking those from the movie, as well conveying the appropriate emotion and tone for each character and situation.  The sound effects are also suitable to the various weapons and environments.

Difficulty:  Hard

A trait that is unforgivable in a children’s game and what makes it worse, was that it was obviously not intended to be that way.  The control and camera combine to make a far fiercer enemy than Makuta and his minions ever dreamed of being.

Concept:  7.0 

Bionicles and their world are cool, there’s no two ways about it.  And the idea of being able to traverse and live in their world, in an interactive environment was a noble idea, but a whole lot was lost in the execution.

Overall:  4.0 

I absolutely loathe having to put down anyone else’s work, but this game is just plain bad.  The characters and their universe deserve much, much better.  Far too many things conspire to make what could have been an enjoyable experience, one of the worst games this gamer has played in a while.