Legodent Evil 4

Lagging behind a bit, I know. Been a little under the weather lately. First, let's recap Xbox Live Wednesday.

Metal Slug 3
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 points)

For the handful of you who have no idea what Metal Slug is, it's essentially a spiritual successor to Contra. If you don't know what Contra is, I'm not sure you should be holding a controller. Ever. The Metal Slug series has always involved side-scrolling, mostly on-foot shooter action, and it's tough as balls, but also hilarious and fun, even moreso with a buddy along for the ride.

Engrishy as they may be, the achievements are pretty simple. Not easy, mind you, but simple. Just clear levels with "no miss" (not sure if that means saving all the hostages, not dying, or killing everything or what), a few things that seem story-related, grabbing 3,000,000 points (I have a bad feeling this may only be doable in Hard) and beating a boss as a zombie. Nothing mindbending or easter-eggy, which is good because you're going to need all the focus you can get to stay alive.

I say they're all offline, but there's one I definitely think would be easier with a second player, Live or otherwise; if you have one guy to pick up all the weapon upgrades, getting the No More Weapon achievement (10 gs) is probably cake. If the "no miss" counts for both players if you team up as well, definitely find a buddy to rock this with.


Mail call yesterday brought Bionicle Heroes into the fray, hence the title of today's post. Let me elaborate.

Bionicle Heroes
Achievements: 49 (all offline, 1000 points)

Traveler's Tales decided to milk their Lego license outside the realm of movie take-offs, blending a moderately confusing story-driven toy line (Bionicle - seriously, I just do not get it at all) with the play style of Resident Evil 4 (over the shoulder shooty, but with easier lock-on for the kids), and thus Bionicle Heroes was born.

Story, for what it matters, is that you crashland on some planet being over-run by evil critters, and the civilians think (perhaps correctly) that you're their savior. Commence rocking the planet.

Those of you familiar with the Lego Star Wars games should notice some familiar elements. Once again, you're collecting Lego bits from destroyed items and fallen foes as a form of currency and to charge a bar at the top of the screen. Rather than just being a ranking for when you clear the level, however, this bar needs to be full for you to activate certain constructions in order to progress.

You have six different heads with different weapons and abilities, amongst which you can freely switch during missions, though you only start off with one. Essentially, it boils down to missiles, shotgun, sniper, grenades, flamethrower, and water "flame"thrower or something. Each character is also upgradable in a shop similar to the Cantina bar in the LSW games, which has hints and bonus material for sale along with the ubgrades that have replaced the new character purchase area.

Just finishing all the levels will get you half the achievements (four levels each in six elemental-themed territories, plus final level), and the rest is just killing certain numbers of enemies, collecting a certain amount of cash, and eventually clearing everything 100%.

As with the other TT Lego games, this seems pretty well thought-out. Even the idle animations are funny, like when your character dozes off, unscrews his head to bump it around like a hackey sack or soccer ball, or yanks off his leg to scratch his back. The point of view is still a little jarring and not my favorite aspect, but the decent auto-aim kind of makes up for it, so it's not too bothersome in the end.

Good title for a fairly easy, if somewhat grindy, 1000 points. Hopefully I can actually find time to get them all in a week's time.