from the Bionicle universe in the game as possible". As a result, creatures like Vahki, Visorak, Bohrok that are not native to the island in the official story appear in the game as enemies, and villains from previous stories appear as bosses. The story of the game is progressed through cutscenes, which appear before levels. Synopsis The story of Bionicle Heroes follows a Matoran who has appeared on the island of Voya Nui. Balta, a villager on the island, informs him that the six Piraka have taken control of the island and transformed its inhabitants into monsters. Balta gives the Matoran a mask and tasks the new Toa with defeating the Piraka and saving the island. As the game progresses, the player defeats all six Piraka. A seventh Piraka, Vezon, is revealed to control the Mask of Life. After defeating him, the Toa regains the mask and restores peace to the island. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions have a different story from the home console version. In these games, the Toa Inika have been defeated by the Piraka and stripped of their masks. A Matoran is transformed into a new Toa and sets out to defeat the Piraka, return the masks to the Toa Inika, and restore peace to the island. Development and release The development of Bionicle Heroes began in late 2005. The decision was made early on to not follow the official Bionicle story, as ignoring it would allow more flexibility in game development and enemy variety. According to director Jon Burton, the home console version of the game was initially planned to be a first-person shooter. This stage of development lasted into February 2006. At the time, almost all first-person shooter games received "M" ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and preliminary submissions to the ESRB resulted in ratings that Lego found to be unacceptable despite the lack of blood, gore, or other characteristics typical of "M"-rated games. In order to bring Bionicle Heroes down to an acceptable "E" or "E10+" rating, the decision was made to covert the game into a third-person shooter. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of the game were developed by parallel teams at Amaze Entertainment. The DS version marked the first first-person shooter game released on the platform since Metroid Prime Hunters earlier the same year. A version of the game was also developed