The Flash Game that Built an Empire | Bionicle | Mata Nui Online Game
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In the late 90's, the Lego corporation was on the downswing, outcompeted by it's rivals. In 2001, Lego struck back with Bionicle, the Lego action figure. And none of it would have been possible without one of the internets first viral marketing campaigns.
At the center of the plan to launch bionicle and save Lego, was a stunningly ambitious flash game that would take the world by storm. Mata Nui Online game.
The Flash game that would build a toy empire.
They'll never take the bird from the app: / willsysrefdoc
Support the channel an help me keep my content varied: / williamsrd
Additional Media:
Play Mata Nui Online for yourself: biomediaprojec...
The making of Mata Nui Online: • The Making of The Mata...
Bionicle the mask of light: • BIONICLE: Mask of Ligh...
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"Bionicle is near 25 years old"
Those are some "Power Word Kill" incantations.
*Lego yoda death sound*
I remember waiting 10 minutes at a time waiting for this game to load on my grandpa’s computer. Memories.
Those caves, man. So many minute-long loading screens. Made it so rewarding when you finally got somewhere and getting the crab was mind-blowing as a kid
Lego: no violence
Also lego: star wars doesnt count
Lego: No Guns
Explorers doesn’t count
Lego: No religious genocide
Also Lego: Dune doesn't count
and Bionicle has ALL OF those things.
It's insane how good the art was for a 2001 flash game. Flash was downright primitive at that point.
It's kind of bonkers how an originally non-canon (I think) online game would go on to define so much about bionicle. Am going to enjoy this video
It was canon, but relegated to only draw from the dregs of the lore, which makes it even funnier that it became so important
"ooh lego from my youth"
"This was the dark age for lego"
"oh"
Right? I have very fond memories of nearly every set shown during that segment, and most of my friends were in on it too.
this was what saved the company
Robo riders. Woah. That genuinely sparked a deep memory from me.
I had the ice one too. Has been incredibly disappointed since my brother got fire one that had the choppy axes.
Holy shit!! William srd covering bionicle never thought I’d see it
IT WAS TIME
This is a good accompaniment to the recent video by Kohdok about Showmanship, or basically him complaining that a lot of the recent card game releases have practically no backstory to their cards, and how they feel like just a loose collection of art and mechanics. And how doing Showmanship right wasn't that hard, just pointing to Bionicle, having a decent comic with a well written characters, and having a few things that point to the world being much bigger than just whats on the screen/page. I didn't quite grow up with Bionicle, but it's telling that there's probably a dozen other lego properties from the era I haven't heard of, but I still see fresh Bionicle memes from time to time.
Bro theres a whole book series
I always appreciate a creator stepping out of what his channel is dedicated to in order to share something that they wanted to share with their subscribers, i feel like its a lot healthier because the last thing you want a creator to feel like is fenced in by the thing they chose to primarily cover and quite frankly that can be a nightmare when you want to do something different at least every once in a while. This might be bad for a tv programn to do thats ment to cover a specific topic but not for a personally driven creator channel
I only had one Bionicle, the black one with the claws. And I bought it myself as a teen, because I wanted the claws for a moc I was building at the time.
I wish lego had done something like this 4-5 years earlier.
Absolutely! Bionicle would have KILLED as a 90's toy!
Onua, Toa of earth. Defender of the village of Onu-Koro, located in Onu-wahi. he wears the Kanohi pakari that enhances is users strength
Even though I wasn’t introduced to bionicle until about 2006 it became a huge part of my childhood. I spent hours playing the flash games, bought every set I could get my hands on, and tried my best to piece together the story. I'm really glad people have started talking about Bionicle again, it more than deserves the attention. Could you cover the second mata nui online game and the voya nui online game? They're probably the best bionicle games aside from the first online game.
Yeah! I also also used to read the online scans of the comics to see what the lore was and it was really interesting for me as a kid.
I played this game as a kid, and even now looking back on it, I love the game design. It's the best kind of point-and-click adventure, instantly mysterious and captivating. Shades of Myst, Syberia, and all the other great pre-rendered CG first-person titles in the genre. It really feels like the team putting this flash game together made it a labor of love, and in the process they must have won a lot of kids over to the genre who were too young to have played games like that before. They certainly got me.
I'm definitely spiraling into memories right now
THEN ITS WORKING
Ok, now you have to make a Review on the Lego DnD Set and it's Adventure and the upcoming Collectible Minifigure Series. 😂
I will forever be saddened that, while I had the toys and the copies of the comics that came with some of the toys, I missed all the online media and the games.
You can actually still find it thanks to the preservation efforts of the community! The biomedia project recently moved to a new site and it has tons of old Bionicle media, including this flash game! But yeah, it’s sad to realize what you missed out on while it was coming out when you were a kid, it hits different back then.
@@jemm113 Idk, I think that first playthrough is magical no matter what. I only got to play it in 2011, and still found it a masterpiece.
39:04 Bionicle is not still around. It ended again in 2016.
2015-2016 was bionicle Generation 2, while Generation one ended in 2010.
Yeah, they fumbled that reboot HARD
Imagine an RPG/strategy/visual novel made to today’s standards for Bionicle! Like Professor Layton and Fate meets Fire Emblem (or Final Fantasy Tactics for the golden standard)!
Plus the plethora of action games (one of which Bionicle fans are making a fan game now lol) would have been the perfect genre to pull from for a reboot! Frankly Bionicle could have done with starting a few years ahead of release so that quality assurance could be handled for these various developments. And frankly, in this day and age the series would need a TV show, which is actually did get on Netflix, but it was quite bad, doesn’t help that the reboot had terrible lore (or lack thereof) that failed to get people interested.
I want to thank you for covering this. Bionicle happened when I was still in the military and it is a complete chasm in my knowledge of LEGO.
Dude. Early Bionicle was the good stuff, and I'm always glad to see it remembered. This was also my first point-and-click adventure game, so it gets double points from me.
It's SO funny that you're releasing this video just right after I got into a major nostalgia trip over Rock Raiders, with the Manic Miners video game remake, and me literally binging R.R. Slugger videos the last few days.
Wow, I played that flash game when I was a kid. That brings back so many memories. It was one of the very first experiences I had when I was able to use our home's dial-up internet for the first time. My dad had work computers most of his career, but I was only allowed to touch them every once and a while with him supervising. By the end of the 90s he got a new job and he received a home desktop system. Shortly thereafter we were able to use a dial-up internet connection. I had used that before, but only for doing research for school work on my dad's work computers, either at home or at his office. When I was allowed to freely use the computer and browse the internet without supervision for the first time for 30-60 minutes, my parents suggested looking at some sites with LEGO stuff. I went to the official LEGO site and it was such an awesome experience. I stumbled upon the Bionicle flash game later and I was instantly captivated. Loading the thing took quite a while, but it was worth it :)
I was so obsessed with all LEGO related stuff back then. I used to pour over all the imagines in those magazines they used to make. I vividly remember seeing some of the images you've shown in this video. It really stirred my imagination like nothing else. I loved the classic LEGO lines a lot, but the new ones from that era (that revitalized the company) made me think of and imagine things I had never before.
I was one of the only two kids I know of in school at the time that had easy access to an internet connection. The school computer was pretty crap and didn't have internet access. So there was really almost no one I could share the experience with. When I came back to the flash game later, and some of the scenes were different and you could actually explore several other areas and interact with new characters, it was such a powerful experience. I didn't even realize that this was going to be the case, I just wanted to explore a little further. I had never really interacted with something like that. It was really formative for me.
Btw, I didn't have any other Bionicle related media back then. So basically, everything I saw in the flash game, and the promotional artwork was everything I had to form what the world was like in my head. I actually like this much more than the actual lore reveals the creators gave. The world in my head was always so much cooler.
I had almost forgotten about this. Thanks for taking me back :)
To be fair that is some SKILLED flash animation, and a last minute product, damn
I wasn't into Bionicles as a kid, but I just love your videos. Always fun to see what you cover next! It was interesting to find out it was a flash game that helped Bionicles, who knew!
I owned the original Bionicle sets and religiously watched the movie but didnt know this flash game existed, thanks for that information.
I have to say, I really liked those Slizers more than Bionicle as a kid, and now seeing them again for the first time in over 25 years I kind of get why I did. They look amazing.
Yeah, it might just be nostalgic fondness but I think they look more interesting and diverse.
This video is a shot of 100% uncut nostalgia. Bioncles were most my childhood. I don't remember this game though. I remember an interactive encyclopedia type "game" that came on little mini-discs with some of the Bionicle sets.
I cannot express how much i loved and love bionicle. from 2001 in its beginign to its end in 2009, it was wild and it still has one of the best villains in ANY media. Makuta Teridax, known to all as just The Makuta.
though he was beaten on many occassions, every defeat was merly a speed bump in his plan, he manipulated everyone, even the heroes to ensure his final victory and in the end, He did win.
I stumbled on your channel first on I think a 40k video, and I thought, *this is cool, I wish he made D&D vide-OH NEAT well that's cool, I wish he made World of Darkness vi- OH NEAT" and now as I thought truly all bases were covered, you give us a LEGO video. FUCK yes. I loved Bionicle, and I'd love to see some coverage of other smaller themes, even if they don't have a storyline, like Aquazone, Insectoids.. if you can afford making it, that is. I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about it to keep it in theme with the channel, I mean, Rock Raiders had a videogame, but the others.. anyway. If not, that's fine too. This is one of my favorite youtube channels anyway, period.
And I remember being VERY confused when suddenly the Tohunga were called the Matoran, haha.
As an “adult” LEGO kid in 2001 these were not my thing. I always thought the Star Wars license is what saved LEGO.
William SRD: Where game meets lore.
The most interesting detail of early Bionicle is that the _actual_ plot twist wasn't revealed until 2008, despite featuring heavily into the plot of Mata Nui arc. Its a shame so few Lego kids speak Māori, because its honestly on the surface (and even then, NZ newspaper reporting on Lego's usage of language managed to basically involuntarily cover up the twist by focusing on the different meaning of the word!) Its also pretty fitting for a story focused on masks.
Over here in Germany, Action Figure and Comic culture never really took off (at least not where I lived) and Internet just wasnt a thing for most kids in 2001. All we got were the TV ads and I still went crazy for bionicles
Loved this game as a kid. Used to play it at my grandparents house growing up (didn't have much of a computer growing up) and they were always so baffled at just how... odd it all was. Looking forward to the video!
This is lovely to hear about! I got into Bionicle as a kid, though I'm a smidge younger in my fandom; one day I got Lehvak-Kal, who I just fell utterly in love with. My little brother had Pahrak-Kal, and I think later got Kohrak-Kal too. We also had some Toa Nuva, Onua and Gali, and later a Makuta kit. It was a lot of fun. I remember we and our older sister would take Toa legs and put little shoulder-pauldrons on them for faces to have a big cast of characters to play around with. Funny thing, my younger self had just assumed the Bohrok were the good guys, since they looked so cool, and when introduced to a different Bionicle game on the internet where you played a Matoran I was a bit confused.
Kind of amazed that I didn't know of this, my brother and I were all over Bionicle in the early 00s.
Now I get why Bionicle never clicked with me. I graduated high school in 2000 and the preamble materials didn't drop til the fall/winter after then.
I didn't find this one as a Lego Maniac, but I can definitely relate to the aspect of thinking a game was haunted when things changed without explanation. It wasn't online, but Lego Island surprised you with a change in the otherwise static world if you completed a certain number of minigames, and it was spooky as a kid who hadn't run into that sort of thing before.
I remember my sisters telling me that Lego games seemed to require some weird frame of mind because they were all...just a bit off. These breakdowns with historical background are super interesting to me.
In the US, Lego Island came in a multi-pack with Creator and either Rock Raiders or Legoland (I can't remember). I'd love to see you cover those weird little games, too.
I LOVED Bionicle as a kid! And I was never able to get further than the dirt village in this game. So thank you so much for making this video.
I remember collecting Slizors and the motorcycle bots and the HYPE around Bionicle coming out. God it was great.
Gods, I had a giddy little smile across my face the entire time. Just a concentrated nostaliga bomb, from the cover of the Chronicles novels to going through the motions of the game. Up there with Urban Dead and weird free-to-play shooters like Exteel for that concentrated early internet-ness.
I remember that me and my siblings each had some of the first wave of Bionicles, so if we wanted to make the combined super-Toa we'd have to get around a negotiating table to hash out a trade deal for who got to assemble and play with the things, lol
I remember searching for gold masks, finding them, and then finding out that I was too late. FOMO make me just give up, so my interest in Bionicle, especially since I could not keep up or make a cohesive picture of the story, waned. I don't know where my Bionicle comics went. They were really well done, as much as I had no idea what was going on.
I remember watching this as a kid the movie and after that I was obsessed with the figures it's nice to know where it started thank you Will
Omg my dad once stole a lego tecnic set form his work and gave it to us as a gift, that was the best year lol
Man, I was a Bionicle nut. Thanks for covering one of the bits I surprisingly didn't get to explore myself.
Okay, I was a turbonerd about this as a kid lol so I'm gonna ramble.
I think with most of the old names, the emphasis was on the second to last syllable. At the end of it, you said BIONICLE is still around, but the reboot was actually cancelled after two years and a Netflix show. The reboot kept the lore comparatively scarce, but was planned to connect to the original continuity in a way that never materialized. The toys were also launched in 2000 in Europe and 2001 elsewhere.
There are also two fanmade BIONICLE soulslike games in production with LEGO's approval! Masks of Power, and Quest for Mata-Nui, the former having a Steam page.
I was young/inexperienced enough that I didn't pick up on the updates, but I do remember a similar Knex worker drone construction game
What is extra funny, is Nuju (the ice elder) can talk you're language, but got so fed up he stopped because he wanted people to have to work to understand him.
you are not imagining that book. I got it at a scholastic book fair once. Vividly remember it.
Its amazing how Bionicle is a thing that I have had no engagement with and barely any osmosis that I'm aware of. Sure I knew people who were interested but they never shared that interest with me and... honestly I never thought to ask. So this is gonna be great.
Every generation of kids needs a 'you had to be there' events. For me that was Thundercats and TMNT. Oh and I suppose Star Wars was that too. :3
5:30, wow the Zoomer Destroyer! And a gold chocobo! What an awesome page!
39:08: my man that short-lived remake is 10 years old, the most that was released since is a tahu made of bricks
So excited to watch this! I always look forward to your next video 👍
My… GOD!
The amount of flashbacks I’m getting right now!
I had totally forgotten the Flash game! XD Awesome video as always!
the translator is Matora and he is Bionicle messiha, the saviour of the universe and also a necromancer
As a kid, me and my friends would quote Mask of Light word by word in it's entirety.
Hopefully this video is popular enough that the Brickster will show up in this channel
I was never a Bionicle kid when I was young so I remembered how confused I was when I came across Americans online casually using Māori lmaao
This video is super cool! Bionicles were my favorite narrative/setting ever when I was a kid, and I still think the worldbuilding is some of the most evocative I've ever seen, there's really nothing else like it. I'm probably one of the youngest bionicle fans in existence (well bionicle g1 at least though I doubt g2 has many hardcore enthusists) because most of my exposure came from the novels and comics to a lesser degree, I got into it right as hero factory was launched/the final bionicle couple waves, so it's cool to get all the context about how it launched which you'd only get if you were there yourself.
definitely did a double take when I saw the notification but fuck it I'm here for it
I was much too old for Bionicle when it came out, but I really enjoyed the history lesson. I admit I was a bit confused when it did come out as I was a young adult still into toys and collected the Star Wars prequel sets in the late 90s.
I remember trying to play that. But my knowledge of English at the time was not good, to put it politely, and I made it only up to the point where there's people trapped underwater.
This unlucked hidden memories, thanks for the nostalgia blast
Would love more videos covering Bionicle games and media. Theres truly a wealth of content to dive into. Video liked!
was NOT expecting MNOLG let's GOOOO
I never played this game, but I did have two bionicle posters on my walls that I almost took to college (Kalmah of the Barraki and one of the Toa Mahri). Bionicle in the magazines and in the sick TV commercials were insanely cool, and I never knew they made games. I enjoyed the 2007/2008 sets so much, the Barraki were badass deep sea villians (creeps from the deep), the Toa Mahri were cool and had unique parts, the Phantoka had accurate projectiles- bionicle was exceptional and a sequel would be well cherished, if terrible for the algorithm
After checking the view count, 3 days after upload, yeah nevermind make videos that pay the bills. This was a great video but not if it doesnt keep the lights on. Ive no idea how youtube works because this is the same quality if not better than many of your other videos yet less than 10k views is crazy. Especially with the views on the dnd vids youve recently made, like 40k, 45k each is leagues apart than 9k, but also leagues apart from your 100k videos... Well, your video style and content are exceptional, keep up the good work man
I remember being completely enraptured by TMNOG as a little kid, I think it really sparked my interest in role playing games and fantasy/scifi.
And also I remember building a red Tahu Bionicle right out of the canister on the floor of the mall.
MAN those Mania books triggered some huge nostalgia
Fun fact: Mata Nui means "big eye" in Maori.
The player character’s colour scheme put me in mind so much of Orion Pax, that I’m a little surprised the game didn’t end with him getting his own mask and powering up to a full bionicle form ala Optimus Prime. 😛
... 😅 You've read the wiki haven't you?
@@Exospray not once actually; it was literally one shot about halfway through the vid that because of the colour scheme, put me in mind of Orion Pax. 😅
Those flashgames clips just sended me down a semi dejavu episode. Holy shit that was awesome
First Mata Nui Online, then this man teases Shadowrun? It's like he's trying to get me in particular.
Don't forget the flash cartoons that were between the two flash games.
Again oh sweet nostalgia, I recognize those pre-Bionicle lego products. I had at least half of them. And most likely still have them in pieces in the huge box lego back in home.
This whole video brought back so many memories. Duuuuude.
God, that intro yeeted me back in time
God, I loved that game when I was a kid.
Bionicle certainly awakens some deeply repressed memories 🤣
I had dial up growing up. So trust me when I say how hyped I was after the game loaded up after like 15 minutes
i have this game and the sequal on my PC. Bionicle was my life. i know ALL the lore
This one unlocked some core memories as a 90s LEGO kid. And yes, Kopaka was the baddest motherfucker and we all rightly wanted to be him.
I just wanna let you know that there isn't a topic you could cover that I wouldn't throw u a like for. Your videos are extremely entertaining. Excited for the shadowrum vid cause it's my favorite setting
i had a big Box full of Lego Stuff, many Lego Technic Components, too... but after i left my Home my mother gave everything away
"Free as in speech (not) as in beer" a phrase I have not heard in a long time
LOL I had Completely forgot about those magazines Crazy I used to love them.
For a moment I thought this video was uploaded by Oboeshoes, Bionicle my beloved.
Ninjago fan here! Please 100% do more Lego, and honestly you could have some fun with Barbie, Bratz, and Monster High too!
I remember a Lego kit that required suatering wire together.
This game was my first time hearing Flight of the Valkyrie.
man, this one remembers having a couple throwbots. Think the Teal one and the red one. also maybe one of the bike guys? Too bad neither line really lived past its first wave or so, thoguh both set the stage for the far more successful bionicle. Remember having some of the matoran from mcdonalds and Tahu too. Always wanted to get the complete set. The first wave. Got Tahu Nuva too, when the second wave came out, along with one or two of the antagonists. Those second wave antagonists were the coolest, imo. Kinda still wanna get their set too. And sure, why not the third wave antags just to close out the original era of Bionicle.
My childhood.
More please, I love Bionicle to death.
Edit: Tahu best Toa.
Aside from the toys themselves, this game is actually what I remember most about the Bionicle franchise
OMG it's that game! I played this as a kid but I totally forgot what it was called or what it even was, but I remember the art so vividly! Ive spent ages trying to track down the game through google searches. Youve finally allowed me to scratch that itch in the back of my brain! Thank you!
Bionicle is such a great franchise, shame it had to go away, loved the toys and stories, Also great video as always!! Would love to see more Lego adjecent videos
Absolutely love bionicle. Can't wait to see you cover the sequel cus i sure didn't know it existed. You're awesome ans thank you for making this vid 🙏😃
I actually have vague memories of this game, but I hopped off it when I found there was no way to progress. I hadn't heard of updates either, and assumed that it was a nothing burger.
Finally, some culture on those channel
Thumbsing up for the Shadowrun tease.