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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 เม.ย. 2020
- Launched on Jan. 1, 2001, Mata Nui Online Game (or MNOG) quickly became the definitive Bionicle story of 2001. This is the story of its creation, from the people who created it.
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Wow, I was certain when I was working on this video that it would be the most niche of anything in our catalog, but seeing all your responses to this video is incredible. Its incredibly cool to see that so many of you feel the same way about MNOG that I do, and so awesome that all of you have responded so well to this video. Y’all are continuing to make my days.
bro christian faber just shared it bro
@@mootroidXproductions really? Where?
Never underestimate Bionicle fans, we're still mentally living in 2010
You giys are incredible for this thanx soo much bro
This might be the best video on the channel, great work on writing up the work of the amazing people who worked on Bionicle and MNOG. It feels like a piece of history and means a lot to me.
Fun fact: the name "Beach Chant" is not official, it's just a name that I made up when I uploaded my unofficial MNOG soundtrack to this channel. It sure is one my all time favs though!
Oh shoot, I figured it must have been an official title because that’s the name of the track as listed on BioMedia Project. It definitely fits the mood!
@@Subpixel Excellent vid btw! It's really satisfying to see someone talk about MNOG in a way that does it justice.
Thanks for the uploads @happycola64 !
This game was the stuff of legend in the online community back in the mid-2000s, after it had been foolishly taken it down from the website. I missed out on its original release, so seeing mere screencaps and the cutscenes on various websites felt like uncovering parts of an ancient treasure. After it got re-released and I finally got to play it, it lived up to the hype. But beyond the game itself, the behind-the-scenes info the developers have released in the years since, together with all the production details that surfaced from other sources, have become equally intriguing and fascinating to me. They reveal so much about how Lego handled this franchise and how much of what fans love about it were not actually planned for by the company. Templar was one of the brand's biggest assets and it's a woeful shame their influence and their output gradually diminished until they just up and vanished from the franchise. None of the later animation and game creators "got" the franchise as much as they did -- at least Advance and Ghost remained on the team until the series' end, but Templar's absence was sorely felt, much like how many of the memorable characters they've developed were basically phased out of the story.
This is a magnificent video, informative, passionate and superbly put together, perfectly paying respect to MNOG and it creators. Moreover, it's just refreshing and reassuring to see fans are still capable of making this kind of quality content that explore the franchise and bring its positive aspects and the accomplishments of its creators to the forefront so that even non-fans might appreciate it. Bionicle is ripe with plenty of topics that deserve similar exploration.
It’s the animation legend himself
While games like Battle for Bikini Bottom hold up quite well among licensed games, having a legacy that exists even 17 years later, there is not a SINGLE licensed game that can hold a candle to MNOG... nor can a lot of non-licensed games for that matter. This game was truly so much better than a browser-based flash game designed to sell action figures to 9-year-olds has any right to be.
Ghabulous Ghoti Nothing has ever been like MNOG, and nothing ever will be like it. Templar simply GOT what BIONICLE was about at its basics. I am convinced that without this game, BIONICLE wouldn’t have lasted nearly as long as it did.
Is your name "Fabulous Fish"? 😂
@@MrEnKaye Indeed it is, thank you for recognizing it!
Peter's words at the end really moved me. You can feel the love they put into this small, "insignificant" game when you play it. They really cared, and it shows.
I was moved to tears the first time I read that “they could be heroes too” quote. Templar didn’t have to go that hard for us, but they did.
Very well done. Brings back lots of memories working with the Templar gang.
Well a huge thanks to you as well for your part in all this! Happy you found our channel!
@@Subpixel My pleasure. It was a special time for all of us.
artistic zenith of this franchise imo. great childhood memories aside, some really beautiful uses of light and color. pervading minimalism so the whole world was as cool as your imagination would allow. imo prevented this derpy little toy series from being just a flash in the pan...we shall never see its like again
No one talks about the timing of 9/11 and this game enough. “The people of the world are builders. But look into their hearts … and you will find that they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I WILL destroy you.”
I'm 28, and I cant help but smile when anything Bionicle is brought up. It defined my childhood and had such a lasting impact on me. I still have some of the sets on display, I still read the comics that came in the mail with my LEGO magazines, and I still have conversations about it with friends who were also captivated by Bionicle.
My brother in law came to hang out once, saw my 2004 collection on the shelf, and we ended up talking for hours about it. How awesome MNOG was, who our favorite characters were, what our favorite arcs were. I don't think I've done that for any other franchise, aside from Star Wars or LOTR, which says a lot about Bionicle if it's world can hang with the big dogs.
Note on the comics and their place in the narrative:
The comics were written by Greg Farshtey, however this was not the original plan. Basically, what occurred was that Greg, who was actually hired as writer for the LEGO Magazine, started sketching out a script for the fun of it and showed it to his boss who told him to keep working on it, as they needed the first comic done in *3 weeks* and the writer who was originally supposed to write it was unavailable. However, the comics came to impact the story presented in the Legend of Mata Nui game, as seen particularily in the scene where Kopaka and Pohatu first meet.
Source: th-cam.com/video/kVaqLD9roco/w-d-xo.html (I don't know the time stamp.)
Superb video. I remember playing the game as a kid, and how immersive it was at the time. It was and still is a great game that has age surprisingly well. I love how much research you put into this, even reaching out to the original developers and their logs. These guys put an insane amount of love into a free online flash game made to promote toys, and were able to turn it into an immersive world with an engaging story. Thank you for making this video and bringing a new perspective on the games development.
I'll never forget seeking the Makuta fight for the first time, it was cliche and I'd already read the books so I knew how it ended... but I'll never forget the chills I felt at the line: "I am nothing"
The ending is different from the books though, and also the books came out in 2003.
It's funny that the fact that computers were a lot slower back then added to how big the world of Mata Nui felt in MNOG. Bionicle's world-building is very introspective, but I remember having a lot of time to think ('meditate' almost, if that word isn't too pretentious) when waiting for a good 30 seconds to several minutes for the next screen in the Ta-Koro/Onu-Koro caves to load.
I maintain my stance that if G2 had made Okoto Online Game it would have worked.
Totally. MNOG turned a great tale about heroes into a timeless tale about a world.
Damn, thank you so much for making this. I just can't get enough of this game.
I discovered Bionicle in *2008*. To me, it was an epic saga about larger than life heroes fighting impossible odds at the core of the universe. Big stakes, big battles, big heroes.
All that changed when, three years later, I found MNOG.
It was like stepping into another world. I'd played adventure games before, but this was different. It drew you in so thoroughly, taught you so much about that world without making it obvious that it was teaching you. People often say that to them, Bionicle was more than a toyline, or even a story - it was a place, a place that had found it's way into our hearts. That's what MNOG embodied.
That single game moved me so profoundly, that pretty much every creative endeavour I embarked on after finishing it was inspired by it. As a gamedev, I can't count how many times I've tried to make something that captures that same sense of wonderment, of character, of *real*. I actually succeeded in sorts, and now regularly play a tabletop RPG on a strangely familiar elemental-themed island..
Before MNOG, Bionicle's early years were these strange, far off stories that seems almost trivial in comparison to the magnitude of 2008. After MNOG, they became my favourite. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the people at Templar shaped not only my childhood, but who I am today. Even my love for Maori culture stems from that one little flash game. That masterpiece from the time, before time...
This is an excellent piece. Well scripted, well researched, well produced, and it perfectly illustrates why MNOG remains one of the most universally-praised parts of the franchise. Good work.
I actually came onto the Bionicle fandom long after it died, but boy am I glad I got to experience the Online Game on BMP. It truly is a work of art. Lego has not managed to find a developer to make something like this since.
For me it pretty much the exact same
How’d you get into it retroactively, if you don’t mind me asking?
@@the_door_opener2622 Mask of Light somehow showed up in my recommendations in 2014 and I was the right age to enjoy it but not understand it fully, so I used the Bionicle wiki to fill in the gaps and it took off from there. 2014 was also the time a ton of the toys started to fill up in thrift shops, so I basically got to experience all the phases of a Bionicle fan within a year until G2 came out and we all got to experience the story anew.
So glad that Biomedia Project saved this priceless media, got it downloaded before the flash apocalypse! Also I'm impressed how much Peter talks about it like it's a passion project, and not just another gig, and it truly turned into something amazing.
I was 13 when the first sets came out in 2001, and I was instantly hooked. Bionicle had such an impact on my childhood and I owe it so much.
I will be mad if this video doesnt become super popular
big same
I'm mad.
Almost all of this was new to me, thank you so much. I love how no matter how much time I sink into reading about one of my favorite things ever, there's always something new to discover.
Very well put together video! I was pleasantly surprised to see my Ga-Koro beach artwork featured at 6:56
I actually corresponded with Gordon Klimes a few years ago and he was very generous on sharing info and other things from both MNOG and Final Chronicle development.
"In the early stages of preproduction we received some files from Saphire for visual reference. I don’t think they were in any sort of playable version, just 3D models of a few environments (not all of them). As I recall we had 3D models for Onu-Koro, Po-Koro, and I believe Ko-Koro which we used as a basis for our art. Ga-Koro and Le-Koro were pretty much left open to our interpretation so I had a lot of fun designing those. I think there was a concept illustration for the exterior of Ta-Koro but no interiors so I just made that up.
Lego sent us prototypes of the toys; Toa, Tohunga (Matorans), Turaga, and Rahi, and miscellaneous fauna. Our 3D artist modeled each piece from scratch which we then vectorized to work with in Flash. At first we tried to vectorize entire character animations but the line clean-up and coloring was too laborious, so we adopted a more compartmentalized approach, building character animations in a lego-like fashion. This also allowed us to color tint body parts as needed and build up a library of motions. These different approaches should be apparent when looking at the early Ta-Koro cutscenes compared to later ones.
We also received a story bible put together by Greg Farshtey which detailed the world, main characters, overall storyline for year one, and super secret spoilers of Mata Nui. The storyline was focused purely on the exploits of the Toa and their quest for the masks of power. This was all to be handled within the PC game and therefore off-limits to us at Templar. Instead we were tasked to do something with the throwaway Happy Meal villagers. All we had were names and one sentence descriptions of the Turaga and two main Tohunga per village. For instance Kapura’s description was something like “Not very smart, can travel fast by moving slow, farts fire.” The rest of the Tohunga we just made up as needed, submitting names for approval to Lego.
From these meager beginnings we fleshed out the characters and their stories, interweaving it through main story plot points that we weren’t allowed to show and introducing new Rahi to coincide with release dates for the toys. We worked one to two months ahead of each game update, and halfway through the year were told that the PC game had been cancelled. It now fell on us to tell the climax of the story with the final battle against Makuta and the rest is history.
After the success of MNOLG Lego showed particular interest in Hahli’s Quest, setting up a focus group with a bunch of kids to play test the beta version before release. It was weird sitting behind a one-way mirror watching them play our game and getting quizzed about it afterwards. The one thing they seemed to focus on was if anyone cared that the hero was a girl, and whether her bag should be called a purse vs satchel lol.
Production went smoothly for the most part though I think we suffered from featuritis, over-stuffing the game with ideas that we didn’t have time to properly follow through with. Again what we could show at the end of the game was restricted by the release of the Mask of Light movie, so the ending is all rather disjointed and ambiguous."
That is super interesting. Thanks for sharing! I wonder if they still have the prototypes and if they'd be willing to share images
Amazing further insight. Thanks!
What an excellent video! I used to play this game (and its sequel) over and over as a kid, and have gone back over the years to replay them several times. The art style, musical score, and world building were mind-blowing for me at the time. It still is! I always loved the stories of the matoran, who were like me as a kid, but such brave and diligent workers that took pride in what they did, be it play or work. I think the relative bleakness and hostility of Mata Nui as it was shown in the game and the comics were a huge part of that-the matoran had to stick together to survive, but they were always curious and exploring nonetheless. So many excellent images in the game-the beach, the observatory, the mask waterfall, the mountains, (the Ga-Koro assembly hall in the sequel was also standout for me as a kid), but I have never forgotten how curiously spooked I was by the matoran pacing back and forth in the burned-down forest outside Ta-Koro. It made me feel like one of the brave matoran going out and finally catching up to talk to him, leading to one of the many lines from Bionicle media that I still regularly quote: Turaga Vakama was teaching him to “go fast by moving slow”-something I’ve always thought about when dealing with personal stresses and anxieties. I really can’t state enough how impactful this game, its sequel, the comics, and Bionicle in general were on my childhood and overall outlook on life to this day, but I’m so delighted to see people still talking about this game all these years later-my friends are probably sick of how often I reference this game! MNOG and MNOGII, along with the comics, really fleshed out the world of Mata Nui in a way that I never felt was done with following storylines, with maybe the exception of Metru Nui. You’re definitely right-these games feel like much more than children’s stories, and I really hope more people are curious about going back to play these games for themselves if they get the chance.
Mata Nui Online Game still is one of my favorite games. Discovering the world of Mata Nui not through movies or text but by traveling this world by yourself, seeing the different tribes in their villages living their everyday routine, really immerses one into the story. Everything else focused on the Toa (which is to be expected of the main characters in this universe) but in MNOG the Toa were something mysterious and unknown, a legend you learn more about through tales, than their actual appearances.
For a game this size and especially for a flash game the world was filled with things that made the world so beloved and real. The fishers in Ga-Koro repairing their nets, the miners of Onu-Koro building a new tunnel or the citizens of Po-Koro enjoying a game of Kolhii.
The sound design also was done very beautifully, even though the heavy compression on the sound mildens the experience. I really like the soundtrack and I would love a release of a high-quality version of it. Maybe Justin Luchter or Templar Games still have the original files and could arrange something in this way...
With this game, Lego would have been able to make Bionicle not only a toy line but a complete world with additional sets of Matorans buildings and landscapes, something like Lego City but in the Bionicle world. But unfortunately, Lego did not and even reduced the number of characters in a series in the last years. Its successor Hero Factory was great for its new construction and better abilities for customization (from Series 2 onwards) but failed in storytelling and a believable world.
Bionicle was a great time in Legos history. It would be a great honor to have a re-release of the first series sets for the 20-year anniversary but I don't want another reboot. Bionicle lies in the past and will live further on in media archives and our memories.
PS: I would also love if a re-released soundtrack included other tracks e.g. that were used in The Borok Saga and other Bionicle Media made by Templar Studios. The orchestra and choir melody in "The Island-Wide Journey" and "The Wall of History" is absolutely beautiful even in flash format.
Listen for yourself (Last two tracks): biomediaproject.com/bmp/?mui_playlist=%2Fbmp%2Ffiles%2Fsfx%2Fv2.2.0%2FStreaming%2FAnimation%2520Music%2FWeb%2FRecent%2520Updates%2Fplaylist.js
Agreed. I've tried to reach out to Luchter before, however he says that he might have lost the files, but that he had the old files on CDs, but most of the CDs haven't survived.
This was on Soundcloud, and this was his message:
As far as the old music files, a few do exist, but most have not survived the years spent living on backup CD media.
And for a while, I was thinking about redoing the music as an updated soundtrack, but to do it right would be a big undertaking and it seemed a bit daunting so I shelved the idea for now. Also, I feel that sequels are never as good as the original, so it would be tough to make a new version "better". So, that's my feelings for now, but I'll let you know if I start moving in that direction.
Just watched this, and remembered that I had never played the game from start to finish, even though I have so much nostalgia from watching the cutscenes. So I pulled out my old Windows XP laptop that I originally played it on, and found that I never deleted the zip file from my downloads, so I just copied it to a USB and onto my Windows 11 PC, and played it through. It is now 5 a.m. and that was a good use of time.
This video is so important. It shows once again how Bionicle wasn't just another toy line, it wasn't one of Lego's last attempts to survive in the modern era and it wasn't just a line that became successful thanks to the work of a "dream team of great minds".
For more than 10 years, I kept buying and playing with tons of Bionicle sets, watched the movies, played the games, read the comics etc. and sharing those moments with some other friends, who usually got into the line for a year or so and then went on, while I stayed loyal to it because I always had this feeling that there was more behind all of it. I mean, I even had this recurring dream of finding old or new sets on store shelves (and still have it from time to time). There had to be a reasond behind all of this, I thought, but not knowing what it could be was a real pain for a long time.
Then, three epiphanies came:
1) discovering Christina Faber's story.
2) reading online about "The Dream", meaning A LOT of Bionicle fans share this dream of finding new/old sets.
3) this video.
Thanks to your work, I now understand why MNOG wasn't and isn't your average flash game. I always knew it, but couldn't figure how/why.
Simply put: Bionicle and the story of how Bionicle came to be is a tale of human passion (and struggle) to overcome the greatest evils and, most importantly, a story of retaliation to achieve what we're all meant to do and who we're meant to be.
Mata Nui was the Lego company, the Toa were the Bionicle creative team and the Matoran/Tohunga were us and, as the video tells us, we weren't those who needed to be saved, we recieved help from our Toa heroes but we're the ones who saved Mata Nui, the ones who saved Lego.
I remember seeing some Bionicle Stars in a store when i were 3 years old. I WAS TO FRICKING YOUNG
It's a good thing you still managed to get into pur legend, of the bionicle
I'm so jealous that people knew this existed as a kid... I got into Bionicle in 2008 but very quickly went back and collected a bunch of the older sets and saw the older films. Played Bionicle Heroes and a few newer flash games too.
But I had NO idea that the comics existed, the novels existed or the MNOG games existed... I never even saw anything about them online when I was looking up Bionicle stuff.
Makes me feel like I missed out on a big part of Bionicle in my childhood.
Thankfully I've read all the novels and comics a few times in recent years and am finally going to play the MNOG games for the first time soon.
The symbolism used in MNOG gives it an ancient feeling that almost makes it somewhat tangible if we compare it with our ancient civilizations.
The fight scene of the Toa Kaita against the Manas was the scariest shit to me when played MNOG. The dark visuals, the gritty electronic music perfectly befitting an underground battle and the design of the Manas were just the most tense thing i've seen at that age. It kind of started my love for gritty aesthetics in media. And it is impossible to overstate the artistic quality in MNOG's limited sound design and soundtrack, I mean damn they made all this with the crap available in the early 2000s, they literally made solid gold out of watery shit. MNOG really stands out amongst the commercial toy-tie-in games, as an influential and genuine experience that shaped the tastes and minds of those who played it back then. My dearest thanks to the developers.
This game was a foundational aspect to my childhood, I can still remember hiding in my dads closet with his PC and playing through MNOG even though I had used up all my “screen time” for the day.
Big same
I remember playing this game as it came out. My friends and I getting excited when a new chapter went live!
A+ video, man, thank you for making it. MNOG has been a fixture of my favorite pieces of entertainment since I was a 9 years old, and watching this really made me reflect on just how amazing of a little gem it was.
There is something to be said about how much it helps to hook people into your universe, by just letting players actually interact with it directly. Having a game like this that let you walk around, explore, live and adventure in the BIONICLE universe is without a doubt the #1 thing that made me care about BIONICLE to any extent. It made me feel like I was a part of it. I had some personal stake, some ownership and autonomy in said universe. It became home. If it weren't for MNOG, I never would have cared.
This video is amazing! I only finished the game for the first time recently- well, about a month or two ago. I then spent a Saturday a couple weeks after playing it again, finishing it in a couple hours.
Put it simply, there's no other game like it. There's no science fiction or fantasy setting that gives off the same feeling of an island of 'robots' with their own myths, legends and mysteries. Not even the later years of Bionicle gave off that exact feeling (not complaining, those years were awesome. I got started from 2006-7).
It's inspiring me to create my own game with elements of MNOG, though I'm still learning the basics in my free time.
I think that really is one of the most remarkable things about MNOG - it feels like this place has existed for centuries. It is fully formed in a way few works of fiction ever have been.
It's so nice to see an in depth look into what I had always considered a faint memory from my childhood, thanks for making this!
The part about Templar making matoran, the small and helpless 'children' to be the heroes of the story was so meaningful.
I never played MNOG during release, but it’s atmosphere of mystery certainly permeated Bionicle marketing because the sound and visual design of the CD-ROMs packaged with sets kept a lot of the tone. I did “play” MNOG 2, which is to say I got to watch Hahli bug out while walking endlessly to the door. The BMP version is more stable, so playing both games there finally gave me the chance to appreciate the mythos even more and cement my already fervent love for Bionicle. Thanks for making this. I don’t know why I never connected the development of the game’s final themes to 9/11 (since I grew-up in a world where that was all I knew). I really appreciate your digging and see other Bionicle fans do as well. Thank you.
✌
I loved the Bionicle films growing up. It's so cool!
To this day it's still the absolute best bionicle-related game or piece of media. Thank you Templar games!
Jesus, I spent hours on this game when I was a kid. It's still beautiful to this day, and you really did it justice with this video.
I'm honestly tearing up about how incredible this game is, and how my life would be completely different if it didn't exist. This set the *bar* and tone for Bionicle, I doubt it would have had anywhere near the cultural impact and lasting power it did if MNOG didn't exist. Not to mention how it forged my closest and longest lasting friendships.
This game was so instrumental to my early childhood; it set the standard of worldbuilding and immersion that no other game I've ever played has ever really come close. I remember after playing this I would walk around and try to think of areas of my neighborhood or house where small little Matorans could make a home that suited their theme. The Music, the simple but effective art style, it was all so brilliant.
I remember being mindblown that the sets came with points that I could spend on getting this game. That and desktop backgrounds. 90's/early 2000's internet was a trip.
Still one of my favorite videos on TH-cam. Such spectacular work.
This was an amazingly well-researched and well-edited documentary! The Mata Nui Online Game was a significant part of my childhood, and I'll never forget the first time I heard the comforting beats and glittering lightstones of Onu-Koro, or climbing up that volcanic staircase and hearing that eerily foreboding music while gazing up at the Red Star. In my opinion, this is hands-down the best piece of BIONICLE media, and something I think everyone should experience at least once. Thanks for this wonderful trip down memory lane!
(Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that almost everything that happens in this game has been canonized; Nuju always an interpreter, MNOG just didn't specifically state that he speaks in clicks and whistles. Heck, even the towers that took out the Manas were canonized as being heating towers sustaining the heat-loving Manas in the cold of Makuta's lair. It's a testament to the game's quality and impact that they canonized so much of it)
Correction: Lewa getting his Golden Kanohi before Kini-Nui is the one detail I can thnon-canon, but that was later retconned in the game anyway.
My first exposure to BIONICLE was my mum coming home one day with all 6 Toa Mata that were divided up between my 4 brothers and I, of which i got Gali.
Due to us only being 7-18 at the time we never got many of the early sets, aside from Turaga Onewa as a gift and 4 of the 6 Bohrok. (never got white or blue) Our eldest managed to get all the Toa Nuva and Bohrok Kal along with the Rahkshi, Makuta and Takanuva from 2003.
As time went on we started being able to get more, like most Toa Metru, save for Vakama & Whenua, all Vahki, Nidiki, Lhikan and basically all 05 sets save for Keetongu and the Red, Brown, Black & Blue Visorak. (the playsets don't count)
The 06 sets we got most of, save for the Matoran and Irnakk while for 07 we missed only Lesovikk.
2008-2010 were mostly collected, since they were mostly the canister sets, with only some of the vehicle sets missed like the Thornatus.
STARS was literally 6 figures so was simple to complete, as was the reboot but i only missed out on the final 5 figures (Ekimu XL, Umarak The Destroyer and the three beasts) cos they were in short supply as the final wave before cancellation.
In the interim between the end and reboot i managed to get most Hero Factory sets, save for the 2-pack from year 1, Speeda Demon, the latter Brain Attack wave (save for Jet Rocka and Dragon Bolt) and i never got any Invasion From Below sets.
I've seen that LEGO CREATOR anniversary set which has the derpy mini Tahu but i'm not paying £45 just for 5% of the entire set, cos i don't care about any of the other contents.
LEGO in general is kinda meh to me as it's mostly non-functional paperweights once built. BIONICLE/Hero Factory however were buildable action figures, so could actually be played with like a toy rather than just a, as i said a moment ago, paperweight.
LEGO have tried making buildable figures but they all use System bricks so the results tend to be lackluster.
Bringing BIONICLE back however would be difficult as apparently LEGO destroy the molds for discontinued lines fsr.
But on the topic of the actual video; i may have played a bit of MNOG1 but i KNOW i played MNOG2, though never got that far due to only having internet access during lunchbreaks at school.
This game was so goddamm beautiful. I remember when I got to the part where you had to swim under Ga-Koro to look for a missing gear piece, I would take my hand off the mouse, sit back, and take in the atmosphere. The underwater scenery, the swimming fish, and the music ❤️
I like that both MNOG and MYST open with the sound of waves and the player on the shore, well, a dock in MYST's case, but damn it's a neat parallel given MYST was an inspiration for Templar, I was 11 when MNOG came out and I was obsessed with it, despite dial-up internet meaning the game alternated between a 4-5 fps and 1 frame per every 10 or so seconds depending on what was happening on screen. I recall having a note pad with the Bionicle alphabet drawn on it and being excited I could read the letters where they appeared across the game world; translating signs and finding the "BEWARE THE SWARM!" scrawled across a wall in one spot got me super hyped for the Bohrok plotline, despite that only getting a short tease in the games finale and the figures not manifesting on store shelves until about a year or so later. What a great game, thanks for an awesome vid on the process behind it!
I was grateful to have good internet by the time I really got into the game in 02. But I remember it being pretty slow to load the first time I tried to play in like the fall of 01. I also remember trying to play it on dial-up at my Aunt's house and it being unbelievably slow. It always surprised me how much that early Bionicle online media was ahead of it's time just in terms of the technology standards. I always figured that, for at least the first couple of years, most kids wouldn't have had the internet speeds to really enjoy all that amazing content and would have just given up. Thus, I was surprised Lego kept putting so much into it. I'm sure glad they did though! It certainly changed my life, and it seems like the lives of pretty much every other person commenting on this video, plus many, many more.
Wow, I didn't know the development of the game was so deep, that they took inspiration from the cycle of violence brought about by 9/11, that they focused on the Matoran because they were a reflection of the children playing with Bionicles. I didn't realize it at the time, but that's definitely part of why I had such an affinity to the Matorans from MNOG as a kid. They're small and weak and awkward and clumsy, just like a small child. While the adults (the Toa) had their own adult problems, the kids found the bravery to stand up and help in their own way, and end up playing an instrumental role in the conflict.
Also the Turaga are the grandparents who watch the kids while their parents are working in this metaphor.
I was 11 in 2001, and had beaten the game Myst the year before, so the parallels were immediately familiar and a huge part of why I fell in love with MNOG. I also played it at a library computer!
The Mata Nui Online Game is an amazing game. I think what makes it work so well is the fact that it was more than a toy ad to the developers. It was a story that they genuinely wanted to tell. They could have made a throw away Flash game, and no one would have minded. They loved the world and characters, and you can feel that in the quotes you showed. they didn't call the Matoran the snow one, or the bad guy. He referred to them by their names. That love is what makes this game stand out among all other Lego themes in my eyes.
To this day it is one of my favourite video games and Bionicle is my favourite Lego theme of all time. This passion from the developers to Farshtey is one of many reasons why I think Bionicle is Lego's masterpiece.
Well, damn, I didn't expect to shed a few tears over a flash game from 2001, but here we are...
Same
Wonderful video, Subpixel. Really interesting to get this perspective into the different thought processes during this game and BIONICLE as a whole's '01 development. I hope Templar are very proud of their game.
This video was a real treat. MNOG was such a wonderful game filled with fun and lovable characters, and what Peter said at the end was truly beautiful. I'm also extremely impressed how much you got an interview.
I've always felt their were two stories in 2001; the Toa and the Matoran. The Toa's story was the typical hero's journey of learning to work together and beating the bad guy. While the Matoran's story was much more personal. I am surprised to find out that my favorite part of year 1 was a side project.
27:09 When the three Kopakas hit the glacier, only the real one's sword kicks up any snow. I've never noticed that until this video! :O
Hands down one of the best Bionicle related videos I've ever seen. Working in game development myself I always love getting some insight into how this stuff was made and the people behind it. Bionicle was always one of those things that really was much better than it had any right to be lol. You could really tell that for the people behing it it wasn't just a job, but that there was a lot of passion and hard work put into it, much like how you seem to be really passionate about the topic and obviously put a lot of effort into the making of this video. Honestly I think that's the one thing I love about Bionicle the most, that it inspired a generation of young people to create great things themselves. It definitely laid the foundation for me eventually becoming a game artist. The message by the president of Templar near the end was quite touching and really resonated with me, and is surprisingly thought provoking for a flash game made to promote toys lol. Videos like these prove to me that my passion for the franchise isn't just fueled by blind nostalgia, but that it was something truly remarkable that will forever have a very special place in my mind. Thanks to Templar and Lego for the great memories and also to you for this awesome video!
Incredible video. Got me emotional and shit.
My favourite part of the game was always the music and the world. It was a harsh environment, but was still a complete paradise I could escape to. Ga-Koro in particular feels like a utopic idealistic village. Every character felt fleshed out and had a purpose. When everything comes together and you recruit the friends you made along the way, it felt special, but I could never articulate why until you just laid it all out. Maybe I didn't notice it, but my brain did.
As a frequent enjoyer of your work, it is incredibly exciting to know you found and enjoyed this video. MNOG really was something else and I feel very privileged to have been able to make this video, and it’s been very cool to hear about everyone else’s experiences with it! I’d 100% live in Ga-Koro if given the chance.
I remember getting the G1 models and looking in awe at the cool final design on the canister as I built it, taking my sweet time until it was finished. On the outset, it looked so simplistic for a design, but the amount of parts that go into it are many and complex, mimicking us as humans inside and out. I fell in love with them from Day 1, and considered myself an old fan/diehard. But, somewhat embarrassingly, it is only recently that I discovered just how little I scraped from the metaphorical barrel of the Bionicle world. This is a great insight for me on what I missed out on (and am about to discover!) and just how much went into what was, for me, one of the coolest toy lines ever.
I played both MNOG's as a kid long time ago. Yet to this day I commonly feel something deep inside me attached to those two games, or rather their world and the universe which in a way is this "haven" for me. It's not just a part of my childhood, it's rather a still bursting with life inspiration which keeps me going searching for wonderful views and new interests
23:34 that... that is the story of bionicle. While the toa mata/nuva were built, all the subsequent toa were just matoran that were turned into toa. Anyone, from the popular kids to the least can become something. That is the beauty of bionicle.
Just recently found this game to play after being nostalgic for some older games and wow, it holds up so well. I've fallen in love all over again with this game and the story it tells. This video shows just how much love was put into this game. Thank you!
I'm really glad that you got in touch with the developers to make this video. When I recently replayed MNOG a couple of weeks ago, I had the same idea, and wanted to talk with the developers and understand what the process of making the game back in the early 2000's was like, but I think you did the game more justice than I ever could have.
This was an incredible video, and I'm grateful that you made it. This brought me back to the fall of 2001! I've played the game many times throughout the years, and it always held up. The one element I wish you touched on was the game acting as a stealth sequel to the GBA game "Tales of the Tohunga," with Vakama and other Turaga frequently referencing its events to Takua.
I never realized how intentionally thematic the assembling of "the Chronicler's Party" was by the developers. I always thought it was so cool how instead of the obvious hero matoran (who got McDonald's toys) you got the weird incidental characters, like the zen Kapura or ANOTHER HAFU ORIGINAL! It always saddened me, however, that MNOG the characters largely disappeared from the spotlight. Those McDonald's hero matoran all became Toa later on, but I want to know what happened to Tamura or Taipu. I hope you report sometime on how the formerly silent, nameless Chronicler ended up becoming such a major part of the story by the time of Mask of Light.
Glad you enjoyed it! An early draft of this video did mention “Tales”, but I ended cutting it to give time to those two big quotes near the end. However, I did sneak in a still from the game around the 7 minute mark.
And yeah, I totally agree about the forgotten Matoran. That overarching theme of “they could be heroes too” just hits me real hard. Templar didn’t have to go that hard on MNOG, but they did, for us.
Maku was one of the mcdonalds ones but got overshadowed by the later intoduced hahli
MaskedManta canonically, Tamaru, Macku, Kopeke, and Taipu reassembled the Chroniclers Company to help save the survivors following the defeat of Makuta at the hands of Mata Nui.
It's amazing that Templar wanted to make a Myst style game; when my mom saw me playing the Mata Nui game, she thought it resembled Myst and recommended it to me, giving me a new game to obsess over for years.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
BioMedia project just re-released this game post-flash-death. My dumb mac wouldn't play it before, so now is the first revisit I've had in about two or three years. Of note, I'm 23, so I first played this game around six or seven years old.
The game is really a masterpiece. It holds itself in its own power, and generously gives that power to all of its players and everyone who chooses to continue believing in childlike awe. It doesn't pander. It just, does. I love the game, and I love its message. That while everyone around you seems to hold so much power, and that the only freedom you seem to have is to watch, you can still be important. You can still hold your oddball friends close. And it illustrates the magnitude of the powerful being gracious, humble, and caring. The Toa in this game are the heroes, just like you said - but they see the chronicler as just as essential as they are, if not more. I like to live in a world where I feel just as essential as those whose power I won't ever hold or understand. And I also love finding power in exploration.
This game is dope, your video is dope. Again, thanks for sharing.
Well said. And many same heres
Man I know 9/11 impacted everything, but it is crazy to see it reflected in a humble flash game
I still get chills whenever you hear the track at 16:00. I actually played this game closer to around, 2008 when I got into the theme, and for a young teenager at the time, I never even considered how old the game was. There's such a timelessness to the art, the music, the characters. You can play the game in 2001 or 2021 and you'll still get the same experience. And I never even considered how the cutscenes had all those limitations on them. You don't even notice the violence being hidden when you actually play the game. It's such a creative way to work around it while still presenting everything as action packed and thrilling. And having each toa show up only in climatic moments preserved such an air of mystery about them, which only made the world they were helping save stick out all the more. This video was incredibly fascinating and honestly the quality of it speaks for itself. Thank you for all this insight into what, for me, is probably one of the most impactful games I've ever played.
This game and surrounding publications had a huge effect on me. Recently (ish) I made one of the Mata Nui stones to 3D print it, and obviously I called it "another Hafu original" when I put it on Thingiverse
I personally believe MNOG is the absolute magnum opus of Bionicle, and that comes from someone who didn't get to play it until 2016. I was too young to experience it when it was new, and then it kind of flew under my radar. But when I finally found it, it was truly an ethereal experience.
Thank you so much for making this video.. This game right here was my entire childhood. It is the foundation of my personality and tastes. I hold this game not just close but right in my heart. This is more than a masterpiece.. the work of Gods. The philosophies of the all the creators that you explained in the video are gems of wisdom that have transcended the game to an all-pervasive emotion.
I don't have enough words to explain how much I love BIONICLE and especially the world depicted in MNOG it is impossible for me to seperate the two. I've been a fan of many things throughout the years, Transformers, Gundam... But BIONICLE holds a very special place for me.this is an incredible video, thanks a lot for making it ! And I hope one day I'll be able to create something that I'll proudly show to these people responsible for the amazing childhood I've got to thank thel for everything they've given me.
I always end up coming back to this game and all the stuff that comes from it. The immersion, the art, the music, everything is just perfect
I was interested in LEGO Star Wars, and as Bionicle came along I was HOOKED. I bought various Bionicle sets, read the books and comics, watched the films, and of course played this Flash game as much as I could. True I stopped by the time the Hordika toyline came, but at least the memories I have of Bionicle will be another source of my childhood I have left.
Of course if I want to play MNOG again, BioMedia Project has that covered.
Thank you for making this video. It felt like unboxing a favorite childhood toy held in the storage shed.
How do I even pick a favorite memory? Where do I start?
With how my brother and I struggled so hard with the puzzle that opened Le-Koro that we recruited our Dad? How the Kaiata were so cool that I would later find plural people/systems to be cool, too? Or all that time fiddling with the flute even though I had the real thing.
But the best things are a bit less tangible: it opened up a whole world to me when I needed it most. I'd been bullied in elementary school and I didn't have what you'd call "close friends" when I finished 6th grade. After stealing my brother's copy of the comic, I poured over the website and played the game. Next thing I knew, I had found a story, a world, and even a fandom that welcomed me with opened arms and did not judge me for petty reasons. That meant everything to me.
This game, and this video as well, perfectly capture why Bionicle was special. All the memories it created and all. To this day there are interviews or statements from people who worked hard on it in some ways, maybe animation for a movie or a comic book or something. Or even people who are still working for lego. And most of them say that it had massive potential and was a property unlike any other, some of them wanted to do something with it even after their patch of work was done. Higher ups at Lego had no goddamn clue what they had on their hands. To some extent, they still don't. They turned it into convoluted sci-fi nonsense later in its life but damn, the legend of Bionicle truly is legendary.
Thank you so much for making this. The game randomly popped into my head and I had the same curiosity about its development and developers, but I was not expecting to be so moved!
Something kept tickling in my head about the timeline: “I vividly remember playing with technics like this pre-2000”.
I had totally forgotten about Throwbots! Bionicle was not made in a vacuum. It was an evolution.
Wow... I was wondering it was my fever dream I played game and was not sure if even anyone else ever knew it. Here in Europe, nobody knows about it. Bionicles themselves yes, may be they recall as series of toys, but flash game... I felt quite lonely to not have anyone to share feels about it that time.
And now seeing this video here on youtube, talking about love put in to this gem of gaming... puts sweet tears in my eyes. Thank you for sharing this beautiful research.
I joined the bionicle fan base too late to play this game originally but you can bet I'm already loading up biomedia project, that video was fantastically written and brought me alot of joy, so thank you
I'm sure that long after December 20th, this game will still be played and bring joy to both young and old fans. Like Doom, it's somewhat eternal.
I remember seeing the cutscenes of the first two cutscenes game back in 2003, shaking in fear. Over the years, TH-cam connected me with the game, until in 2012 when I finally managed to track it down on Biomedia.
I completed a playthrough of this game yesterday and by coincidence stumbled upon this video haha. This game and this franchise mean so much to me and I found this insight into the development of the game incredibly valuable! Nothing tops the 2001Bionicle aesthetic imo, even today it feels so shrouded in mysticism and steeped in atmosphere. The ending with Makuta gives me chills and this first year of Bionicle was very existential in its story and its themes of creation, destruction, and the universe. What really chills me is the foreshadowing of events that happened almost a decade later, with the robotic figure of Mata Nui when he's revealed in 2009 appearing on the telescope on the beach, and how Mata Nui is Maori for "Great Mask", foreshadowing that the island of Mata Nui in fact the mask of this colossal being.
Hi, I came here from BZPower's homepage. Congrats on getting your video mentioned! Anyways, my memorable experience with MNOG is as follows:
I was nine years old when I first started playing and by that time Ga-Koro (at the very least) had already opened up, so in effect my introduction to the game was finding Maku on the beach and going to help save her village. From there, the exploration and puzzle solving aspects drew me in and I kept playing it on a semi-regular basis until some time after the Le-Koro chapter went up for reasons I can no longer remember. And though I never played it through to the end until its re-release, MNOG is what officially got me hooked on Bionicle. It presented the island of Mata-Nui not as just the setting of Bionicle's story, but as a setting that was _alive._ I wasn't seeing the island from the perspective of a Toa, but from that of Takua, one of the Matoran they were trying to protect. I got to see what life was like for those villagers when the Toa weren't around. And that brings me to what made MNOG so memorable for me.
You see, because the game was largely presented in a first-person view, and none of the characters addressed Takua by name until the very end, it was easy to think it was *me* on the island of Mata-Nui. Not me-as-Takua, but me PERIOD. _I_ was the one travelling the island, helping the villages where I could. _I_ was the one witnessing events unfold across Mata-Nui. _I_ was the one responsible for bringing everyone together for the final battle. Is it selfish of me to think that? Maybe, but who's to say the same can't be said of anyone else who's played MNOG? Whether it was intentional or not, having the player see things from Takua's *literal* point-of-view was a stroke of genius for Templar.
All well said!
And I once pondered that myself. I do think that was the genius of Templar (how much was intentional or accidental genius, I don't know). I still wonder exactly how much and what elements where all pre-planned. You would almost think that they started making the game intending for you to just be an anonymous character travelling around the island, and that only part-way through its production, when the game was suddenly tasked with telling the end of the main 2001 storyline, they then had to make you a real character because your role became so important in the story. However, the story and all media for Bionicle was so planned out that I don’t think that could be true. The most obvious reason being that, in terms of story continuity, MNOG follows directly from the first Gameboy Advance game, where you play as Takua, and he has suffered amnesia right before the start of MNOG.
The first-person view, coupled with the amnesia, which parallels you as the player knowing nothing, is obviously what created the discovery mechanic, which was originally the whole purpose of the game. But all those elements became integral to the intrigue, sense of mystery, and immersiveness of the game.
Less can be more, and Templar obviously knew it. I think the simplicity, lack of direction, and drip-feeding of information were so critical to this game. As complex as the game’s story got, the world itself was so rich that, just by wandering around, you would come up with far more questions than the game would ever answer for you - or that all the rest of the Bionicle story could answer for you, for that matter. That’s part of what makes this arguably the most enduring piece of Bionicle media.
And even though this game is not canon, I think it’s brilliant (or a happy accident) that all who played it got to experience this game so personally, and thus to form such a strong personal identification with Takua, only for him to go on and become the main character of the movie and the Toa of Light in 03!
We could live vicariously through his journey in the rest of the story.
I’m sure Takua became the favorite Bionicle character of any young, impressionable kid who got absorbed into MNOG.
@@triplflip900 I would say MNOG is more semi-canon (at least) than non-canon, as in some events in the game were retconned by later media while others were at least given a small nod.
For an example of something that got retconned we have how the Toa Mata got their Golden Kanohi masks. The game shows the Toa having already gotten them before coming to the Kini-Nui (we even see Lewa get his shortly after the battle at the Nui-Rama hive) and switching to them from their signature masks before descending to the Mangaia. The first Bionicle Chronicles book would later have the Toa come to the Kini-Nui and receive their Golden Kanohi there in exchange for all their Great Kanohi, and that version of events was made canon.
As for what got referenced later on we have Gali's mental link with Takua (which allowed him to witness the Toa Kaita's battle against the Manas). This was referenced in the last Bionicle Legends book by Takua himself (who had since become Toa Takanuva) as a way for Gali to prove his identity. It also retroactively foreshadowed that Takua was actually a disguised Av-Matoran rather than a Ta-Matoran with off-color components.
Amazing video, I wasn't expecting to get emotional lol wow. Need to replay this game soon
Bionicle, and most particularly MNOG, was what ignited my love of stories and the details of worlds and histories at an early age. I have always come back to MNOG as a uniquely beautiful work, and my connections with others who feel as strongly about it years later as I do have confirmed it to be more than mere nostalgia. Bionicle and MNOG had much to do with what led me to becoming a historian and lover of narrative in all forms in my adult life.
Curiously enough, I also started work on a project very similar to this one not long ago, and I still have my 26-page script. You hit on most of the same technical and thematic points as I was set to do, and I feel your final result is much superior to what I would have produced. This is the documentary which those of us for whom MNOG will always have a special place in our hearts long imagined. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Bravo and well spoken dude! This is one for the history books... Another Hafu original xP
I was 12, and it was so beautiful. That's understandable; the mystery is that every time I look again, it gets even more beautiful. I've never been able to tell whether the nostalgia goggles get thicker as I age, or if there's really something there, and I'm able to appreciate it just a little more every time. This video showed me it wasn't a childhood mirage. It was a fluke of narrative brilliance which no one really planned, to launch a story centered around the highest stakes possible: a living world full of ordinary people, holding their ground in the shadow of mythic conflict. "The war would come, but not until next month, in the real world as on Mata Nui."
Love it. I also still really like how the final battle is not good vs. evil. It stood out to me as a kid and I think is something that is lost in a lot of Bionicle’s other media.
Randomly remembered this game and look up videos about this and just happened to find this and was hooked, amazing video, it is insane how little subscribers you have with this level of content
A wonderful video, it's great to see all these bit of information put together. Thank you for making this :)
This video was great! Thank you for making it!
Really great video. As an adult reflecting on my entire childhood spent buying and building the sets over the entire original run of Bionicle and consuming all the media, MNOG is the single most definitive thing I love about the series. There’s something so incredible about that first introduction to it all, the mystery and mysticism, the world building and character building, the art and the sound and the music. MNOG IS Bionicle for me, more than anything else. And I still own a LOT of the sets.
Amazing work, sir. Thank you
Thank you so much for this.
Great watch. Thanks for making it.
I LOVE this game. And now I love this video. Well done.
Amazing video! Keep up the good work!
I gotta replay this soon. Your video and learning all that makes me love it more than ever!
This game blew my mind at the time and it still does today. Thanks for the awesome video!
This is amazing. Thank You!
This was an amazing video! Definitely brought back some good memories, keep up the good work!
Fantastic job, excellent video! Brought back a lot of memories and added a lot of depth. I loved seeing the creative, business and real world sides that went into the game.