How a BIONICLE Flash Game Launched LEGO’s Comeback

Photo by InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The year is 2001, and LEGO is in trouble. They were only a few years removed from mass layoffs and the first loss in company history. Years of declines in revenue had left the company in a precarious financial situation, with perhaps only LEGO Star Wars keeping them afloat. LEGO needed something big – and fast. Luckily for them, they had a revolutionary IP in the works, one that influenced an entire generation of millennials and boomers. Two prior Technic-based lines – Slizers in 1999 and RoboRiders in 2000 – had laid the groundwork, offering a futuristic theme and unique functions. But these lines were one-offs, never meant to last. The ride-or-die line was coming in 2001 – BIONICLE.

Enter BIONICLE

BIONICLE – a portmanteau for “biological chronicle” – marked LEGO’s first foray into an original, story-based action property. LEGO, working with the Danish design agency Advance, sought to create an epic story that would enthrall young boys paired with cool action figures that could fly off store shelves. Despite the lack of a movie (that wouldn’t come until 2003), LEGO opted for an innovative marketing strategy – they would market the toy line like a movie, with a major focus on the internet and video games. The main story of the line would be told through two outlets – Saffire’s Game Boy Advance title Lego Bionicle: Tales of the Tohunga and an accompanying PC release, Lego Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui. Both were planned for release late in 2001 – but the line would go onto store shelves in early summer. What to do?

Enter Templar Studios. This game company had worked with LEGO before and had extensive experience in Flash. After a successful project for LEGO’s Mindstorms line, the company was approached about creating a project for BIONICLE. The plan was simple: Templar would produce content for the official BIONICLE website and update it throughout the year. This, paired with the BIONICLE comic line and upcoming video games, would keep kids invested in the story all year long. Templar pitched a unique idea: a Myst-style, point-and-click adventure game. LEGO loved the idea – but they didn’t give Templar access to the line’s major characters, the heroic Toa, as their story would be told elsewhere. They also weren’t given access to all of the story bible, nor did they consult it – strictly speaking, the game wasn’t wholly canon. Instead, Templar had to base their game around the island’s Tohunga villagers – a decision that would prove to be genius.

The Mata Nui Online Game

The first episode of what is now called the Mata Nui Online Game (or MNOG for short) launched in January 2001 – months before the toy line itself. Players were greeted with what might be the single most famous image in BIONICLE lore – a single canister, washed up on the beach. On one end were a set of footprints; on the other, a cliff with a telescope and a couple of statues.

This singular image alone has ingrained itself into a generation of Bionicle fans. It’s a stunning image – one that can reach young and old alike. And it launched the mystery of BIONICLE. Who was in the canister? Where is he going? The beauty of Mata Nui Online Game – and the key to the success of BIONICLE – lies in what comes next. The player, rather than learning from text or a movie, could instead explore themselves. Going along the footprints granted a glimpse of Toa Tahu and entrance to Ta-Koro, the village of fire. Going to the cliff showed a telescope said to predict the future and an abstract, silent depiction of the game’s lore.

Future episodes revealed even more. A village held captive underwater, only to be saved by the swift Toa Gali. A village wrecked with disease and betrayed by one of their own. A Toa with his mind controlled by Makuta, with another having to fight him for the safety of his village. This sense of continual mystery and exploration is vital to understanding how BIONICLE succeeded. Another element is the same – the dialogue. Mata Nui Online Game is aimed at kids, but the dialogue is for all. It doesn’t talk down – it talks at a level kids can understand, but one that respects their intelligence. The stakes are clear – the consequences and situation are dire, and the reward is great. The final battle between the Toa and the evil Makuta, for example, is surprisingly abstract – Makuta declares himself to be “nothing” and therefore incapable of being defeated, leaving the Toa to ponder the very nature of their fight, if ever so briefly. It’s a fun experience to play to this day even for the stunning artwork alone.

The Legend Continues

The Mata Nui Online Game is beloved by virtually anyone who has ever had a BIONICLE toy and a computer in the early 2000s, and it’s hard not to see why. This game only runs maybe 3-5 hours at most (still longer than many of the actual BIONICLE video games!), but its impact is deep. Its stylized, beautiful depiction of the world remains the definitive view of the island of Mata Nui for most. The game was so popular that, despite its liberties with the canon, LEGO mostly rolled with it – with the infamous exception of declaring that romantic love, as depicted in the game, is not canon. Years later, it was remastered and released again by LEGO – and then again by Templar themselves in 2012. Today, the game can be played at the BioMediaProject, offline and with no need for a Flash Player. Time has been kind to the game indeed.

And what of BIONICLE? It became LEGO’s cash cow for their transitional, rough years, becoming one of the most profitable toy lines in the world. With a run lasting until a definitive story conclusion in 2010, it paved the way for LEGO’s return to the cultural forefront that it has today – and for future LEGO lines like Ninjago to carry the torch of a story-based property. In my opinion, this incredible run lays almost solely at the hands of Mata Nui Online Game. This game deserves to be remembered as what it is: one of the most influential video games of its time. Few games can credit themselves for saving the company that created them – and even fewer of those were released for free. But thanks to Templar Studios and their incredible game, a whole generation of kids become hooked on a legend that is beloved to this day.