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Playin' it Old School


TinkerTech

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So I dug up The Old MNOG and MNOG II flash games last night, partially because I was curious if they still worked on my mac. (They do) I proceeded to waste an hour playing MNOG when I was supposed to be doing my Directing Homework.

 

I still think LEGO should make a game like these for the new generation. They were so much fun, and they don't have to be considered Canon!

 

 

And I will not mention the 15 minutes I wasted wandering around the Po-Wahi desert trying to remember my next step...

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I still think LEGO should make a game like these for the new generation. They were so much fun, and they don't have to be considered Canon!

 

I am very much disappointed that we didn't get an Okoto Online Game. I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but it was that game which attracted me to BIONICLE in the first place. The sets were cool, and the comics where sufficient, but that game made it all come alive for me.

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Same here. It was really fun to see the people the Toa were sent to protect, and their culture. I just went back and watched the old flash videos too. Fantastic writing, even though there is no voice acting. (And this was before there was an official stance on Romance in BIONICLE - Huki and Macku are soooo cute together!)

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I would love an online adventure game in the vein of the Mata Nui Online Game more than anything. But I can see why it wouldn't be considered practical—there are a huge number of complicating factors.

 

-Cost/Amount of Work. An adventure game needs more than just developers. It needs writers. And for a company serving as many markets as Lego does, it needs translators. That can't be emphasized enough. When the Mata Nui Online Game was first released, the Lego website only existed in three languages. Today, it exists in more than 20—with each demanding a comparable level of content.

 

-Accessibility. A screen-tapping linear game like the Mask of Creation game may not have a lot of depth—but at the same time, that means almost anyone can beat the whole thing and get the full experience. Contrast the Mata Nui Online Game, which not only required young players to have a decent reading level (plus an actual lexicon to refer to for difficult or invented terms), but was generally non-linear. I consider myself a huge Bionicle fan, but even I didn't actually BEAT the game until years after it was released—heck, I never got past Ga-Koro. And when the purpose of your game is to convey your brand's story, it's not very effective if fans can't make it through the whole thing.

 

-Focus. The Mata Nui Online Game introduced fans to the world of Bionicle, as well as its inhabitants. Yet how many of those inhabitants were actually available to buy? Not the villagers, who were at best available through a fast food promotion and at worst unobtainable. Not the villages themselves, or most of the props that gave them life. The only sets in 2001 were the Turaga, the Toa, and the Rahi—and the latter two were only featured minimally over the course of the game. Would an Okoto Online Game be any better? Maybe. But I think a focus on the Toa would diminish the quaint feel that made the Mata Nui Online Game special.

 

In summary, the Mata Nui Online Game was anything but a typical promotional game. But while that was its strength as far as immersion and storytelling were concerned, it was a huge weakness when it came to actually promoting the products effectively to the widest possible audience. So while I'd love to see another game like that, I have my doubts as to whether it will ever be practical enough to happen.

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