balljoint dog Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 (edited) Battle for Mata Nui was a Macromedia Shockwave game released during 2002. In this real-time isometric strategy game, you control the Matoran, Toa, and Turaga of Le-, Ta-, and Ga-Koro as they try to fend off the Bohrok swarms. As a kid, the sprites in BfMN looked odd to me, but the only thing I noticed was that Tahu has Vakama's firestaff instead of his normal fire sword. However, when I ripped the assets from the game recently, I gave the sprites a closer look, and noticed all sorts of interesting things: (special thanks to r543 for noticing the slizer-like torsos.) From the number of Slizer elements, especially considering that the Boneheads of Voodoo Island used Slizer heads as feet, I think these sprites are based off of undocumented prototype 3D models. How those pre-2001 models ended up being used as reference for a 2002 game is a mystery, though. My best guess is that when Lego commissioned this game, they sent the game devs a bunch of miscellaneous assets without vetting them too carefully. This would also explain why some elements are reused from the 2001 Bionicle GBA game. Once I finish ripping the Bohrok sprites and the background tiles, I plan on submitting all the assets to Spriters' Resource. Until then, here's what I have done: https://imgur.com/a/fJIwXuq EDIT 4/28/20: I finally ripped all the sprites, and with more accurate colors, too! Check it out, y'all. Edited April 29, 2020 by balljoint dog For posterity 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Inika Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Very interesting. I've never played the game before, but I find this kind of behind-the-scenes stuff that affects the finished product so fascinating. 2 Quote "You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your future is an empty book. You must find your own destiny, my brave adventurer." -- Turaga Nokama Click here to visit my library! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister N Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 It seems to me that this torso looks like a Slizer only because of its unusual angle. It looks like this is actually the same torso that we saw on other Toa prototypes. In this video you can see especially how deep this hole is. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Keksalot Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 6 hours ago, Mister N said: It seems to me that this torso looks like a Slizer only because of its unusual angle. It looks like this is actually the same torso that we saw on other Toa prototypes. In this video you can see especially how deep this hole is. Man...watching that was like having some sort of terrifying fever dream about Tahu recolors doing...I actually don't want to know what those noises were. I really, really do not need to know in what circumstances the Toa would make those noises. 2 1 Quote Rule #1: Always listen to Kek. Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't. Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xboxtravis Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Sir Keksalot said: Man...watching that was like having some sort of terrifying fever dream about Tahu recolors doing...I actually don't want to know what those noises were. I really, really do not need to know in what circumstances the Toa would make those noises. Well I want to know what the answer to the word scramble game is at the end of the video. 1 Quote All aboard the hype train! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Keksalot Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Xboxtravis said: Well I want to know what the answer to the word scramble game is at the end of the video. It's in Russian, so you'd need someone who actually knows the tongue to solve it, since it doesn't translate to a real word. Russians of BZP, heed my call and translate this thing! 1 Quote Rule #1: Always listen to Kek. Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't. Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 43 minutes ago, Sir Keksalot said: It's in Russian, so you'd need someone who actually knows the tongue to solve it, since it doesn't translate to a real word. Russians of BZP, heed my call and translate this thing! There are subtitles on the video! provided by Mister-N, in fact. 2 Quote believe victims. its actually not that hard, and youd look kind of bad if you were to, say, side with an abuser because theyre your friend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister N Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 2 hours ago, Sir Keksalot said: It's in Russian, so you'd need someone who actually knows the tongue to solve it, since it doesn't translate to a real word. Russians of BZP, heed my call and translate this thing! This mysterious word is "ВОЗДУХА" ("AIR"). And as Peri said there are subs in English 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balljoint dog Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 12 hours ago, Mister N said: It seems to me that this torso looks like a Slizer only because of its unusual angle. It looks like this is actually the same torso that we saw on other Toa prototypes. In this video you can see especially how deep this hole is. Thanks for sharing this! I don't think I've seen these prototypes before. It's true that the torso in this video looks a lot like the sprites, but the sprites don't seem to have the same narrow waist or the hole in the pelvis. Of course, they're so small that there's a lot of guesswork involved. It's also interesting to me that the builds in the video look more like the final sets than these sprites do... except for Gali, where the opposite is true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Keksalot Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 2 hours ago, Peri said: There are subtitles on the video! provided by Mister-N, in fact. I know, I watched it with subs. Doesn't make it less...unnerving... Quote Rule #1: Always listen to Kek. Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't. Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Kohran Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Does anybody know why Makuta is shown with a Vahi? Was it meant to be his in an early version of the story? And if this video was meant to announce Bionicle, why did it use what I guess were prototypes of the Toa? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister N Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 10 hours ago, balljoint dog said: Thanks for sharing this! I don't think I've seen these prototypes before. It's true that the torso in this video looks a lot like the sprites, but the sprites don't seem to have the same narrow waist or the hole in the pelvis. Of course, they're so small that there's a lot of guesswork involved. It's also interesting to me that the builds in the video look more like the final sets than these sprites do... except for Gali, where the opposite is true. Oh, I see. these bodies really look very strange However, your find is in any case very curious, because we have never seen the Slizer heads on the Toa feet before 8 hours ago, Sir Kohran said: Does anybody know why Makuta is shown with a Vahi? Was it meant to be his in an early version of the story? I think it was just an 'evil-looking' placeholder until they came up with Infected Hau logo. As you can see all Toa have only Hau. It seems that designs of other masks were unfinnished yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distorted Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 14 hours ago, Sir Kohran said: Does anybody know why Makuta is shown with a Vahi? Was it meant to be his in an early version of the story? And if this video was meant to announce Bionicle, why did it use what I guess were prototypes of the Toa? To add to Mister N's post above; the Vahi was the first mask to be created by Lego and was used as a placeholder in other media, including this early test video posted by Advance: 3 Quote bonkle choons for your ears bonkle sets in great condition w/ instructions and canisters for your collection (ebay) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister N Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Well, I tried to build this weird prototype. To be honest, I don’t understand how they could fit gears there, because there is less space inside than the original Toa have, and sprites show that the prototype body is narrow. I suppose that they glued some parts, and then gears can be placed instead of beams. Spoiler 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Inika Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Now that is definitely interesting to look at. Quote "You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your future is an empty book. You must find your own destiny, my brave adventurer." -- Turaga Nokama Click here to visit my library! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Presto Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 It's fascinating finding all of the slizer DNA in Bionicle. It certainly makes sense, but these images really make the evolution seem much more gradual than I had thought. Quote Jaller Inika looks like C-3PO and I hate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daler99 Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 On 2/20/2020 at 11:22 AM, Mister N said: Well, I tried to build this weird prototype. To be honest, I don’t understand how they could fit gears there, because there is less space inside than the original Toa have, and sprites show that the prototype body is narrow. I suppose that they glued some parts, and then gears can be placed instead of beams. Hide contents Is that torso made out of parts from Slizers? This is a really cool look at the iteration process for the sets we all know and love. Quote ~Daler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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