Anyway, MNOG is really neat. Maybe a little underwhelming coming back to it after all these years, but I still think it’s a good example of flash adventure games from this period. I also like that they went with making the main character an observer to the Cool Heroes rather than one of the Cool Heroes themselves. It wouldn’t have fit to have, say, Tahu go around doing adventure game stuff.
Hello, @moderators, this LP is done and can go to Completed. Please keep it open such that future generations may continue the conversation.
I agree the mass of parts is cool, and it fits the feel of the game well. It also makes sense for Makuta as a spirit to lack a definite physical form. If Legend of Mata Nui had had a design for Makuta, we probably would have seen that instead, but it seems Saffire had pretty much no idea what they were going to do for the final level of LoMN.
The return Lego got on the MNOLG was probably pretty good, though like you said it’s impossible to know for sure. Bionicle in 2001 had a lot of things telling stories set in that world (for example, I think the Tohunga Happy Meal toys came with mini-comics), but nothing told the big, overarching Story, because LoMN never came out. The MNOLG ended up being that backbone. My guess is that it didn’t create many new fans, but it probably flipped a lot of people from being casual fans who got like a Toa and a Happy Meal toy to being invested, long-term fans who would be buying lots of sets in the future.
And the game was probably pretty cheap to make, too.
I tried out Knights Kingdom as a kid. Bionicle just looked cooler, so that’s several points in its favor before you even get to the story side. That’s always going to count more than any Flash game, no matter how atmospheric it is. And Bionicle had Happy Meal toys and comics you could buy in the grocery store, which seems like a great marketing position to be in to me.
But the more compelling story (or more accurately, the more compelling world) on Bionicle’s side was surely a factor, too. Thinking back on it, Knights Kingdom took some weird lessons from Bionicle. Like, all the knights were named after their home province, like how the Toa have names related to their village. Only in Bionicle’s case the villages are named after the Toa, whereas in Knights Kingdom I guess every knight from Talonjay has Jay in his name or something. Did you think I only bought Tahu because he has ‘Ta’ in his name?
That’s definitely an aspect of the MNOLG’s success. In any story, no matter who your protagonist is or what they’re doing, it becomes ‘normal’. You need a Chronicler Watson to give some perspective.
I’m kind of burned out on Bionicle now, so my next LP will be…something that isn’t Bionicle. I’m not going to reveal my next project (partly because I haven’t 100% decided yet), but I will give…a hint! My next LP…is not the greatest JRPG of all time.
