Bionicle: Masks Of Power Fan Game’s World Looks Gorgeous

A new trailer for Team Kanohi’s Bionicle: Masks of Power is grabbing attention with lush, living environments beautifully rendered in Unreal Engine 4. Though the original Bionicle series has been in retirement for more than 10 years, its dedicated fanbase has kept the spirit of the franchise alive, and Masks of Power is developing into a visually impressive torchbearer for the fan revitalization effort.

Bionicle: Masks of Power draws on the first wave of Bionicle canon, taking place on the mysterious island of Mata Nui. LEGO published several in-universe games set on Mata Nui during the primary Bionicle arc from 2000 to 2003. Almost all of LEGO’s officially licensed games were set during that first arc, speaking towards its popularity. Instrumental among them was the Flash-based point-and-click Mata Nui Online Game (MNOLG), which was hosted on the Bionicle website. MNOLG‘s accessibility as a browser game introduced the aesthetic and visual themes of its titular island to a wide audience. From its environmental teaser, Masks of Power utilizes many of the design façades first expressed in MNOLG.

The teaser, posted to Team Kanohi’s YouTube, dives into the biomes of Mata Nui’s six regions to set the stage for Bionicle: Masks of Power‘s gameplay. Tonal weather effects and rich lighting put the trailer in a league of its own from its outset, and detailed modeling in its flora and landscapes gives those environments a significant sense of realism despite being sourced from LEGO. The vivid green of Le-Koro’s ferns and the radiant lightstones in Onu-Koro’s mines have a more palpable sense of life to them than even Bionicle‘s first animated film. The focal points of the teaser are arguably Mata Nui’s endemic creatures called Rahi. Masks of Power appears to envision the varmint Rahi with the same level of detail the Bionicle sets were built with: almost all of their complex, interlinking Technic parts are visible, giving Masks of Power an enviable level of presentation that wasn’t possible during Bionicle‘s introduction in the early 2000s.

Team Kanohi’s stunning project is not the only Bionicle fan game underway, though. Bionicle: Quest for Mata Nui is another example that targets the same arc in Bionicle‘s plot. In development since 2014, Quest for Mata Nui boasts one of the original voice actors from the formal Bionicle media, and its trailers have considerable acclaim within the LEGO franchise’s lingering community.

Instead of imagining the games as competitors, Masks of Power and Quest for Mata Nui together illustrate the vivacity of Bionicle‘s vision and the staying power of its fantastical, bio-mechanical universe. Time seems no boundary to the passionate creativity of Bionicle‘s community, who herald it as LEGO’s unforgettable first foray into compelling storytelling through a line of action figures. Team Kanohi expects to release a demo for Bionicle: Masks of Power soon, and fans can expect a much-needed immersion into nostalgia once it does.

Source: Team Kanohi/YouTube

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