Hands-On: Cartoon Network's Kid-Oriented MMO

Hands-On: Cartoon Network's Kid-Oriented MMO

Hands-On: Cartoon Network's Kid-Oriented MMO


SAN FRANCISCO – I approached: wary, and more than a bit skeptical. Cartoon Network was an important part of my childhood, so many hours spent in the warm embrace of quality television. Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, even Scooby-Doo: all mainstays of my youth, the important bits of my early education. Nowadays I flip to the channel and am horrified by pastel hues and kitschy dialogue. I think to myself, "How the hell do kids watch this stuff?"

And now this, a browser-based MMO?

Fortunately, Cartoon Network – and their Korean partner Grigon Entertainment – seem to have done their homework, as what I saw and sampled of FusionFall was a surprisingly polished and genuinely fun experience – provided you can stomach the juvenile source material.

So no, I'm not ready to forgive them for getting rid of The Centurions or for relegating Tom and Jerry and their ilk to Boomerang, the retirement home for washed up cartoons. But for a children's MMO, FusionFall makes a great deal of headway in the entertainment department.

The story isn't exactly Pulitzer material: Evil, sentient green slime attacks Earth, and only you, working with the stars of Cartoon Network's many original cartoon series, can stop it. But there's a bit of a twist. Thanks to a bit of time-travel chicanery, everyone is all grown up.

Forgive the following fanboy exultation: The young-adult version Dexter (of Dexter's Lab, of course) is absurdly bad ass. All of Cartoon Network's characters (well, all of the ones included in the game, anyway) have been aged into their teens. The game's various locales (17 square kilometers, in all) are all based on the settings of the various cartoons, updated to reflect the current slimy invasion. I never quite pictured the Powerpuff Girls living so close to Ed, Edd, and Eddy, but perhaps I lack the requisite level of imagination.

Most of the standard MMO tropes are here -– players can group together to beat quests, grind for currency and experience, and trade amongst themselves. You'll also be tasked with collecting equipment, armor, and weapons (both ranged and melee), which will change your character's appearance.

There are no classes in FusionFall. Instead, you'll be choosing a "Guide," which works sort of like a profession trainer in World of Warcraft. You'll go to your guide (one of the major Cartoon Network characters) occasionally for missions and the like, and be rewarded with special equipment that only followers of your particular sect will have access to.


Of course, a children's experience wouldn't really be complete without a whole mess of things to collect. In this case, there are "Nanos." When the evil green slime attacked, they managed to capture many iconic Cartoon Network characters, and created slime-based dopplegangers, dubbed "Fusions." Whenever you defeat a Fusion (your standard Boss fight), you're granted a Nano, which is essentially a mini-version of the character, that floats alongside you.

Nanos are intrinsic to the combat system. You can carry three at a time, and each one has three special abilities to choose from. The enemies you face are divided into three groups, which were called A, B, and C when I played. A is inherently stronger than B, B is stronger than C, and C is stronger than A.

When you equip a Nano in the appropriate group (a B Nano against C enemies), you'll gain a boost to your attacks, in addition to the nano's own special abilties. This system provides a surprising level of complexity: You won't be at a loss if you only bring along your favorite characters, but those who equip the right Nanos for the job will find themselves with a great advantage in combat.

The other key element, platforming, is deeply integrated into the game. While there are bugs to work out (the game is still in closed beta), you can pretty much clamber onto most things you can see. Racing through platforming puzzles (which you can also do to net experience points, if grinding mobs isn't your thing) is also an option for competitive play, as PVP scenarios haven't really been fleshed out yet.

To make the experience more kid-friendly (and to ward off predatory lawmakers, I bet), there are a few caveats. For starters, rewards begin to taper off when you've been logged in for a while: the kids can raid for as long as they want, but they'll stop gaining loot and experience points. Chat is also menu-based: unless an adult enables full chat (at which point, it's still all being filtered), you'll be communicating through a bunch of predetermined phrases -– something I actually wish more adult-oriented games would incorporate.

FusionFall will be browser-based, running with the Unity webplayer plugin. At the moment, it supports just about every browser, though I've had trouble with Google's Chrome. If you've played Velociraptor Safari or Splume, then you'll have a good idea of the level of polish and performance (with fairly low system requirements) that's possible with Unity, and Fusion Fall is no slouch either. As an added bonus, ubiquitous browser compatibility means it'll run on both Windows-based PCs and Macs.

How much will it cost? While there will be free-to-play offerings (presumably to get the little ones addicted), the bulk of the game will be subscription-based. A monthly fee hasn't been decided yet, however. Expect FusionFall to be the new thing all the kids are yammering about sometime later this fall.

FusionFall [Cartoon Network]

Images courtesy Cartoon Network