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| ESRB:E
FusionFall Review: Fusion Fall Review - Edit
7
Average
| Pros |
 
|
 Easy to Learn Low System Requirements Simple Objectives Simple to Play |
| Cons |
 Lacks depth |
FusionFall is Turner’s foray into the Children’s MMOG market. Following the success of Disney’s ToonTown Online, we’ve seen several other MMOs emerge in the past couple of years that are targeted not just at children, but at families. Today’s children are digital natives and often learn to “keyboard” as soon as they learn to read. So what is FusionFall about?
The World
It is a dive into the Cartoon Network World. A grand adventure for kids to save the world and interact and assist their favorite Cartoon Network characters. A 3-D MMO with FPS and Platformer gameplay aspects built into it. You’ve been sent into a future world – malfunction in Dexter’s lab, don’cha know? And horror of horrors, a rogue planet, planet Fusion is dropping goopy wads of Fuse that’s corrupting the world. Wave after wave of Fusion spawn is invading and it is up to you, young adventurer, to save the world! Combat Fusion in the city, the ‘burbs and the wilds. Soon, you will be experienced enough to delve into the Darklands where the corruption first took root and is strongest. Along the way, you will meet Cartoon Network characters from the Power Puff Girls, Samurai Jack and Ben 10.
Graphics & Sound
FusionFall is a modified browser game. Players have to install the Unity 3-D engine that’s described as “Flash-like” technology. Content streams in the background while you play but some files do get installed on your computer and depending on your computer specs, it may take a few minutes to install and download before you can begin playing.
For a browser based game, the graphics are really quite beautiful. In order to create a uniform graphical style for the game, the characters from popular Cartoon Network programs have been re-imagined in anime style. It has a cel-shaded comic-book graphic look. The only thing you might miss is the how far you can see in the world as the draw distance is not great. It’s an immediate world, with characters running to battle, avoiding the green ooze on contaminated ground as it can hurt. The camera follows you “over the shoulder” and all you need to know to get the job done, you can see.
There isn’t much music in game, but ambient sounds and voice-overs are plentiful. Cartoon Network has gotten 90% of the original voice actors to provide the voice-overs in game, so even if your favorite character doesn’t quite look the same, he’s going to sound the same.
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Gameplay
Remembering that it’s a kid’s game, the objectives are simple. You are battling aliens and start off with a simple laser gun. Then you improve your gun, gain others and you improve your outfit, which serves are your armor. You can have two weapons equipped at a time, and swap them out easily. Along the way, you will gain Nanos – which are miniatures of Cartoon Network characters and assist you in your battles. In a delightful Stone, Paper, Scissors manner, you can have three Nanos to call upon when you battle monsters. Calling upon the right Nano to defeat your opponent is part of the combat equation and you can put one nano away and call on another.
The game is designed to play with keyboard and mouse or game controller, and the conventions are familiar. WASD to move, and left click to do about everything else. To trade with someone, offer to group or interact with an NPC. So it’s easy to accidentally open up a trade window with someone when a group of players are clustered around the Quest NPC.
It is a transport friendly world and as you travel, you find transporter and way (warp) points, flight stations (Monkey Skyways, Sliders and S.C.A.M.P.E.R), jump pads (remember – platformer) and zip lines – which is a pretty cool way to get from one level to another, moving platforms and sidewalks, and launchers which look like big cannons. You don’t take any falling damage and can “run” and navigate while in the air to get to where you need to go once you’ve launched yourself from the jump pad.
The game is strictly PvE and you gain experience only by performing quests, not by killing monsters, although most quests are kill quests. There are some quest variations in game. Some require you to traverse a series of platforms like a maze, another is a race to clean up an infected zone by collecting fusion pods.
Your character doesn’t “die” in FusionFall. It gets knocked out and you either revive at a respawn point, or if you have a Nano with the capability, can choose to revive in the field. In the first case, the only thing you lose is some time traveling back to your chosen battleground and in the second, some reduced health.
The currency of this world is Taros (gold), which is needed to buy things like potions or pay for Warps or Flights, Fusion Matter which is required for Nanos and you can get power ups and C.R.A.T.E.s – Contains Really Awesome Things for Everyone which are in the shape of a crate, and find Coco Eggs which can contain power ups and C.R.A.T.Es.
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Kid-friendly, Security & Parental Controls
It’s a kid’s world as designers wanted kids to feel that they are running things, so the only parental role models you will find in the world are characters from the programs themselves. Avatars are designed in the same anime style and there are few choices of head / hair / clothing for customization. Name creation is a three part affair and the chat filter is a rigorous combination of a real time “naughty word” filtering tool which removes the naughty word, Real time Chat monitoring with context analysis which can alert GMs to where a conversation could be heading to and allow live monitoring; Chat monitoring with relationship analysis which is the long term component and will take place over days, weeks and months. Everything will be logged and the real time analysis means that whenever red flags are thrown up by the system, appropriate action can be taken by the GMs.
The usual parental controls are in place that allow parents to limit their kids to in-game menu chat, forum access, etc. The game is designed to be played in 20 minute chunks and after about an hour, the game play begins to degrade and after two, the xp slow down is very noticeable.
The Fun Factor
Is it fun? Well, are you a kid mad for the Cartoon Network world? There are plenty of missions and storylines for the kids. They can go nuts collecting every single one of the Nanos. Kids enjoy that kind of thing. Simple objectives, collecting stuff and a world with their favorite characters. For a parent, this may be a game you’d enjoy playing with your children. I got bored pretty quickly as the novelty wore off and the game play degradation got annoying.
FusionFall gives you your first 4 levels free and you can get a pretty good grasp of the gameplay from that, so don’t just take my word for it, give it a shot. It might prove to be a fun distraction from grinding xp or running that mission yet again because you still haven’t been lucky on a loot roll.
Haha, hilarious. What's next? CNN world? BBC world? Discovery Universe(I would actually like to see that
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I am confused over how you think CNN, BBC and Discovery have anything to do or have in common with a Cartoon Network for kids, who have created a really awesome flash game. This is a stupid comment.
I had my son mess with this, and he was having a blast. It is a good step into MMO's for age 9 and up. The graphics were decent, and the way they made all the original characters teenagers was cool.
I agree with your score for a kids MMO...not too shabby!
hmmm intriguing they shall be hearing from my lawyers in due course :|
Slask... One of your family members needs to take your keyboard and smash it into pieces. They should really watch what their retarded child types on the internet. How the hell can you compare News channels like cnn and BBC with Cartoon Network which has several action cartoons which can and has actually translated into games. Friggin idiot.... I've beta'd the game because of the nostalgia of some of the shows and to see how they changed the characters and made them older ( Which was neat). It's a decent game, free (Although they limit your play by stopping your experience and taros gain after a set time of straight playing the game. You then have to wait a few hours before you can gain XP again. If you pay per month you get unlimited play), and runs in your browser so even slask could run the game without needing to know how to install anything....
It sounds like they put some effort into making an appealing MMORPG for kids, it's nice to see the genre expanding available choices for the huge number of potential players that exist outside of hardcores.
I particularly like their game mechanic of stopping XP gain after a certain amount of time. Just because some adult MMORPG players sit in front of a PC for 20+ hours a week is no reason to teach kids to do the same. Well done Cartoon Network.
What?
MMO extrapolation fail.
This looks like a pretty fun kid's game based on cartoons. And i'm sure plenty of parents will play it too.
I have to agree with what the others in this thread have said about your comment.....how in gods name do you see any similarities between a MMO that is based in the Cartoon Network universe, which is full of interesting characters from their stable of cartoons and anime, and one that could be based on one of the channels you listed there? Seriously man, Cartoon Network is a channel that has it's own, original cartoon/anime kids shows, and the rest of those are adult news/documentary channels. Yeah, I'm not one to flame other people on forums, and I'm not going to start now, but wow....
As for the review of Fusion Fall....
I think this is a very fair review of the game, and it's more then I expected from a dedicated MMO site. You guys took the game for what it is, a browser based MMO for children, and reviewed it as such, which is a lot more then many of the forum-goers here have been able to do. The games target audience is 5-15 years old, and as such it is a simplified MMO for said audience. That doesn't mean it's been "dumbed down", it couldn't have been b/c from it's inception it was designed to be a game that young kids can hop into for an hour here and there and have no problems grasping the basics of the game. And with that in mind, they did an excellent job with it, my two kids (a 6yo daughter and 4yo son) really dig it and enjoy interacting,a nd adventuring with their favorite characters from their favorite Cartoon Network shows such as Dexter's Lab; Powerpuff Girls; Ed, Edd + Eddy; Ben 10 etc.
As I've said in other threads on these boards, I personally like the game b/c it is another way for my kids and I to spend time together doing something we all enjoy, playing video games. If you take the game for what it is, a child-friendly MMO that incorporates elements of platforming and FPS's, and don't try to shoehorn it in with more adult, and thus more complex, games like EQ, EQ2, WoW wtc, then you may find you enjoy it. I came across it and introduced my kids to it, but in doing so found that I enjoy the game a bit as well and will occasionally find myself playing it alone, late at night long after the kids go to bed as a nice distraction from raiding.
While I agree with the overall review, it's not really a review so much as it's a summary. The entire piece could have been gleaned from press releases. Where's the detail?
Also, mmorpg.com has a ranking system based on specific categories. If you're going to give a game a score, it would be great to see how that score was achieved, based each category. Otherwise, the rating seems arbitrary. I want to see how you ranked each of the following categories and why:
You touched on some of these, but only at a high level and you didn't rank them.
~Ripper
My little'un had a mess around with this and I was quite impressed. I like that they do a very reasonable family subscription package, allowing families to play together without dropping £30-40 on subs every month. Plus, it has Samurai Jack and Megas XLR, quite possibly the best cartoons I've seen since my own 80's-early 90's childhood.
Dumbest post of the year. How can you possibly compare CARTOON NETWORK to the NEWS CHANNELS? That's like trying to compare cheese and a football. When you create a cartoon you create an entire world or even an entire universe so you CAN make a mmorpg out of ANY cartoon. Think before you post.
As for Fusion Fall; I've been waiting for this review because I think it deserves to be treated as a regular MMO seeing how much work they put into it. I've played it myself and the game is pretty cool. I like especially how they aged the characters without losing that nostalgic feeling or essence of the characters themselves (think back to Rugrats: All Growed Up and how they screwed up the transition from babies to teens/kids). They actually put in some thought as to how the characters would look and chose an art style to compliment it.
I've had problems on my side though. For me, the game takes forever to load up (sometimes more than half an hour) and even once its finished loading and I start playing I only can play for about an hour or less before I get some sort of error and have to RESTART THE DARN GAME! All my drivers and stuff have been updated and I still get the same problems. I know its most likely a problem with my graphics card, but I've played way better games than this with way better looking graphics and engines so I don't know why I can't play this for long periods of time.
Character customization was alright. There's lots of weird looking costumes to choose from (I call them costumes because theres noway anyone would wear that stuff). What would have been nice would be if you could choose costumes based off the Cartoon Network characters themselves and instead of some made up futuristic looking crap that I just shifted through until I found something that didn't make me look like a clown (ironically it was a brown and white striped button-up shirt).
Overall as a fan of anime, I like the anime art style they chose which you can easily tell is anime just by looking at the hairstyles.
From what I can gather. This game is just plain fun for the kids with all the special attacks and nanos. The first nano you get is one of the powerpuff girls (the mean green one) which you can summon and she fights alongside you. Which I also found great because back when I was a kid I occasionally wondered how the powerpuff girls would look when they grew up and found this a surprise and kept me interested to see what other surprises the game had in-store for me.
So if you ever were a fan of Cartoon Network be it now or in the past. I suggest you try this game if not for the pure fact of looking at your favorite characters all grown up :)
Please people though. Don't be an asshat and play this game thinking its a serious MMORPG then come whining about it on the forums. Seriously stay away people with sticks up their you know whats.
I think that's enough people jumping on the bandwagon to bash that guy in the second comment. No one wants to read a giant block of text with the same regurgitated garbage that all the prior posts contained as well.
Now I'm sure this is a decent MMO for kids and all that, but no responsible parent would want to introduce their infant to probably the most addicting genre of computer games. Only the kind of parent that dumps their kids in front of the tv as soon as they get home so they don't 'bother' them would be interested.
You parents, particularly the American ones, need to turn off your kids' computers, and force them to go run and play outside. A 9 yr old has no need for an MMORPG. Let him or her run and play outside with, get this, PEOPLE, where they'll learn to adapt and fit in and become better people in the REAL WORLD.
If they're done playing outside, then when they come in, give them a damn book to read.
We Americans are fat and stupid. Fix it.
Don't you think a 9 year old would get all of that at School? Durrr. I mean you don't think people learn that at the 6-8 hours of school they have everyday? Tack on another hour for homework as well.
Americans are fat and stupid because they are spoiled and choose not to pay attention in school, not because of MMOs or videogames in general. If you look at all the players that go to MLG (Major League Gaming) events you would see that 80% of the players there aren't fat AT ALL and even those that are fat are just chubby, not huge. I'm sure we could start a discussion of this along with pros and cons of things, but that's not for this thread. This thread is for discussing Fusion Fall.
As for the other guy (loophole was it?) if he was referring to me, as I said before think before you speak. I don't think anyone dedicated more than 2 or 3 sentences to that stupid post that got flamed. You might want to actually read posts before you post about them. As views on this thread goes up expect that guy to get flamed even more because there is no 'bandwagon', the guy posted a really really stupid comment and deserves what he gets.
Good review, another "Kids" show that is just begging to be made into an MMO would be Avatar: The Last Airbender. I say "kids" in quotation marks because the show actually had a storyline, a nice change from the mindless dribble of reality TV and Sitcoms that dominate the channels today (not that I don't like those shows, it's just there should be a little more variety). Also had beautiful music and a well-developed world/background.
Who wouldn't want to shoot fire while doing kung-fu anyways?
When are companies going to figure out that if you put "Fall" in your name, some crank will come along and dub your game "Fusion Fail"?
Well, I guess that's not as high profile as dubbing Nixon's re-election committee (Committee to Re-Elect the President) CREEP.
Actually, as you may have noticed, MMORPG moved away from those categories to a 10 point score and a list of Pros and Cons for their reviews given that as a genre, MMOs have broadened considerably.
I'm a mature MMO player who's "grown up" on EverQuest, DAoC, WoW and others - EQ2, Vanguard, LotRO, etc. If you measure a browser-based, children's game on the same yardstick measuring those games, Fusion Fall would fall rather short.
It's in development. :)
Not exactly heathy for small children to be playing mmos in my opinion...they should be out playing with friends...or playing with lego expanding your imagination...not getting sucked into some computer game...READ A BOOK!
I'm willing to bet that the 3 of you (so far) that have made comments about how terrible it is to let kids play an MMO made for children don't actually have any kids of your own. Maybe you do, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you don't, only b/c those comments reek of inexperience and assumption.
I, however, have 2 children, a daughter that is 6, and a son who is 4. Do I let them play Fusion Fall? Absolutely. Do they get carried away and spend hours on end in front of the computer grinding? Absolutely not.
First off, I can't speak for other parents out there, but my wife and I would never, ever allow our children to sit anywhere, doing anything for hours on end, especially if it involves no exercise wether it be physical or mental. You see, when it gets right down to it, there is NOTHING wrong with letting kids play video games, or watch tv, or whatever else as long as it's done in moderation. That's the key to parenting. Your job as a parent is to educate your children, and the best way to educate is to expose them to as wide a variety of different stimuli as possible. That includes books, video games, tv, sports, toys, computers and whatever else is out there. As long as there is balance in their lives, they are always learning something, and they are healthy and happy, everything is as it should be.
It is nothing but ignorance that leads to comments like the ones that have been made in this thread about a childrens MMO. Now, that isn't an insult, I'm not trying to put anyone down, it's just my opinion that comments like that can only come from not knowing enough about children and what it takes to raise one.
Raising children isn't about denying them experiences, it's about guiding them through the trials of life and having them experience as much as they possibly can.
Yeah that's what we should do, let kids run amok in the "Real World" and "learn" from the scumbags they meet there.
Advice from fat stupid americans on how to fix the world is not very compelling.
As for the game - can i be Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force?
Oh. :(
Wow. Lotsa trolling on my account here. Not that I care much. Ofcourse those channels I listed doesn't have anything in common with Cartoon Network content, except being just another commercial channel. That you people don't realize that this is just another grab to get even more subscribers to their idiot channel is your fault. That is why I wrote what I wrote. This game, like the Disney game is basically just a bloody commercial to get your toddler even more addicted to those channels and their brands. Jeez...I see now that I should have made the connection to brands a little more clearer. Oh well, there is always a next time.
Yeah that's what we should do, let kids run amok in the "Real World" and "learn" from the scumbags they meet there.
Advice from fat stupid americans on how to fix the world is not very compelling.
As for the game - can i be Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force?
Oh. :(
I'm sure you'd call this lady a bad parent too, right?
Thank you for reviewing this game ! I'd probably give it a bit higher ranking in its category, browser-based games for young kids, maybe an 8-8.5. My 5yr old nephew [who plays DDO] had no problem playing, but even my 3yr old nephew had fun running around shooting things - the voice-acted tutorial descriptions are excellent!
Thank you MMORPG.com for bringing MMOs of all genres to your readers' attention <big hug> :)
My 5 year old nephew enjoys ALL those things - why not let him enjoy playing some video games, too! I'll grant you, in the US anyway, there appears to be a fine line between having "varied interests" and "ADD". We are currently ending winter and entering mud-season here in the Northeastern US - other than the 1/2 mile walk to the post office and back, he & I don't play outside much this time of year. Come summer, that will change - in fact, we'll spend most of the days at the beach or canoeing [I think he needs another year before he can start coming to the rifle range with me], then about an hour of gaming before bed.
Well rounded adults tend to have well rounded kids [in either way of defining "well rounded"!]
The problem isn't whether you let your kids play computer games, it's letting them play a genre that's known to focus on making gameplay as addicting as possible. The younger kids are, the more vulnerable they are to the methods used by developers - methods plenty of adults can't seem to resist. Exposing them to that sort of thing has it's effects even if you limit their playtime since they're still in their formative years.
If you don't understand why it's an issue then I probably won't be able to convince you anyway, so this'll be my last derail here. ;)
I guessed already you might've been talking about them being network channels, but thats it. You don't see the entire picture therefore you aren't making sense. Cartoon Network wants more people tuning in so they make a game full of characters from shows that ended years ago and have no signs of coming back? Now you tell me how's that supposed to make people wanna watch cartoon network? I doubt people would stay with Cartoon Network even after tuning in seeing how 80% of the shows on nowadays are pure crap and they'd change the channel anyway once they realize that those shows from the game aren't on anymore.
I think its more likely that since Cartoon Network's channel is full of fail they wanted some other way to make profit and here comes Fusion Fall which offers unlimited access for a fee.
Of course its a grab to get more people for the channel. But why does that instantly make it a bad game?
Its fun and has good graphics for a web game. Easy to play. Safe for kids. I say its full of win.
There are some bad points - they use bad spelling to simulate kids, poor form given the target age of the players - how are they expected to learn when they keep seeing the incorrect spellings? The will end up like me - spell checker at the ready at all times even for simple words.
Don't you think a 9 year old would get all of that at School? Durrr. I mean you don't think people learn that at the 6-8 hours of school they have everyday? Tack on another hour for homework as well.
Americans are fat and stupid because they are spoiled and choose not to pay attention in school, not because of MMOs or videogames in general. If you look at all the players that go to MLG (Major League Gaming) events you would see that 80% of the players there aren't fat AT ALL and even those that are fat are just chubby, not huge. I'm sure we could start a discussion of this along with pros and cons of things, but that's not for this thread. This thread is for discussing Fusion Fall.
As for the other guy (loophole was it?) if he was referring to me, as I said before think before you speak. I don't think anyone dedicated more than 2 or 3 sentences to that stupid post that got flamed. You might want to actually read posts before you post about them. As views on this thread goes up expect that guy to get flamed even more because there is no 'bandwagon', the guy posted a really really stupid comment and deserves what he gets.
Wow..I think we need a special-ed wing for Mmorpg.com
What the guy above you is saying is that a "Child" needs to be thier butts outside enjoying and making a life for themselfs. I personaly would see to that if I had children so they dont become some troll looking for a bite on ammorpg forum..Hell im sure if you took the same advice he just gave you woulndt be here would you? But no you and the bandwaggon crew decide to bash on some guy that though vauge has the right to his own opinion..Worry less about other and more about that weight you have to to be gaining sitting on a PC insulting others all day.
Goodness you guys are lower than a 4/chan/ -er and thats saying something..
Pretty descent game. It's like a better detailed runescape with a different battle system. Overall, great for kids. =D
I find it kind of funny that most of the arguements for children not playing MMO's end in the poster saying they should go read a book instead. I don't really see how reading a book is all that much better than playing a Game (Note, I am in Fact *Shock* a Reader myself.) The only real thing books teach you is how to translate descriptive words into mental images.... which is a skill that's only useful for..... reading more books. Anything else you can learn from reading you can learn just as well from just about any other medium. Most Children's books are about as intelligent as your average game, and not much more. Sure they might try and throw in some learning or a moral here and there but the kids aren't paying attention. MMO's have the added bonus of Social interaction along with telling a story and displaying an interesting setting.
As for that Kids need to get out more and make friends, no argument there, that's never a bad thing (Well, so long as the friends they make aren't nutjobs, but that's completely seperate from this.) Being happy and healthy is always good, but Video Games aren't bad for ya, and I find the idea that they are kind of insulting.
Wow..I think we need a special-ed wing for Mmorpg.com
What the guy above you is saying is that a "Child" needs to be thier butts outside enjoying and making a life for themselfs. I personaly would see to that if I had children so they dont become some troll looking for a bite on ammorpg forum..Hell im sure if you took the same advice he just gave you woulndt be here would you? But no you and the bandwaggon crew decide to bash on some guy that though vauge has the right to his own opinion..Worry less about other and more about that weight you have to to be gaining sitting on a PC insulting others all day.
Goodness you guys are lower than a 4/chan/ -er and thats saying something..
Speaking of classes how about throwing in a english class as well? Matter of fact I think you might need to sign up for both =/
Like anybody needed explaining since he literally said it himself? You might want to "Hop off" as well seeing how if you took his advice you wouldn't be on here either. Wow posting all day? You serious? You see one or two posts and assume someone's been posting all day? I think I just crapped my pants at the ignorance. I have about the same amount of posts as you and I've been here for about 5 years. That lame "Everybody who posts on this site is a fat nerd" comment only works on guess what? Fat Nerds. And was especially stupid for you to try to use it against me since, well I've only been here 2 months longer than you and have about the same amount of posts. Go try that on someone who joined last month and has 1500 posts kid.
Here comes the logic train: Logic says if we were "arguing about this" let alone posting all day this thread would be way longer than 2 measly pages. Like a guy said in this thread already you guys don't have children (and problably will never have any) and reek of inexperience and ignorance, add a little naiveness for flavor.
Ignorance is bliss, so you must be in heaven I guess =/
Sorry to hijack the hijack, but "how 'bout that review?"
~Ripper
Yeh, to try and guide this back on to subject as I stated before FF limits the free play of the game to somewhere around 3 hours I believe... After which you will have to wait a few hours before you can earn XP or Taros again. To stop with the arguements of fat and/or lazy children this should help limit the play your child has unless of course you could care less and you pay to get unlimited play for them.
But with or without this system in place the arguements of a child playing online games mean nothing as you are the parent and if you decide to let them play games all day rather than go outside and play in the park, or play football with his pops, then it is your choice... You're no one elses parent but your own children let the others raise their child as they wish and leave your opinions to yourself as they benefit no one.