WonderKing or Dragonica Online?

There are a bunch of awesome side scrolling MMORPGs out there, but the best ones include MapleStory, WonderKing Online and Dragonica Online. There are a few more, but they really aren’t worth mentioning. I’ve played MapleStory from Nexon to death, as I’ve leveled like 10 characters to 40 by now, so I’m a bit tired of it. Both WonderKing and Dragonica Online though are still new territory to me. I mean, I’ve played them both for a while, but not nearly as long as I played MapleStory. When you play one game for so long, you get a bit sick of it, even if it’s a great game.

WonderKing is by Ndoors and it was released in 2009 to compete with MapleStory. It is being published by Ndoors, the company who developed Atlantica Online, but I’m not entirely sure if WonderKing was developed by Ndoors or not. In fact, I’m pretty sure WonderKing has been available n South Korea for many years and only came to the U.S. Recently. Why Ndoors waited so long to localize such a great game like WonderKing is beyond me. Luckily, we gamers in the U.S. Don’t need to wait years to play Vindictus. Nexon is localizing it pretty fast! Nexon has actually been pretty good with localizing their games. Mabinogi and Combat Arms came out in the U.S. Pretty fast. Anyway, WonderKing is a lot like MapleStory in terms of graphics and gameplay, except a bit sharper, visually. There aren’t as many playable classes in it, and that’s my biggest complaint. The number of playable classes in an MMORPG is very important. MapleStory has like 20+ playable classes. Like MapleStory, WonderKing is a 2D MMORPG.

Dragonica Online, although a side scrolling MMORPG, is significantly different than MapleStory and WonderKing. It’s actually a 3D MMORPG, and the first 3D side scrolling MMORPG I’ve ever played. Visually, it’s not as “cute” / “cartoony”, but it still has anime inspired graphics. It looks and feels a bit more mature and the controls are responsive. It’s more of an action MMORPG as well, because players have to get combos to do optimal damage. It also has a lot of quests, so you never need to out right grind. Much of the fighting in it takes place in instanced dungeons rather than in a persistent world, so it’s a bit original in that department as well. Like Dungeons and Dragons Online from Turbine, players can play each dungeon in Dragonica in 3 different difficulty settings. This leads to players sort of being forced to play each dungeon multiple times, which can get boring. In terms of character customization, Dragonica Online has a slight edge, but in terms of variety, WonderKing wins. Dragonica has so few playable classes, which is a big down side to it. On the positive side, with only a handful of classes, the classes are balanced.

So which game is better? Sorry. I can’t say. Both are top notch fantasy MMORPGs that are worth checking out. You should download both and give them each a try.

Free 2D MMORPGs You Never Played

There are a lot of 2D MMORPGs out there. So many that I bet I can name a handful that you’ve never heard of. Obviously we’ve all heard of epic games like MapleStory and WonderKing, but what about obscure games like Destiny Online from EnjoyMMO or Great Merchant from AK interactive? These are both ‘unknown’ games that very few people play. The first game, destiny online is actually decent, but Great Merchant is pretty terrible. So if you want to try one of the two, try Destiny Online. Another game that I bet you haven’t heard of is Esteria Mythos from Seed C Korea Inc. I’ve never heard of this one until a few days ago, but it’s a pretty random game. It’s meant to be an old school 2D game, but it just feels too old in my opinion to be good. The biggest issue with the game is that it has a really low playerbase, so just finding others to play with can be hard.

Next is Battle of Destiny from the Malaysian publisher Cubizone. Know how people call games like Runes of Magic and Talisman online WoW clones? Well Battle of Destiny is a Dungeon Fighter Online clone. In fact the games are nearly identical. I’m pretty sure Battle of Destiny is a shameless rip off of Dungeon Fighter Online. More so than ANY other game is a clone of WoW. Seriously. Look at some side by side screenshots, it’s really funny. Another weird unknown 2D MMO is Blitz 1941. The game is a World War 2 tank based MMO by TwoWar – the same company who makes Navy Field. The game’s translations are so bad it’s funny. I can safely say Blitz 1941 has the worst translations of any MMO i’ve ever played. Stay away from this one lol.

Next is Mini Fighter Online from Netmarble. This game is actually pretty fun, so if you haven’t played it you really should. I threw this one on the list because the game doesn’t have as many players as it deserves. Seriously, the game is awesome. It plays like a chibi street fighter MMO. How awesome is that? The more unique aspect of the game though is that it has both lobby style MMO gameplay as well as a persistent world MMORPG section. Another good unknown 2D MMORPG is Wonderland Online from IGG. It’s actually one of the best turn based MMORPGs out there. The game has a community too, which is win. The town areas in the game are incredibly packed! The gameplay reminds me of final fantasy, which is good. Anyway, if I missed any obscure 2D MMOs, let me know!

LaTale vs MapleStory vs WonderKing

There are three major free to play 2D side scrolling MMORPGs currently out there. MapleStory from Nexon is by far the largest as it’s old and established. The game has been available since 2003. Then we have LaTale which is by OGPlanet, which was released to compete with MapleStory. The graphics and art style are a bit different, but the core gameplay is for the most part identical. The one real difference is that LaTale has PvP while MapleStory does not. Then we have WonderKing from Ndoors. WonderKing sort of combines the fun aspects of both MapleStory and LaTale and adds a bit of its own touch. The game has sleeker 2D graphics, PvP, plenty of quests and more.

Out of the three my favorite is still MapleStory, as it’s been around forever. Since it’s been around so long the game has much more content than its competitors. In fact, the game now has over 12 different playable classes and each of those classes have 3 job advancements, for a total of 36+ playable classes. Plus, Nexon has been updating the game often with more and more new areas and classes, so that’s really awesome. Nexon also has the following games – Mabinogi, Vindictus, Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online.

WonderKing is a far second. The game is certainly fun and well worth the download, but if you’ve played MapleStory before, the two games are just way too similar. You’ll just feel like you’ve ‘been there’ before if you play WonderKing. The PvP in the game is pretty interesting though, but you really have to invest a lot of time into the game to get to the fun parts of the PvP arenas. One issue with WonderKing is that it’s not nearly as popular as MapleStory, so finding people to party with and people to sell your items to may take a bit longer. Luckily though, the game has an awesome auction house system, which is something MapleStory has been missing for years.

LaTale is by OG Planet and comes in third place in my opinion. The game’s artstyle is distinctly different than both MapleStory and WonderKing and come off as weird to me. It’s published by OGPlanet, so you can always use your login for Lost Saga, Hockey Dash and Rumble Fighter for the game and it’ll work fine. In terms of PvP though, LaTale takes the #1 spot. It has the most variety in PvP and it’s also the most balanced, as there’s one option to equalize everyone in terms of level and gear for the duration of the PvP battle. This makes it so PvP actually takes skill and teamwork.

All three Free MMORPGs are good though, so make sure to try them all. I still think MapleStory is the best though, but if you guys disagree, let me know in the comments!

A 2D Racing MMO Would be Amazing

There are already a handful of free to play racing MMOs available to play from the realistic Project Torque to the more insane battle racing game UpShift StrikeRacer, but there aren’t any real 2D racing MMOs. A 2D side scrolling racing MMO with pitfalls, obstacles and such would be awesome. After all, games like LaTale and WonderKing have proved that 2D games can be incredibly popular if done right. This racing game would need great sleek 2D graphics. I imagine it would be cheaper to develop a 2D game than a 3D one anyway, but I could be wrong.

The 2D MMO scene has been getting better and better, as there are new 2D MMOs coming out regularly, with the newest one being Destiny Online. You also have oldies like Endless Online and DarkEden, which are okay. My two favorite MMORPGs are for sure Conquer Online and Grand Chase though. Both games are distinctly different, but fun. Conquer Online is by TQ Digital and focuses on intense PvP combat while Grand Chase by Ntreev, focuses more on player cooperation through dungeons. I’m actually a fan of both types of games. I also really like Lunia by ijji. That game is amazing. It’s a bit linear but as a fan of RPGs in general, that doesn’t bother me at all.

Anyway, I’m getting a bit off topic =]. There are so many sports MMOs, Racing MMOs, MMOFPS games and more, so why shouldn’t there be a 2D racing MMO? It would be cheap to develop and I can already imagine how fun it would be in my head. Putting a game from my head into reality though would be difficult though. I guess for now I’ll have to be content with the games out there. I’m going back to playing one of my favorite free MMORPGs – Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu. If you guys haven’t played it, do yourselves a favor and give the game a chance it’s quite epic and has an entirely player controlled economy.

The Only 3D MMORPGs I like Are Anime Themed

For some reason the only 3D graphics I like in MMORPGs are either cute themed or anime inspired. I guess I have a thing for bright cheerful games. I still like 2D graphics the best, but after that I prefer anime inspired graphics. Games like Bright Shadow and Cloud Nine have gorgeous graphics. I really like the ’sleek’ and beautifully rendered anime graphics in these games. More so than the actual gameplay, which is pretty sad. I also feel the same way about Fiesta Online, the most popular MMORPG that Outspark publishes. The cel-shaded anime graphics are really high quality and visually appealing.

Aside from regular anime MMORPGs, I also really like cute MMORPGs for some reason. Cute MMORPGs are usually super bright and chibi, which in my book is instant win. Ether Saga Online and Luna Online are examples of great cute MMORPGs. I actually play both of these games regularly. Even though I like these kinds of games though, I still prefer GOOD 2D graphics over anything in the 3D department. What’s interesting though, is that I don’t even watch anime or read manga, but I still like anime style graphics in my MMOs. How weird is that?

At the moment I’m downloading a new anime inspired MMORPG – Emil Chronicle Online. It’s not exactly new, but it’s new to me, as I’ve never played it before. If you guys want to catch me in game, my name will be xAnimaaa! From what I've read about the game, it's supposed to be a lot like Ragnarok Online. The game is, after all, also published by Gravity. Gravity publishes both Ragnarok Online and Requiem: Memento Mori