OG Planet has unveiled a new zone in La Tale, its massively multiplayer online side-scroller. La Tale’s whimsical art style and detailed 2D worlds bring a lighthearted touch to the MMORPG genre, and have won it a large following in Asia. Simple gameplay and intuitive quests make La Tale accessible for players of all ages, while the immersive storyline with a variety of characters, enemies and challenges keep the game intriguing

Toad BeachToad Farm

Cabal Online

Our Score

[ Not Reviewed ]

LaTale

Our Score

[ Not Reviewed ]

Listening to: I’m a Fake by Little Red Rocket

And those are the screencaps; hope you enjoyed them! I SHOULD be updating with more romaji and songs sometime soon.

Listening to: Kimi ni, Mune Kyun. by Asami Sanada, Yuu Kobayashi, & Marina Inoue

~Me

My first review!  I’ve been playing this game for a while and it’s really grabbed my attention.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy it, too.

NOTE: All links open in a new window.

Official Game Site: Rumble Fighter
Item Mall: Yes (Although it isn’t in any way necessary)

System Specifications (The necessary ones):
Download Size – Just under 300MB.  This is a rather small size for a game, especially one like this one.
Necessary Graphics/Sound Cards – Anything you have.  My computer is very old, and it runs smooth on my machine.
Operating System – Windows XP or Windows Vista

What Is It?
Rumble Fighter describes itself as a “casual action game based on fighting.”  Each player chooses their own class, each having their own strengths and weaknesses.  After completing a very helpful tutorial, new players are placed in a “Beginners Channel” where they duke it out with other players at their own skill level.  All players have the same fighting style to begin with (different fighting styles can be purchased later on in the game), which levels out the playing field considerably.  Skill and tactics are placed head-to-head as the players fight one another in various maps, trying to survive long enough to claim first place and win some carats, the in-game currency, to purchase clothing and other items to customize their characters.

Sound interesting to you?  Then this game is probably good for you.  Rumble Fighter is one of the only games in its class and it far surpasses the other games in many aspects.  One of the most prominent aspects of the game that stood out to me was the leveling system.  Instead of using the system to gain skills to further wreak havoc, the level system is used only to show ranking.  All players are evenly matched against one another.  Even the in-game currency, carats, are used primarily to customize the character, not investing in stronger weapons.  One aspect that can separate players, though, is the fighting style.  Although technically any style will work, different styles work better than others.  After playing myself, I realized that it took quite a long time to raise the sufficient funds to purchase

Unlike other games, where the higher level means stronger skills, this game is based purely around each individual person’s skill.  All players get the same fighting style to begin with, leveling the playing field to a battle of strategy and skill.  The stronger players will rise up to their positions only because of their skills, not because they spend the most time on the game or because they have the funding to do so.

Graphics Overview-
For a free game, the graphics on Rumble Fighter are good.  One of the reasons that the file size is so small is because the maps that players fight in are not fully interactive.  This decreases size, and reduces distractions, but doesn’t take anything away from the game.  The graphics are still better than many games I’ve played, it’s just the way that the developers put the game together kept them from having to add any unnecessary content.  Check out some of the in-game screenshots and also an in-game video to see for yourself.

Sound Overview-
I turn the sound off when I play games, personally, but when I tried it for this, I was disappointed.  At first the sound may be rather creative and add flavor to the game, but after a while it gets really annoying.  I recommend starting iTunes or something of the sort in the background and then muting the music when you’re in-game.

Learning Curve-
This game, although it seemed overwhelming at first, has a very good tutorial that all players go through when you first start.  It’ll teach you everything you need to know.  Also, if you still don’t understand after the tutorial, you can enter a practice mode where you can try out your moves on computer characters.  I figured this game out incredibly easily to start with, although when you look deeper, you can see a whole bunch of information.  Overall, the learning curve for this game is perfect for any player.

Community-
Almost all free online games have poor communities with the higher-level players ridiculing the lower-level ones, but not in Rumble Fighter.  In this game, every character is treated as an equal, although there is smack-talking in just about every round.  If you’re new and don’t really know your way around, ask almost any player and they’ll be glad to help you out.

Overall-
I highly recommend this game for those who want a fighting-style game, but focused on quick matches.  I personally enjoy this game very much, and hope that you do, too!

NOTE: As with all reviews, they are subject to change with time as I discover new content, the game changes, or other things happen.  Check back often to see if there are any new updates.  And don’t worry, you won’t have to search through the whole post to check for updates, I’ll post them at the top of the review for you to check easily.

Yesterday I moderated a panel discussion as part of the Korea Entertainment & Technology Strategic Sessions at Digital Hollywood Fall 08. The topic was called “Expanding Gaming Horizon: Game Content, Community & Commerce,” which basically looked at what Korean and North American game companies could learn from each other.

The participants included Philip Yun, who was just announced as the new CEO of NHN USA, in his first-ever panel discussion. Joining him was: Robert Ferrari, vp Business Development of Turbine Inc.; Don Choi, COO of OGPlanet; and, providing an impartial voice, Chris Swain, Co-director, Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab and Asst. Professor, USC Cinematic Arts.

One interesting difference we noted was that American players prefer completely finished and highly polished games, while Korean players are more forgiving of beta versions and enjoy helping to shape the product.

Another important issue was whether gamers played at home or with others. With their pervasive PC café culture, Koreans have a central point of socialization, viral sharing, non-credit card payment mechanisms, and exposure to marketing campaigns. The panel discussed ways of achieving those goals in America.

We also explored free-to-play versus subscription as business models, the importance of having a local partner for multi-national games, micropayments, network speeds and latencies, customer retention, and the value and pitfalls of licensing a well-known property. Something that came up more than once was the recently announced partnership between Turbine and NHN to bring Lord of the Rings Online to Korea.

+ zOMG!
Browser based fantasy mmo from the creators of Gaia Online. A true mmo, in this case. Not that weird social avatar based thing that Gaia Online is.

+ Childhood Online
The website isn’t up yet, but Childhood Online seems to be an rpg/adventure game with some platform elements. Information is really sketchy right now.

+ Secret Online
This game is from the same publisher as the previous. Secret Online seems to be a fantasy/historical rpg based around Chinese mythology.

+ Kiwi Heroes
Browser based game geared toward kids.

+ Twin Skies
Another browser based rpg.

+ Goon World
Game based in a world of organized crime.

+ S4 League
S4 League is a sports/shooter mmo.

+ FunFun
Another browser based game. This one focusing of minigames.

+ Q-World
Malaysian “cute” anime-style mmorpg.

+ Godswar Online
Greek based rpg, announced way back at the end of last year.

+ Project Powder
Racing/snowboard mmo.

+ LaTale
MapleStory-style rpg.

+ Operation 7
Army-style fps.

+ TalesRunner
Anime-style racer/adventure game.

+ ASDA Story
Anime-style rpg.

+ Sugar Rush
Comic-style fighting game.

+ Way of the Five
Monster collecting rpg based in a cartoony Chinese setting.

+ Hovorun
Racing game.

+ Stargate Worlds
Game based on the Stargate franchise.

+ AceOnline – NA
North American server for Ace Online from SubaGames. Supposedly, this should not cause IP blocks for other servers, as the owners of AceOnline (Yedang) have stated in the past that they do not plan on enforcing region restrictions.

+ Priston Tale I – NA
Does anyone even play this game anymore?

+ Priston Tale II – NA
My understanding was this game was originally pay-to-play, but it seems SubaGames will be rolling it out for free. I might be wrong.

+ Free Realms
A largely hyped game from Sony. The current drool worthy feature is the possibility of gameplay focusing on mechanics other than combat.

In a recent interview with OGPlanet’s executive producer it was revealed that OGPlanet is currently planning to drastically expand their library of games. It was also revealed that the game publisher hopes to begin catering to a wider North American/English audience by localizing their games instead of just translating them. If this is true then this means that the quality of game play for OGPlanet’s games is likely to improve drastically. Culturally Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean games are characterized by a large amount of repetitive level grinding. OGPlanet intends to change this for an English audience.

+ Source

It’s been a while since my last update.  I have managed to replace the fan on my GeForce 7950, so my computer is functioning once again.  However, two days after my fan died, my brother’s GeForce 6800 Ultra died.  I replaced his dead card with a new GeForce 7950 two days ago. 

I also managed to get my Rumble Fighter video completed.  It took a little longer because I’m using a new program to do my videos.

Rumble Fighteris a 3D action game that puts players in a rich and strange anime setting.  It is completely online and involves players connecting to each other when forming games.  Its setup is a lot like Rakion and Gunbound.  The player creates his or her character, outfits him or her with a ton of different items.  Interestingly, most of the items you can equip your character with do nothing more than change his or her look.  Style is a very big factor in this game and, of course, the developers have created an endless supply of strange items to adorn your character with.  For some reason, turtle shells seemed to be the “big thing” when I was playing.

The menus don’t take very long to learn to navigate.  Then, it is off to playing some matches to gain those experience points and level up your character.  There are two gametypes so far, team deathmatch and deathmatch.  Each game can hold a maximum of 8 players and if TDM, places them on either the red or blue team.  Once you find yourself in the heat of battle, you’ll realize either two things, the default controls are perfect or, if you’re like me, they need to be tweaked.  The default controls have the player using the four arrow keys to move, the space bar to jump (duh), and keys like Z and X for combat.  However, in my experience as an FPS gamer, these controls seem completely backwards.  I changed it so WASD were my movement keys and then, since the mouse cannot be used for Rumble Fighter, I made the arrow keys my various combat controls.  While controlling your character isn’t necessarily difficult, it does take some time to get used to it.  Why the Rumble Fighter developers didn’t allow for the mouse to be used is beyond me.  However, the keyboard controls aren’t enough to make this game less enjoyable.

So what besides Rumble Fighter’s anime style, strange items, and casual experience make it stand alone from games like Rakion, Gunz, and Gunbound?  Well, the developers decided to also allow players to equip themselves with two other types of items, but these items don’t just change your appearance, they change your combat abilities.  The first is called Sacred Scrolls, items that allow the player to change his or her character’s combat style.  These scrolls can change your fighting style from street fighting to the highest level of martial arts.  Each scroll alters how your character fights and makes for very unique fights.  The second type of item is called ExoCores, items that morph your character into another form.  For example, at the lower levels, characters seemed to prefer the ExoCore that morphs your player into a half-wolf character, the ExoCore that morphs your character into a water spirit of some kind, and the ExoCore that morphs your player into some kind of guy with drills for arms.  In each case the player is given a different power that he or she can use to his or her advantage.  For example, the water spirit morph allows the player to shoot large water spirits that follow a target, attempting to hit it and do damage.  However, the draw back to this ExoCore is its lack of a close range combat move, making it deadly from distance and easily overcome at close range.

The combat environments are interestingly designed.  There were three levels in the beta that ended on June 20, and each one with its on unique characteristics.  For example, the snow stage allows for characters to move inside of the house on either end, revealing even more options for escape and combat.  There were several times where I would enter the house and then immediately charge at the door, thus striking the enemy who was following me without he or she being able to see me until it was too late.  Further more, there are areas on two of the three maps where players can be knocked off, killing them instantly.  This part of the game gave Rumble Fighter a Super Smash Bros. feel and definitely helped turn the tides when two of your three teammates disconnected in the middle of a fighter.  Luring an opponent to the edge and then manuvering to kick them off can really level the playing field.

The beta was only open for two days by the time I managed to get the thing downloaded and installed, but I had more fun playing Rumble Fighter than I have playing a lot of my other games recently.  It is easy to learn, fun to play, and it has enough depth to make it interesting for a while to come.  Make sure to keep checking the official website to see when the next North American beta begins!