Reviewed: August 1, 2003
Reviewed by: Aaron Daigle
Publisher
Disney Interactive
Developer
Disney Interactive
Released: May 27, 2003
Genre: MMOG
Players: Online
ESRB: Everyone
9
8
8
10
8.5
System Requirements
That greedy old quacker Scrooge McDuck has really done it this time; He’s accidentally unleashed a veritable army of evil corporate Cogs on the fun loving citizens of Toontown. Will those wacky folks stand by as their colorful home is incorporated into a bleak Cog corporate wasteland? Heck no! Join the fight in Disney’s Toontown, the MMOG from Disney online that asks: “Are you ‘toon enough?”
Toontown is poised to fulfill an important role when it comes to the online gaming market, a kid friendly game that will allow the whole family to join in on the MMOG fun without having to worry about the usual gang of idiots that populate most gaming communities. In Toontown you get to create a Toon, pick out your height, build, coloration, clothing and of course your too has to have a cool name. Once you’ve got the particulars of your Toon sorted out, it’s time to get cracking, after a brief tutorial that explains the Gag based combat system and culminates in your first encounter with a Cog, you will be turned loose in the playground.
The Playground is the only truly neutral area in Toontown, If you run out of Laff points you will get sad and wind up here where you can play mini-games, go fishing and buy Gags, till you regenerate enough Laff points to get your butt back out there and start winning back your town from the Cog menace. And how will you do that?
Well the Cogs are a vastly humorless lot, so when a Cog gets all up in your face what you gotta do is whip a few gags on him. You know smash a pie in his face, or blast him a good one with some seltzer. Not that a cog is going to just sit there and take it, no he’s going to try and fight back with shredded documents and clip-on ties. Stick it out long enough and the Cogs just can’t handle the hilarity any longer and simply blow up, spewing gears and bolts everywhere.
Now as you expend Gags in battle you will need to purchase more from Goofy at the Gag shop (Would you really buy anything from that guy?) with what passes for currency in Toontown, jellybeans. The more often you use each class of Gag. Spraying, Tossing etc. the more Gags in that class will be available for you. And the game isn’t just about running around taking out Cogs and restoring the buildings of Toontown to normal, ok, well mostly it is, but there are quests to complete, ice cream to eat, fish to catch, and enough cute Toons to make you retch.
I think by this time it should be obvious that the focus in Toontown is on silly fun. It’s perfect for the kids, providing an online gaming experience featuring Mickey and the gang that isn’t a boring, preachy edutainment title. Toontown provides families with a complex, relatively deep gameplay experience that still protects the kids from the ‘net creeps that seem to be everywhere these days.
It does this a couple of ways; first, the only way kids can actually type at each other is through the secret friends system. How this works is they have to give their friends a password through a non-online avenue such as the phone, once the friend inputs the password, they will be able to type back and forth via language filtered chat.
The second clean communication system Toontown offers allows players to use popup menus to select words and phrases to coordinate the offensive against the Cogs, ask folks if they want to join your party or just to say “hi.” This system works very, very well and it’s clear that some serious development time went into this feature that helps provide this game with both personality and safety.
The People playing Toontown are a fairly talkative bunch, though they do seem a little homogenous due to the menu based chat system. There are always new people to meet and team up with to fight the Cogs. The personality and or sense of humor of the players tend to shine through in their character names, King Puffy Shirt for example.
You won’t have to buy a new video card probably, but Toontown looks sharp. One of my biggest quibbles with a lot of titles is visual quality is inconsistent throughout the game, not so here. The Toons look great, the Cogs look great, the mini-games look great, and yes, Toontown looks great.
There aren’t a lot of fancy particle effects or volumetric fog but who needs it? This title’s visuals have soul, the Toons are well animated and their idle motions feature a lot of character. There are no frame rate drops and I think the folks at Disney Online created exactly what were going for.
The looped tracks of Toontown’s score are non-intrusive and work well with the various environments in the game. The sound effects are standard cartoon fare and do fit the lively nature of this title very well. All in all nothing really earth-shaking but it gets the job done.
Well right now if you are looking for an MMOG for the family it’s tough to beat Toontown’s price: Free software and $9.99/month for a subscription. That isn’t bad for folks on a budget, there’s still a free 3-day trial going on if you want to check it out. I think this will be something the kids will really get into or they’ll insist on slaying some dragons like their parents.
Toontown may well be creating a new market within the MMOG spectrum. The idea that kids can play online and not be subject to cyber creeps is a compelling one and if Toontown succeeds I’ll bet we see more games like it. While most folks aren’t going to want to trade in their bow and broadsword for a seltzer bottle those with kids should definitely give Toontown a look.