Game review: Wonderland

Wonderland is a (originally Japanese?) free 2D MMORPG, and as you expect they make their money by having for-pay items (Not sure if they are actually making money, though. The web page seems to be copywritten since 2006).  I'll give my opinion about the game, although keep in mind I've only played a few hours.

- Download was pretty long and had some problems working on my Fiance's laptop.

- Character creation is a bit on the overly-simple side, with only a few choices like your element (earth,wind, etc.), and your mix of 5 stats (str, int, etc.).

- At the beginning of the game you start in a non-multiplayer area that serves a warmup for the game. At first it was confusing (since I didn't see any players there), but overall it was a nice idea, and contributed to the story of the game.

- You aren't forced into any story (except the intro where your boat is shipwrecked). This is ok for those who just want to level-up like crazy, or randomly explore (both which I enjoy), but I think it would be nice to give you a little more story up-front. I'm not sure how the popular MMORPGs do this (FF11, WOWW, etc.). I loved exploring in Ultima 7, but at that game there is a nice series of events that pull you into the game's world (and are forced) before you begin exploring. This decision to focus less on story may be a purposeful one in order to work within the game's budget, given it is a free game.

- The areas full of people trying to sell their wares, or at least show-off their houses, are a bit annoying, and hard to navigate through. I imagine this happens in other games as well, but making those areas more clearly marked off would be nice.

- The overall atmosphere of the game is cute, with very nice graphics and happy music. However, I feel it is a bit 'too' cheery sometimes. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your target audience. If its a younger age group, this may be a perfect atmosphere. 

- The attack system is very similar to that from old Nintendo RPG games (or even newer PS RPG  games), where you have several different options in turn-based combat. I don't mind turn-based (as long as the tactics are interesting enough), but I think allowing your player to move around on the battle field adds a necessary level of depth, especially for new games.

- Having and fighting with your own pets is a nice feature, and the social messaging options (show hearts, musical notes, etc.) are nice.

- I remember playing a game similar to this a few months ago which had a nice full-screen map of the entire land, which made me curious to explore the various corners of the world. This game has a map of the nearby area, but I haven't found a way to show a larger-scale map.

- I haven't played long enough to judge this well, but there seems to be alot of interesting items and things you can buy to customize your house. This is to be expected, since the game makes its money this way.

- Some of the super moves seem a bit unrealistic (like a car running over the enemy). I guess this is good for the younger/less serious crowd.

- Since I'm struggling with my game's graphics, the most impressive thing about this game is the graphics quality.