"Mushrooms! Everywhere!"

Well, well, well, what do we have here, A fairly good MMORPG that's FREE!? And Good looking, I gotta try this one out. Maple Story is a cutesy-cuddly, 2D Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or an MMORPG for short, and I have a lot to say about this one

Starting Off Score, (8/10) From the website, you must download the game onto your computer, which for me, took, forever. about 3-4 hours, so once you start downloading. go off and see a movie or something, read a book, whatever. The download time is LOOOONG. and once you finish, you have to make your N/X account on the website, an ordeal which should take about 15 minutes, oh, MapleGlobal, (The website) Doesn't support yahoo.com, which sucks, cuz I had to make a hotmail account just to play the game. But anyway, after a tedious download time, once you go into the starting screen, you will be a little shocked at the graphics and music quality, so you log on, make a pin number and finally its off to character creation. The character creation part is a bit limited, a maximum of 3 or so choices for your characters hairstyle, skin tone, shirt, starting weapon, pants, and shoes. And a messed up starting stat system in which you repeatedly click the mouse button until you get a good stat list, and the name making, like any other MMORPG, will take a while, cuz if you want a name that is to short or simple it will probably be taken. Anyway, you start off on Maple Island, and the graphics and music are (as far as free MMORPGS go) Beautiful, and your given a quick little tutorial with all of the controls, so learning to play the game is quick and easy, once you get to a desired level by killing snails and mushrooms, you leave Maple Ilse and go off to Vicky Ilse.

Gameplay (9/10): Like I said, learning the controls for this game is short, quick, and easy, plus the fact that you can assign keys to a certain task, so if your little pinky finger can't reach the page up button for that healing potion you so desperately need, move it down to d for quick access. the arrow keys, are used for moving, and seeing as this is a 2d game you won't have to worry about bad camera or complex maneuvers while playing. Jump and attack are assigned to Alt and Ctrl, and, sadly, there are no complex attack combos to spice up the game, you just mash attack and throw in a few abilities until the monster or monsters are all defeated, making for a very repetitive game. but very addicting, why, you'll see in a minute.

Graphics (9/10): Holy pixelated crap this game is pretty. you'll be treated with a full blow of colors, animations, and detail as you play Maple Story, the graphics on this game are great, especially for a free MMORPG from the internet. the monsters and characters look fantastic. and it won't hurt your eyes, too much. The character appearance looks Chibi style, If you don't know crap about japan think of a really cute, big eyed kid with a big, huge, weapon in his/her hands and you got Maple Story, and most surprising, it's in 2d! The monsters, at the start, can be described as a skunk. It looks cute and cuddly, but once it touches you and sprays you with, instead of stink, the scars of battle, you won't be thinking it's so cute anymore. later in the game you get to fight the bigger nastier, highly detailed wonders that are harder monsters.

Community (5/10): This, is probably the ONLY real problem with Maple Story, the community, sucks ass. Period. don't rely on anyone for help except your closest friends, cuz you wont get any, Maple Story is often hacked, bugged, and packed full of what we on the internet call no0bs. kids often lie about their age and sign on and you get some whiny little brats who can't type worth ****. shoot, even the older folks can't type at all either. that and they have no respect, and you can also expect to find a hacker somewhere online. People also loot and Ks, or Kill steal, the annoying art of finishing off a monster you were busy killing, you. Don't EVER go on channel one, because it is always packed. and if you like going solo, then the community won't bother you too much. if you look hard enough. you might just find a non-idiot who will actually be nice and help you out when you need it, but don't get bright and shiny, good help is about as hard to find as a needle in a haystack. You can also make a party and kill with other players, dividing the loots and stuff. You can also even make a guild... which doesn't do too much except give you a snazzy title under your name.

Character Development (7/10): The first 13 or so levels will blow by easy. and you can choose between one of 4 jobs, Warrior, Magician, Bowman, and thief. pick one at level 10, or 8 if your a mage. And. Just. Train. For. Days. On. End. In the 20's a level up a day means your majorly addicted to this game, leveling up in the later levels takes forever, sure you can do a few quests. but they probably only lead to you killing more monsters and looting some more. at the higher levels, your abilities and attacks get more flashier, making the game much more exciting. But as they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day," in fact, it will probably take the entire time it took to build Rome to reach the maximum level in this game, which stands at 200. Although it sounds boring, this gets actually heavily addicting. and you always come back for more.

Music (7/10): The Music in this game is supposedly made to match your location, and it does a fairly good job of that, in the alleys of Kerning City your treated to a funky hip-hop theme, and in the beautiful forests of Ellinia you get a calm soothing melody. The looping of the songs however, isn't too good. there's usually a long pause before the music starts up again, and if you hang out in an area for a while, it gets repetitive and annoying, but suck it up and listen to it for a while, it's worth it, a bit. If you have no sense in the musical arts, just turn off the music and grab your Ipod. The sound effects in this game are fairly good as well, zapping, slashing, grunting, jumping are all depicted to you with lovely sounds.

Replay value (8/10): As an MMORPG, MS allows you to start over and try out a totally new class and approach to the game. For a fairly good replay value. Bored of the hacking and slashing of a warrior, then make a mage and last your enemies away with a energy ball! And when you get bored with that, make a thief and attack swiftly and deadly leaving nothing but a cooling corpse behind! It's always a good idea to make more then one character in Maple Story.

Size/Customization (8/10): Maple Story is a fairly medium sized game, with lots of different areas for you to visit. Travelling is either by foot, or taxi, or return to town scrolls, then more walking. which isn't such a real problem. And as for character customization. its limited at first, but you get bunches of sweet looking armors and outfits to deck out your character. and, you can pay a visit to the cash shop and buy hair coupons and tans to totally make your character unique and stand out. But it costs money to do so.

Overall score: (8/10) Overall, MS is a fairly good game to download and get involved into. it's fun, addictive, free, and beautiful, so pick it up and play it! you won't regret it.

Replay value

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/06