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Wizard101 (W101)
KingsIsle Entertainment | Play Now
MMORPG | Genre:Fantasy | Status:Final  (rel 09/02/08)  | Pub:KingsIsle Entertainment
PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:$09.95
Desktop Client | System Req: PC | ESRB:E10+Out of date info? Let us know!

Wizard101 Review: Wizard 101 Review - Edit

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh spent some time recently in the world of Wizard 101 and writes this review for our reading pleasure.
Final Score

8

Pros
 Family Friendly Price
 No Twinking or Power Levelling
Cons
 Might Lack Depth to Appeal to Hardcore Gamers

Wizard 101 is a children’s MMO created by Kingsisle Entertainment but one of the most engaging MMOs I have yet to come across. Playing a young wizard, you are going to school and having adventures in Wizard City and its surrounds. Harry Potter anyone? If you’ve ever wished to be a young wizard wielding a wand, going to school for Conjuration or Transformation, learning from the different schools and engaging in spell duels, you might find this game intriguing.

Ravenwood School

You, young wizard, are discovered by the Headmaster of Ravenwood Academy, Merle Ambrose and drawn into the world of Wizard City. Character customization is simple with a voice-over of Merle Ambrose walking the new player through it. There are limited choices between faces and hairstyles, colors and the starting outfit; the hat, robe, shoes and the color of the trim. Then you are asked a series of questions Ultima style and sorted into the right school of Magic for your personality. There are seven schools of magic to choose from, and these are Fire, Ice, Storm, Life, Myth, Balance, and Death. You can also by-pass the question and answer session by simply choosing your school.

A short description of each school of magic is available when you select it. For example, the school of Myth is the summoning school and you can summon assistants to help you in your duels. The school of Life is a healing school, the school of Death has a nice vampiric life tap, and the school of Fire is all about fire damage.

The naming system is a choice of first name and two word combination for last name, or simply a first name if a player so chooses. So do not be surprised to run into 20 Blaze “something or others” in the course of one night’s play.

Young wizards all have the ability to learn not only from their own school of magic, but gain training points that can be spent at various other schools and instructors to gain spells in other types of magic, wards (buffs) and debuffs. The important levels where you gain new spells from your school are every five. In terms of in-game character customization and development, players can buy color changes to their clothing and trims as well as fashion articles. Some equipment can also be bought but better will drop from Boss mobs.

Controls, Graphics & UI

Navigation around the world is done by the WASD / Arrow keys, a map, a compass which points out the various places and buildings on a map, and teleports. Players can also teleport directly to a friend on their friends list. Wizard 101 is a children’s game, so the graphics are not cutting edge, but that is not to say that they aren’t good. The graphics are crisp and bright, and the characters animated in cartoon style. Headmaster Merle Ambrose if your quintessential wizard with pointy had, beard and owl pet. The city guards are reminiscent of characters seen in Shrek and spell animations are slick. Very slick.

The UI is minimalist with large icons at each corner of your screen which brings up your tool bar and options, each which fills your entire screen. No swapping out inventory slots while on the run in this game.

Gameplay and Combat

The gameplay mechanic is simple and elegant. Combat is turn based and your spells cost power points. The more powerful the spell, the more power points are required. You gain power points at a point a turn. Buffs, debuffs and fizzles cost nothing, and you also have one low damage value spell which costs nothing and has a 100% chance of casting.

Each spell is styled like a collectible card, each having a piece of art and providing information about that particular card, including such stats as the school, the percentage chance of casting the spell successfully and power points required, and these spells are arranged in a deck which can be upgraded as you level.

Wizard 101 Screen

Also available are Treasure Cards which are one-use spells. They are dropped or can be bought at the library, and arranged in your deck as well. To bring these into play, a spell is discarded, and a random Treasure Card drawn during your turn.

The duels revolve around casting buff and debuff spells and building up your power points to cast your high damage spells, and these are usually the ones learned from your school although some high-cost Treasure Cards are very powerful as well. NPCs have magic icons at their names, so a player can tell what magic it uses as well, and ward against that.

To enter a duel with a MOB, a player runs into aggro radius and both you and the mob will square off at opposite points in a circle. Up to four players or combination of players and minions can cooperate in a duel by running into that circle and appropriate number of NPCs will join in if there are any close enough. A great deal of tension builds as you can see the spells chosen by players and the NPCs they are targeting. Spells can be selected, discarded and changed during the turn during the 30 second countdown timer. Seven spell cards are randomly drawn from your deck at the star of each duel and as you use one, another fills the slot. You can also discard a card for a random Treasure Card to fill the spot.

The cooperation is interesting as players simply jump into the duel circle, or if entering an instanced area, jump into the teleporter at the same time. This takes away the need to form a group before hand and most players simple ask others playing in the area to take on a boss after they’ve played a few duels together.

You main stats are health and mana. These are replenished after duels by running into red “health sprites” that fly around the dungeons and blue “mana sprites” that fly around the town areas. The first newbie area you encounter has both types of sprites. Health regenerates quickly in the town areas as well. Otherwise, both health and mana can be replenished by playing mini-games in the games area, or by paying to have your potion bottle filled at the games area and using it. You don’t die, by the way. You are defeated. Your health and mana goes down to zero, you are teleported back to the Commons – right next to the Mini-games area, by the way.

Itemization and Economy

The loot that you gain when you win a duel are wearables, treasure cards and gold. These are also gained in completing quests and playing mini-games. There isn’t any “body loot” or such. Wearables you don’t or can’t use can be sold to merchants, but these have very little value. Clothing are not just window dressing but can boost stats. Some items are designated as “equipment” and these are your wand, ring, amulet and athame. More powerful pieces provide additional spell cards for your deck. Pets are dropped as loot or can be purchased. At this time, they can boost stats and can provide additional spell cards, but will have a more complex purpose in the future.

Wizard 101 Screen

Treasure Cards can be traded between players but nothing else. i.e. no Twinking in this game! Gold is easy to come by but items are not cheap. Fluff items are costly and the unwary player can be surprised at the cost of the next higher level item. For example, the general upgrade deck was 105 gold but the level 10 “School” Deck was five times as much. Kingisle also has a mini-mall where Treasure Cards and Clothing can be purchased with “crowns” which are purchased with real dollars.

Quests and Mini-games

Wizard City is full of quests that a young wizard can take on. Again, as this is a children’s game, they are simple “speak to,” delivery or kill quests. Some require defeating boss mobs and their minions, and it would be best to enlist the help of a friend.

A very elegant and simple way of keeping track of quests is provided in the quest manual with four quests to a page and two pages on your screen at a time. Each quest shows graphics of the types of mobs you have to kill, the type of item you are getting from them as well as names, numbers and location. Once you’ve accomplished that, it changes into a graphic and name of the person you need to talk to.

There are seven mini-games in the Game area and they range from a memory-match game to puzzles and simple shooters. These can be addictively compelling as the higher your score, the more gold and better chance for loot you have, besides a chance to have your character name up on the high score board. As you play these games, your Health and Mana regenerates, and your potion bottle refills.

Communication

Wizard 101 is a children’s MMO, so parental controls are provided to restrict chat. There are no guilds and no parties. Children playing on chat restricted accounts can only use and see “drop-down Menu” chat. So communication can be difficult. Chat is also done in bubbles, so don’t expect to debate philosophy. Keeping to simple short sentences will make your communication easier.

Play Experience

Wizard 101 installs and downloads while you create your character and go through the first parts of the game. Instead of being designed as a tutorial, you play the game and at appropriate times, a large icon of an NPC shows up. Clicking it will provide a tip that leads you to the next stage. At each stage, the game continues downloading, so there isn’t a long time to download and patch or wait to play the game.

The combat and dueling experience is rather fun, as tension can really build in a group. Throw into that, the chance of fizzling and Murphy’s law that the card you really, really need doesn’t come up in the draw. There is a certain amount of strategy employed in building your deck and use of Treasure Cards. Each spell has a spell effect associated with it as well as an animation. This animation is in the form of a monster. For example, a Cyclops who poses before thumping the ground and creating a crack that deals the actual damage, an Ice Cobra whipping its tail at you, or a Leprechaun riding down a rainbow to throw coins at you. Some spells may have as many as three animations, depending on the amount of damage being done.

Wizard 101 Screen

Travel can be tedious at times as you can be running through three or four zones to get to where you need to go. Even though the zones are not very large, I found myself wishing for more direct routes. Getting home however, is simple. There are two icons that are found in your character screen. One takes you to your “dorms” where you bank in the school district, and the other takes you to the respawn point in the Commons, just outside the games area. I quickly discovered that sidewalks are safe areas. Cross-walks are also pretty safe, as long as you look both ways. A cute nod to real-life here.

A simple and fast way to travel is to teleport to your friend on your friends list. If he or she happens to be in a fight, welcome to the fight! This means that if you are defeated, you can flee (end up at respawn), quaff your potion and head right back with full health and mana. I wonder if this is an exploit…

Conclusion

All in all, I found this to be a fun and compelling game. For the hard-cord among us, I’d say that it is not a game for long periods of play, but one for popping in and out of on a casual basis. I enjoyed the use of strategy as opposed to button mashing in combat, found the graphics charming, the mini-games scarily addictive and I even liked my dour instructor of the Myth School. I am not the only long time MMO player enjoying this game. A chat at E3 with other game journalists on games we were playing all turned to Wizard 101 beta, the schools we preferred and which mini-game was eating away our review and writing time.

Wizard 101 provides a limitless free trial. In other words, it is free-to-play but you are limited to early levels and areas of the game. Do yourself and your kid (if you have one) a favor. Give this game a try for free. You may be very pleasantly surprised at how much you enjoy it, and at $9.95 a single account or $6.95 each for a family account, this may be the best bang for the buck in MMOs this year.

More Wizard101 Features:

Wizard101 - The New World of Avalon General Article added on Monday April 09
Wizard101 - Zafaria Preview Preview added on Friday December 02
Wizard101 - Zafaria Trailer Shows Off Wild Side Media added on Wednesday November 30

More Features:

The Secret World - Hell Hurts Preview added on Thursday May 24
Rift - Conquest - Open World, Three Faction PvP Interview added on Thursday May 24
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Update 1.3 and Beyond Interview added on Thursday May 24
 
 
jaix writes:

Nice and accurate review. I tried this out in beta as a slight diversion, and found myself playing more than I thought I would as well. In fact, I almost decided that I would subscribe when it came out and started finding and submitting all the bugs I could find to make it a subscribe-worthy game. In the end, I decided it wasn't quite the game for me, but as a kid-friendly game, it's surprisingly good.

New Post Quote
11/20/08 11:34:25 AM
 
Lydon writes:

It really is an amazing game. Though it may be geared towards children, I found it immersive and addictive. I love the combat system.

New Post Quote
11/20/08 11:44:16 AM
 
Mrbloodworth writes:

There are many lessions to be learned from this by "AAA" title MMO makers. I am looking at you SOE, mythic, funcom, and blizzard.

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11/20/08 2:08:43 PM
 
Wizardry writes:

I have to offer my two cents,just because i tried the game as i try just about every game that comes out.

The review was pretty much 99% accurate so i guess i can't add too much more.

The game and it's design was done quite well especially for the age group it was dedicated to.I would say it maybe the best game out here for a parent to join there kids in a game.It is not difficult to learn but offers a little diversity in how you build your decks.

Personally i think that as good as the game is ,it could easily be better with a little bit of work.I realize these guys are busy trying to get the next city/world design up and running for the players but there is still a lot that could be done with the existing game.

I offered SEVERAL suggestions as to witch a few were liked but of course many people found some excuse to not like my idea.I looked at every angle and aspect before offering my ideas so,even after i heard the arguements ,i don't buy them.

Just one area and my fave of course is COMBAT.Although the age group is on the lower end,you would be surprised at how smart some young people are,i have often found some young kids to be a lot brighter than some older people.In realizing this ,i think they could make the game a little more challenging or even offer areas of difficulty as they sort of tried to do with there instances that really don't resemble instances.

The quests also need to be a lot more appealing ,i think even the young kids get bored of them and just spending hours running around for nothing ,looking for someone or something.

However on a whole and as the game stands it does show some decent effort and should be reconized as a very good kids game.

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11/20/08 3:18:54 PM
 
fansede writes:

I played Beta and I might fire it up again. The ease and causal gameplay is attractive.  Sometimes I remember rolling my eyes when I get "caught" into a battlefield when i thought I was far away from anything, but other than that, it does what it should do.  Entertains

 

On some level we should compare this to Atlantica Online

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11/21/08 8:16:46 AM
 
RJCox writes:

I'm also one of the many who was trying this game out, to see if it'd be a good fit for my kids' first MMO, and got completely sucked in. In fact I've barely gotten around to showing it to them yet. Great game all around, and I agree with the above poster, definitely some lessons to be learned here.

New Post Quote
11/21/08 8:21:59 AM
 
yeecks writes:

I have to fully agreed with wizardy. At first, i thought wizard101 is for kids, educational typed of games.

After i tried, i found out that this game is cute with nice graphics and very addictive for players to play especially when the wizards are in combat. AWESOME

Should give it a try.

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11/21/08 10:05:55 AM
 
rhinok writes:

 I agree with the review.  Wizard101 is a great, fun game for kids.  It's a solid product and KingsIsle has done quite a bit since it launched, especially with their revenue model and holiday event, to assure people that it's a serious contender.  That being said, Wizard101's sucess and popularity with older/more mature gamers probably surprised even Wizard101, since they weren't the target audience.  Per KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian, in a pre-beta press release:

"We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101"

"It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."

The game has been out a while, is stable and the revenue model has likely been finalized.  This is a great time for KingsIsle to consider updating the game to not only attract and retain older, more experienced gamers (especially with FreeRealms looming on the horizon).  I think they could do this with a few changes:

  • Chat - Older gamers can become frustrated with the enfornced constraints of the kid-friendly chat system.  As of now, gamers under 13 and free gamers are limited to emote-based chat.  Only paid players over 13 can use the "free text" chat (or paid players under 13 whose parents expclitly enable free text chat), although this still limits the chat based on an approved dictionary.   Players limited to emote-based chat, either due to age or subscription status, cannot even see free text chat by those who are allowed to use it.  All they see are ellipses (...).  Why not add in a third layer of chat for paid subscribers >= 18 years of age?  This third layer could be truly free, non-dictionary based (except for obvious words that should be censored, just like they are in adult MMOs).  The mechanics of the chat system would still be the same in that <13 and non-paid subscribers would still see ellipses instead of the chat, thereby mitigating  the possibility of children seeing chat that may not be appropriate.  Paid subscribers between 13 and 17 would only see the text they're allowed to see, based on their level of chat, unless the most open level of chat is explicitly enabled by their parental unit.  This approach still keeps kids safe, but will reduce frustrations more mature gamers have with the existing chat system.
  • Trade - at this time, players can only trade treasure cards, not items.  Introduce item trading for paid players >= 18 years old (unless explicitly allowed by an adult, in which case it'd be 13+ - NEVER under 13, UNLESS IN THE SAME FAMILY ACCOUNT). This introduces a famiilar MMO mechanic, but still keeps kids safe from being scammed, bamboozled, tricked, etc....
  • Groups - the concept of groups don't really exist within Wizard101. Grouping is really done on an encounter-by-encounter basis. Any player can simply join a battle already in progress (except for a few specific challenge battles) by entering the battle circle (either by teleporting to a friend in an instance or just running up on a public street). This is a great approach to both solo and casual play, but it has limitations. When I want to play with my son and daughters, we basically all have to follow each other around and jump in on each other's battles. Additionally, since there aren't any real groups, there isn't an explicit group chat channel. I'd love to see groups and group chat implemented. Group creation could be limited to those paid players >= 18 (unless explicitly allowed by an adult, in which case it'd be 13+ - NEVER under 13, UNLESS IN THE SAME FAMILY ACCOUNT)
  • Guilds - there aren't any guilds at this time.  As a parent, I'd absolutely be leery of letting my 9 year old son join a guild in a MMO, even in a kids game.  That being said, I think it's a critical component for more mature gamers.  As such, why not add in guilds for paid players >= 18 (unless explicitly allowed by an adult, in which case it'd be 13+ - NEVER under 13, UNLESS IN THE SAME FAMILY ACCOUNT).

All of the above features would help to attract and retain an older, more MMO-experienced audience and could be implemented in a manner that would still keep the younger players safe. Other than those, some more granular controls could be implemented, like the abilty to "lock down" your encounters.  It can be very frustating, especially for younger players, to be in a stressful fight (because you're low on hp/mana, running out of cards, just trying to finish a quest or whatever....) when somebody jumps in and brings another monster with them (and everybody who jumps in brings a monster with them, so 3 players jumping in can turn your encounter from a 1-on-1 to a 4-on-4).  An option to lock down your battles would be great!

~Ripper

 p.s. Start submitting ratings and maybe some comments in the game's mmorpg.com forums!

New Post Quote
11/21/08 11:53:47 AM
 
KingsIsle writes:

Hello young Wizards!

I'm Lydia Greyrose, the Professor of Ice Magic at Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

I'd like to thank you so much for your wonderful review, and all the comments!

I am very happy you're enjoying Wizard101. I wanted to clarify that we recently opened up our Text Chat to players over 13 years of age, while still maintaining security for our players who are under the age of 13.

We've also just introduced a new tutorial. Merle needs your help defeating Malistaire, and in our new tutorial you get to hear Merle's voice guide you through the first lessons of being a Wizard. You'll see dramatic spells and learn more about what Malistaire is up to! Currently players may want to create an additional Wizard to see what adventures Merle has in store for his newest students.

See you in Wizard City! Remember to send any questions or suggestions to me at community@wizard101.com

~Professor Lydia Greyrose
 

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11/21/08 2:38:10 PM
 
Lydon writes:

What I would love to see, if possible, is new methods of payment. For example, I don't own a credit card and neither does anyone else in our house simply because they have a way of getting you in debt, so I am unable to become a subscriber. Ideally I would love a pay-by-mobile-phone option, as that would be extremely convenient and safe. 

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11/22/08 4:06:06 AM
 
xsarkaix writes:

This game is relevant to my interests.  I believe I will give this game a shot.  No, I am certain.

New Post Quote
11/24/08 6:17:33 AM
 
Czarr_Rom writes:

What I would love to see is a review done by someone at the target age.

Get an early teenager to review this game. I dont say this to be condescending in any way but if the game is meant to target ?9-14? year olds shouldnt they be the ones telling us how it is? :)

Something like that would be very cool indeed.

New Post Quote
11/25/08 8:14:17 AM
 
Gyrus writes:
Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

There are many lessions to be learned from this by "AAA" title MMO makers. I am looking at you SOE, mythic, funcom, and blizzard.

Exactly.

The big thing i noticed was that KingsIsle had a vision for the game and stuck with it.

It is actually a very 'simple' game - but it works because of it.

 

KingsIsle / Prof Greyrose, nice to see you here.  How about dropping by the sub forum from time to time to chat?

 

What is your next project?

New Post Quote
11/25/08 10:46:41 AM
 
Lydon writes:
Originally posted by Czarr_Rom

What I would love to see is a review done by someone at the target age.

Get an early teenager to review this game. I dont say this to be condescending in any way but if the game is meant to target ?9-14? year olds shouldnt they be the ones telling us how it is? :)

Something like that would be very cool indeed.

I hope you wouldn't expect said early teenager to actually write a constructive review 

New Post Quote
11/26/08 3:05:03 AM
 
Deewe writes:

Thanks a lot for the review, never heard about this game before and I certainly will try it out ;)

New Post Quote
11/26/08 6:59:49 PM
 
rhinok writes:
Originally posted by Czarr_Rom

What I would love to see is a review done by someone at the target age.

Get an early teenager to review this game. I dont say this to be condescending in any way but if the game is meant to target ?9-14? year olds shouldnt they be the ones telling us how it is? :)

Something like that would be very cool indeed.

  • My 9 year old son loves it - he's an addict.  It's all I can do to get him to stop talking about the game, and I'm a gamer!
  • My 12 year old daughter likes it and play some
  • My 18 year old daughter (just turned 18 a couple of weeks ago) likes it and plays quite a bit

On top of that, my 39 year old wife likes it, but doesn't play all that often and I (38 years old) like it a lot and play in bursts between my other games and work/life responsibilities.  My son and I had a game night last night and played together for a few hours - it was great!.  Even more fun with somebody to play with.

I've said this before in other comments - Wizard101 is the only game that has ever appealed to my entire family.  I've played CoX in duos with my oldest daughter for 2 years.  I've played Dungeon Runners with my son and I've played WoW with my wife (very, very casually  for both of us).  But we all play Wizard101!!

~Ripper

 

New Post Quote
11/27/08 4:11:56 PM
 
Drafell writes:

Admittedly, I haven't played this game since the Beta ended, but I found it to be very interesting and well conceived, and even got my cousins children to play it before it went gold.

It's a good quality product, and makes me wonder what else KingsIsle have up their sleeves. I know for certain that there is another project in development, but just what?

New Post Quote
11/28/08 10:50:20 AM
 
ronnab writes:

This is a combo review from my preteen and me.

After discovering this game via this thread, I decided to head on over and check it out.  I've been playing for the last couple days and have a few comments.  I'm a 43 year old dad who's been playing MMOs since they came online, albeit more casually in the last decade+ due to work, family, etc.  I imagine our family is one of the main demographic targets for W101.

I have an 8 year old son who plays a few different online games such as Fiesta, Toon Town, Eternal Lands, etc.  He'd be on the computer 24 hours a day if we let him.   After my first day of playing, I also created an account for him at W101.   We've been able to play together by loading the game on two computers, even though we're playing from the same IP.

My general impression is W101 is a very good game.   I see a lot of similarities between W101 and Toontown.  If you've ever played TT, you'll be right at home with the play.   There are "safe" sidewalks, battles are the same, quests are similar, and more. 

We like W101 and will probably be subscribing in the near future.  The price is very reasonable.  I like how they have a family pricing option. 

The new tutorial is great.  It really captures the imagination of all players and gives a great feel for gameplay, and of course, sets the plot in motion.

I've never been a huge fan of card based games.  My son on the other hand, loves Pokemon....  need I say anymore.  The card based attack system was intuitive to him. 

One of the highlites of this game are the card attack animations.  They are great and one of the major attractions for my son.  I'd love to see more.

The play areas, especially Ravenwood, is very well done & creative! 

The quest system is solid.  No groundbreaking work here.  It soon turns into a bit of a grind for adults.  Kids find it much less of a grind. 

Something to consider with younger kids is their reading ability.  My son, in third grade, is a pretty good reader.  He can read and understand 95% of the text.  But sometimes he misses a few important details.  The tutorial has audio which really helps.   

Pets are pretty neat but mere window dressing.  They are inexpensive in the game.

I realize I've only been playing for a short while, but it seems to me that there isn't a ot of middle or long term content.  For example, I've not come across a MOB over 2nd level.  But like in ToonTown, MOBs can join in an existing battle, making it harder.  Other players can join in also so it balances out.  The MOB level and player level can't be directly compared; a 2nd level elite MOB can give a 5th level player a difficult time.

I think one of the challenges for a game such as W101 is keeping the game interesting for the long term.   It's easy for kids to loose interest.  A month (one subscription period) is a long time for them.  Kids don't often play every day though.  This is a Thanksgiving holiday weekend and it's been raining & cold - my son has a lot more time this weekend than usual.

There is an area with arcade games.  Playing these games helps refill your potions and gives a bit of gold.  My son has found those games too difficult and doesn't like to play them because of that.  I find them challenging and fun, but not in balance with the rest of the game play.   I'd recommend making them a bit easier and scaling down the rewards. 

Synopsis:  my son loves it - so far.  My girls, ages 5 & 6 find it neat, but aren't interested enough to play.  My wife has been busy doing other stuff (Facebook, Youtube, etc.) but likes the game.  I've been having fun running around with my son doing quests and fighting MOBs.

That's all for now. 

 

New Post Quote
11/28/08 12:43:35 PM
 
cliferton writes:

I have only played mmo's for about 2 years not. WOW is my fav, although I have tried many. My nephew always wants to play WOW but he is still a bit young to really grasp the whole concept of the game. I was keeping him yesterday when I saw the ad for this game and decided to give it a shot. As we were working through the game I realized that I was having just as much fun playing it as him. The game is different than wow but still has a wowish feel at times. I was suprized at the complexity of the game for the targeted audience, however this is a good thing its complex but not too complex. i just expected mindless key tapping or mouse clicking.  kids playing this game will have to use their brains and not just muscle memory.

All in all this is a great package and weather you have kids or not you should check it out

New Post Quote
12/24/08 3:41:37 PM
 
Elmseeker writes:

 Wizard101: Gaming In the Wizarding World.

As a gamer of many years I always enjoy trying out new games that have new, fun and interesting themes. KingsIsle Entertainment has succeeded in releasing one such game. Wizard101 will take you on a fun, interesting ride through "Wizard City" and it's surrounding areas. The plot lines are interesting and the quests are fun to do as you wait to see what is going to happen next. You get to meet some interesting characters along the way as well, from the quirky, funny Headmaster Merle Ambrose to Dorothy Gale, Toto and the Tin Man, you will never be wanting for fun NPCs to quest for.

The programming staff at Wizard101 has apparently taken several pages from the Disney book of game design as many of the features of the client itself are the same as those found in ToonTown Online. This is not, mind you, a bad thing at all. These features were developed to keep children safe online and do so here as well as on ToonTown. From the real friends codes you can get to give to real life friends so you can chat together to the way your characters are named to the speed chat which here is called "Menu Chat" parents never need fear for their children while they are playing Wizard101. Another feature found in both Wizard101 and ToonTown is that while you are in monster populated areas you are safe from attack as long as you stay on the sidewalks, which can be very helpful when having to walk through areas to get farther into the game.

This is where Wizard101 Breaks apart from ToonTown though. The story, premise and overall game play is quite different. The spells, characters,, monsters and world are rich and diverse. There are so many things you can do in this game that to list them all would take several pages. Overall, I would suggest that any parents who have tweens who want to get online to play games check this one out. The child safety features alone make this one worth looking into but when your children see the mix of ToonTown, Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz and the gamut of other stories that have been put into this world they will be hooked...and so will you!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamer,
Elmseeker

 

 

New Post Quote
12/27/08 2:37:50 PM
 
adiw writes:

[QUOTE] Groups - the concept of groups don't really exist within Wizard101. Grouping is really done on an encounter-by-encounter basis. Any player can simply join a battle already in progress (except for a few specific challenge battles) by entering the battle circle (either by teleporting to a friend in an instance or just running up on a public street). This is a great approach to both solo and casual play, but it has limitations. When I want to play with my son and daughters, we basically all have to follow each other around and jump in on each other's battles. Additionally, since there aren't any real groups, there isn't an explicit group chat channel. I'd love to see groups and group chat implemented. Group creation could be limited to those paid players >= 18 (unless explicitly allowed by an adult, in which case it'd be 13+ - NEVER under 13, UNLESS IN THE SAME FAMILY ACCOUNT) [/QUOTE]

 

There is a channel for groups.  Bernie introduces it in a tutorial tip. You just click the chat bubble with 2 smilies.

New Post Quote
7/22/10 10:46:01 PM
 
the420kid writes:

after first reading this review and beign bored I gave it a shot with an open mind and I found myself loving the game more every hour that I played..  I ended up subscribing for a month after finishing all the trial quests and being about lvl 10 I have really enjoyed it I am now lvl 26 still having fun I am however going to be playing sc2 on July 27th so i have unsubscribed but its a great mmo if you looking for something to try I def recomend it to any fantasy especialy harry potter magic the gathering type fans to try it..

SC2 owns though wizards is good but not good enough to keep me from sc2 :)

New Post Quote
7/22/10 10:53:57 PM
 
TweFoju writes:

$9 monthly fee? seriously? i mean if this MMO is for kids, then how the hell can they charge $9 montly except if their parents are paying

New Post Quote
10/16/10 4:17:17 AM
 
SpiritGWolf writes:

I've been playing for almost a year now.  To get access to the entire game you have to pay either $90.00 (give or take just a tad) or pay for a sub.  The subs start at $9.95 (single) or $6.95 per account/per month.  Also, you have very little access to the entire game unless you buy "crowns" or subscribe.  The mounts you can buy in-game cost about 50k in-game gold or about $8.00 in crowns (again give or take just a tad).  They have brought "cheating" back to the game with the intro of Celestia.  The cheating is thus:  If you "heal" your character, the monster throws a 1 pip (it is how you cast spells) spell that will do a large amount of damage.  More than your char can do with 1 pip.  If you throw a shield on your char, the creature throws a full "heal" on itself.  Most of the cheating is with bosses, but alot of the other monsters do it.  According to KI, it's only in Celestia, but I created a new char and found it to be in some of the lower lvl areas now.  What they've done is, they've given new content, and anything that you Might need (ie, house, mount pet) you either have to waste alot of time and effort to "farm" to get the gold, or you have to put out money on-top of your subscription.  Most of the in-game items are decent, but to have the best you will be spending more than the game is worth.  It started out as a great game for the family, but it's morals and ethics about making you spend more to get less from them is atrocious now.  Their forums are so strict that you can't post until they read what you said, and if they don't like it , it's never seen and they will ban you from their forums.  Like I said it WAS an awesome game, now it's just a hoover sucking the money from the players with nothing to show in return.

New Post Quote
11/11/10 9:20:52 PM
 
11412s writes:

Certainly IS a fantastic game. Though the population in Wizard 101 are kids, it's a great way to end a school day or any day of stress for everyone. Don't think of me wrongly, i'm 17, and i get criticized for playing it, but I still play it because of Wizard 101's new to come features. I just can't wait for those! 

Things I enjoy the most about Wizard 101:

  1. Being surprised with new features
  2. Gardening
  3. Combat
  4. New rank 8 spell cards
  5. Connecting with friends from school
  6. Celestia
  7. Giving me a challenge
  8. PVP
New Post Quote
12/19/10 10:47:24 AM
 
Leagolx writes:
Originally posted by rhinok
Originally posted by Czarr_Rom

What I would love to see is a review done by someone at the target age.

Get an early teenager to review this game. I dont say this to be condescending in any way but if the game is meant to target ?9-14? year olds shouldnt they be the ones telling us how it is? :)

Something like that would be very cool indeed.

  • My 9 year old son loves it - he's an addict.  It's all I can do to get him to stop talking about the game, and I'm a gamer!
  • My 12 year old daughter likes it and play some
  • My 18 year old daughter (just turned 18 a couple of weeks ago) likes it and plays quite a bit

On top of that, my 39 year old wife likes it, but doesn't play all that often and I (38 years old) like it a lot and play in bursts between my other games and work/life responsibilities.  My son and I had a game night last night and played together for a few hours - it was great!.  Even more fun with somebody to play with.

I've said this before in other comments - Wizard101 is the only game that has ever appealed to my entire family.  I've played CoX in duos with my oldest daughter for 2 years.  I've played Dungeon Runners with my son and I've played WoW with my wife (very, very casually  for both of us).  But we all play Wizard101!!

~Ripper

 

 

 I really like hearing stories like this I think this is what games are sopoesed to do they are ment to bring people together. Its great to hear you guys are having fun with this game I have a few younger cousins that are addicts of this game but i never really got into it myself if a similar title is around when im older though and i have children id defiently play with them.

New Post Quote
12/19/10 11:11:00 AM
 
Tajwall writes:
Originally posted by Lydon

It really is an amazing game. Though it may be geared towards children, I found it immersive and addictive. I love the combat system.

 

 Dude, they censor out "Aslan" and many other common words because of their silly "censors". HALF of their enemies cannot be said, so instead of "Attack the stone golem!" you get like "... The ...!" Another dumb thing is free quests leading to members quests during the chain. However, it isn't half bad. It was enjoyable, so it's not exactly the type of game that you'd see someone like the Irate Gamer or AVGN playing. It does get rather addictive, but some of it gets tedious. Example: Running out of cards, not affording more. Another Example: Avoiding fights is a hard thing too. Once I entered a map and randomly started dashing at like 20mph, then I found out I was in a HUGE boss fight. Sure, that's the kind of idea of "party" but it's still good. Not bashing on it, it's actually pretty good.

New Post Quote
12/26/10 5:45:22 PM
 
ydeb writes:

Pros:

This is a great game. It is fun and easy to play and the graphics are good. Also the ability personalize the experience is great.

 

Cons:

Don't play it if you don't want to pay money, it's the only way to advance. I reached Level 10 and got bored because I ran out  of quests that I could do. You have to buy certain areas and for a FREE game this is a big detractor. Also there are some very odd people out their so definitely watch it. I've seen players ask for a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

New Post Quote
1/16/11 10:14:49 PM
 
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