[360] Happy Wars - A free-to-troll game

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Remember Fat Princess? It was supposed to be a marquee free-for-all battler for Sony's platforms, and it turned out to be a boring, tedious waste of time. Now Microsoft has come along with a streamlined, fun, and most importantly free knock-off called Happy Wars.

The game's main focus is 15 on 15 multiplayer (you can't advance in the barebones singleplayer without leveling up in multiplayer). The objective is simple; make your way across the map to the other team's castle, breach the walls, and destroy the statue inside. There's no collecting materials, no kidnapping princesses. Along with randomly assigned personal skills, there are team skills which are accessed by pressing Y. This creates circles around you which teammates can stand in, and then you press Y again to launch a massive attack (lighting arrow storm, tornado, phalanx charge, massive stat boost, etc.)




You can choose from 3 classes:

-Warrior: Fastest movement speed, built for attacking. Plenty of offensive skills like rock-throwing (stuns enemies) and spinning blade attack.

-Mage: Long range magic, area of effect spells.

-Cleric: The requisite healer, but also has the ability to build things like trebuchets (which you can then use like a turret), bomb launchers (again, a turret, devastating on enemies and destructible bridges), battering rams, and ladders to scale the walls of the castle. There's no materials gathering like in Fat Princess; you just press B to "summon materials" then hold down a button to build.

The game's free to play element is seen in the ability to buy "happy tickets" to purchase additional character skins and equipment. So far none of the equipment gives paying players an advantage over free players. Additionally, when you respawn, you are given the option to spend "happy stars" (earned by playing the game or by purchasing) to give yourself an advantage like faster respawns or a buff. Reviewers are concerned this could cause a problem, but so far I've done well in the games I've played without ever using these.

Even without purchasing equipment, the game gives you all sorts of random equipment just from playing, and you can go in and combine/level them up to your heart's content.



The only downside so far seems to be the matchmaking system is fairly bad. It takes some patience to wait for the game to find other players and load everyone in, but once it does I haven't had any issues. Given that this game is free, it would be awesome to have a bunch of GFF folks get together for a smackdown. The game seems ripe for trolling, especially maps that include destructible bridges and quicksand.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Matchmaking is shocking. I've been sat here for literally ten minutes trying to get into a game. It's a shame because it really is fun once you do get into one.

Edit: I gave up trying after half an hour of failing to get into a match. Anyone know if private games fare any better?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'd be curious to try private matches, if we had enough people. I tried 4 times, and managed to get into 1 match tonight, and that one fell apart after 1 game. At least they've got a message up on the title screen saying they're aware of the issues and working to fix it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Looks a lot like Ragnarok Online's WoE/BG. Pretty sure I even saw an Empyrium in there :3

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?