GDC: Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall

Now that I finally have the EA-Take-Two drama behind me (for the moment) and have finished writing two feature stories for this weekend's weekly Variety (one about the "Lost" game and one about IAC's InstantAction -- I'll link to them and provide some more info as soon as the stories are posted), I can finally get back to GDC. No, there's no big news I missed, but lots of demos I checked out that I haven't yet shared.

First up: Cartoon Network's FusionFall. Like its competitors Disney and Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network is investing in Web gaming in a big way. It already has dozens of casual games on its website and is launching a social gaming service called MiniMatch.

But its biggest project is "FusionFall," a massively multi-player game that launches this summer and encompasses all of its kids (i.e. not Adult Swim) shows and characters. That includes current shows like "Ben 10" and "Foster's Home" along with classics like "Dexter's Laboratory" and (personal favorite) "The Powerpuff Girls."

Like everyone else getting into this crowded space, Cartoon Network is trying to carve out a niche that will help it stand out from everything from "World of Warcraft" to "ToonTown." Paul Condolora, the senior VP in charge of online, told me that while the network is committed to making at least parts of the game online, it's not yet sure if there will be a subscription element or if it will make money in other ways like advertising and micro-transactions. One promise though: They won't follow Disney's lead with "Pirates Online" and surround the game with banner ads for those who don't pay.

Integrating famous characters into MMO's has always been a challenge and the typical solution, used in "Pirates" and "The Matrix Online" and (I believe) "Star Wars Galaxies" is to have the Jack Sparrow's and Morpheus types show up only occasionally to hand out missions or rewards. But Cartoon Network is betting (correctly, I'd say) that kids want more opportunities to interact with their favorite characters, even if playing as them in an MMO context is unfortunately (after all you can't have three Dexter's run into each other in the woods). So while players have to create their own characters, they can collect miniature versions of 32 different network characters, all of whom give the players different abilities. In addition, players pick one of four characters -- Mojo JoJo, Ben 10, Dexter, or Eddy -- as their guide at the beginning of the game.

Though it will have classic questing modes, "FusionFall" also has something new in an MMO -- platforming. I'm not exactly sure how it will be integrated into the gameplay, but in my limited demo it  worked just as well as any other standard 3-d platformer. The appeal is obvious, since a simple platforming level is a lot more accessible and fun than a quest if you want to play for 20 minutes at a time. Game is being aimed at 8-14 year-olds, rather than really small kids, which will let the designers include a modicum of action and violence, at least.

Game has something of a Japanese anime look, which is the designers' compromise as they integrate dozens of different shows all with their own artistic style.

The most amusing part of the demo, however, may have been how enthusiastic and downright immature (I meant that in the best way possible) the designers were. "FusionFall's" executive producer  Chris Waldron told me they all like to play as Mojo Jojo (the monkey villain from "Powerpuff Girls," pictured right) as their guide because, let's face it, he's the coolest character Cartoon Network has going. And he compared the game's story, which brings all of the characters of the Cartoon Network universe together to stop a planet-wide threat, to DC's classic "Crisis on Infinite Earths."

Sure, spending millions of dollars on a downloadable MMO aimed at kids is a product of pure business analysis, which is why everyone's doing it. But comparing it to "Crisis" is the kind of geekiness I think any gamer can get behind.