NDOORS Interactive, publisher of the North American version of WonderKing Online, recently gave us a chance to play through and preview the game and some of the many features that WonderKing will be bringing to players when it launches. At its core, WonderKing is a 2D side-scroller fantasy game. Sometimes hailed by fans as MapleStory 2.0, WonderKing Online is a game that stands on its own and offers players a quick and easy way to jump in and start enjoying the world.

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style="font-style: italic;">You can choose from a number of classes and jump into battle quickly.

Choosing Your Class

The first thing you do when entering the game is to create your character. There are four archetypes to choose from that evolve at levels 30 and 80. The archetypes you can choose from are:

• Swordsman: The Swordsman is strong defensively and excels in the use of one-handed weapons and a shield. The Swordsman uses more mana than other classes, but they make up for it in defensive prowess. The Swordsman has two options of advancement. For defense, players will want to choose the Knight which later evolves into a Paladin. For Offense, players will want to choose the Warrior as it later evolves into the Berserker.
• Mage: Mages possess a wide range of spells and their primary statistic is intelligence. Weak defensively, this class is able to make up for it with exceptional offensive power. There are two paths of advancement for the Mage. The first is the path of the Priest, which is where anyone wishing to play a healer will go as that class later evolves into the more powerful healer called the Saint. If being an offensive monster is what you want, the path of the Wizard is for you. The Wizard later evolves into the Warlock and you can get a nice assortment of deadly spells.
• Thief: The Thief has low health and mana, but this class is skilful at dodging and hiding itself from enemies to strike from the shadows with deadly accuracy. Twin blades and ninja stars are their preferred weapon. The Thief can choose to advance as a Rogue later, giving them the ability to operate as both a damage dealer and crowd control. The Rogue later advances to the Knave and gains the ability to expose an enemy’s weakness, making them valuable to any group. The alternate path is the way of the Ninja. Ninjas are elusive and able to strike enemies from a distance using ninja stars, while not as powerful with their ranged attacks as some other classes; the Ninja is elusive and can avoid enemies more easily than most. The Ninja later evolves into the Assassin. Assassins have great agility and distinctive attacks, including the ability to use their energy to amass a group of clones.
• Scout: The Scout is a DPS ranged class that specializes in the use of ranged weaponry. Scouts also gain the use of traps to immobilize enemies and have fair health and mana. The Scout can choose to evolve into a Gunner or Archer. The Gunner uses various firearms to deal ranged damage to enemies from a safe distance. Specific guns may be chosen for certain battles as one may work better than the other at a given time. The Gunner advances to the Gunslinger. Gunslingers have a set of unique skills that sometimes even land them in the middle of melee battle. The advancement other choice is called the Archer. Archers can command wild animals to use as pets and their weapon of choice is the bow. Archers advance to become Rangers. Rangers Rangers borrow strength from animals to add to their already high damage dealing abilities. Rangers have exceptional ranged attack distance.

Beginning Your Journey

Once we had chosen our class, we were taken to the character customization screen. The customization options were pretty simple and there wasn’t a great deal to choose from, but there were just enough options to have a few different choices for your character. Once the character is created, it’s off to play.

When you enter the word for the first time you will be engaging in some quick tutorial play that will help you learn how the game works. These are fairly simple and provide a quick and easy way to get a quick feel for how the game plays. You’ll learn all about combat, questing, and mining. A quest journal is provided to help keep track of the quest you are working on. The journal is similar to those found in World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and other popular MMORPGs, so it will be pretty familiar if you have played any of those.

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You can find merchants and other useful NPCs within the towns.

Towns

When you arrive in the towns throughout the world you will be able to find a number of things in each one. Some towns have NPCs that will train you in the various tradeskills, while others have vendors and Wapi the travel NPC. In certain towns you can also find a mining zone that you can purchase some picks and head into for mining resources. These are only in specific areas, but they provide you with a quick and easy way to gather certain crafting materials.

Towns are also useful places for forming groups and using the games equivalent of an auction house. You can set up your own shop or pay a fee to the local broker to have them post your items for you.

Travel

When it comes to travel, you have a few of options to choose from. First, you can talk to Wapi, the large owl looking NPC who offers transportation to other areas for a fee. Wapi is located in the towns throughout the game. Second, you can purchase teleportation scrolls from the item store that can take you to a number of locations. Lastly, you can make your way to the docks and talk to Wapi again if you want to sail to another continent. Travel is instant and the load times are pretty quick, so going from one area to another doesn’t take long at all.

Death

Death has a little sting in WonderKing Online. When you die in PvE you lose some experience, but the penalty isn’t too harsh and it won’t take you very long to get it back.

Crafting

In WonderKing, you can choose from a number of crafting professions like weapons, armor, alchemy, cooking, enchanting, and supplementary to supply yourself with various goods and items. You will need to collect raw material to craft, some can be found in mining zones within certain towns, others are dropped by creatures throughout the world.

Monster Book

As you fight creatures through the world you can find certain monster cards. Once you have collected all of a certain monster, you will be able to transform into that creature. This is a cosmetic feature that is sometimes used for fun during events and just messing around with friends.

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style="font-style: italic;">Fighting certain creatures in WonderKing can sometimes earn you a monster card.

Stats and Skills

As you level up, you will earn stat points which you can distribute on your character sheet in any way you see fit. Unlike many other MMOGs where leveling will automatically place your stat points, WonderKing gives you the option to place the points wherever you want in any of their stats: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Luck, Vitality, and Wisdom.

Skills are earned as you level up. Each class has a detailed skill tree which you can spend skill points on to enhance and customize your character.

PvP

You can challenge other players to PvP and if they accept, you will be transported to your own personal PvP zone. When you enter, you will have a moment to place your skills of which you can only have three. When you’re ready, you can signal your opponent and the round will begin. In the PvP area, you can push your opponent off onto spikes to help damage them, but at the end, the winner will be awarded PP points and the loser will lose some.

Overall, WonderKing is an easy to learn, fun and simple game that you can jump right into. The UI is pretty straightforward with the option to change your key mapping to better suit your playstyle. If you enjoyed the side-scolling games of old, you’ll have a good time with an online multi-player version of the same. WonderKing Online stands well on its own as a 2D side-scrolling MMO that provids players with several classes, customization options, a simple learning curve, and lots of fun.