Crazy Arcade

Crazy Arcade
Developer(s)	Nexon Corporation
Publisher(s)	NEXON Korea Nexon America (North America) Shanda (China) DigiCell (Taiwan) -formerly Gamania (Taiwan)[1] VNG (Vietnam) INNOVA (Russia)
Designer(s)	Nexon
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	2001[2]
Genre(s)	Arcade/Maze/Strategy
Mode(s)	Online multiplayer

Crazy Arcade (Korean: 크레이지 아케이드) is a free Korean online multiplayer game developed by Nexon. It has offered up to five different game modes throughout its history: Bomb and Bubbles (BnB), Tetris, Hidden Catch, Dizzy Pang, and Bz. However, the latter four were eventually removed from the game. BnB, which takes on the classic Bomberman series, adds its own twist to the game by replacing Bomberman's bombs with water balloons. Crazy Arcade's success has spawned a franchise, having been followed by the release of the games CrazyRacing KartRider, CrazyShooting BubbleFighter, and CrazyRacing AirRider.

Nexon announced that they will be bringing Crazy Arcade, as well as Dragon Nest and Mabinogi Heroes to America in 2010 under their new game portal, Block Party. On December 7, 2009, Nexon America launched the official website for PopTag!, which is the North American name of Crazy Arcade. Nexon has decided to forgo the closed beta testing phase and jump right into an open beta. The open beta of PopTag! began on January 26 and ended a month later. PopTag! was closed by publishers Nexon America on July 14, 2011 due to "multiple factors including the [in]ability to deliver new content regularly due to the limited resources [...] available for the game".^[3]

Gameplay

The objective of the game is players must kill their opponents by setting water balloons that pop and release water both vertically and horizontally. Being exposed to the water causes one to become trapped in a bubble. If a teammate makes contact with him or her, the player is released from the bubble. If an opponent does the same, however, or if the player doesn't make any contact within a short period of time, the player dies, putting him or her out of play (or not, depending on the mode of gameplay).

Up to eight people can battle in a room either by Manner or Free mode. But in other cases, there is a limit. For example, in Village 10, there can only be 6 people at a time, considering that there is no more room to spawn in that area. In Manner mode, teams are evenly divided by color. Free mode allows teams to be arranged in any way that suits the players.

Experience points are awarded for completing a match, more for a victory than a draw which gives more experience points than a loss, and gaining enough points will result in a level-up. Different channels are available for specific groups of levels.

Characters

There are eight default playable characters in Crazy Arcade. Two additional characters, Lodumani and Santa Claus, may also have a chance of being playable when a player selects Random on the character select screen. Furthermore, an upgraded version of Evie called "Luxury Marid" (Posh Evie in America) and a different version of Plunk called "Luxury Kephi" can be purchased at the game shop for cash. Currently, "Luxury Dao", the upgraded version of Dao is in Sale in Korea, too.

Each character possesses a different set of initial and maximum stats. Count refers to how many water balloons the character can carry at once. Power refers to his or her balloons' burst radius. Speed refers to how fast he or she moves. Normal denotes well-roundedness in all areas. The characters are listed along with their primary advantage, as specified on the game's official Korean website.

Notes

Ranking system

Crazy Arcade uses a level and exp-based ranking system. There are currently 495 distinct levels. Each level is represented by four elements of categorization. From the most general to most specific, these elements are: the medal's shape, the medal's color, the stripes' color, and the stripes' number. Specific shop items, maps, and channels can only be accessed by players of certain levels.

In addition to the medal system, there is a ladder system. Ladder ranks take precedence over levels.

Nexon Inc./ Crazy Arcade Inc. also selects/tests 'pro's each year and the first pro selected in 2012 was 'Luckycosta'

Map themes

BnB features at least twenty differently themed regions, each containing a number of playable maps. Winning conditions vary among each region; while in most maps a player can win by eliminating all opponents, some regions encourage players to win by clearing specific "missions" that are unique to each region.

A series of upgraded regions (indicated by an "Ex" prefix) can only be accessed by playing at a participating PC bang or purchasing a room upgrade from the game's online shop.

Types of play

In all the modes, teams are available, but each mode has different roles for teams.

Normal Type This game mode features a straightforward multiplayer bomberman game. The winner is determined by the team who "pops" the other teams' players after they are consumed by the water from the water bomb.

Hedgehog In this mode, once a player is "popped", he or she is transformed into a hedgehog which can pop water bombs upon contact. Once turned into a hedgehog, a player will not be traped in a bubble on contact with water, but will be unable to move for a while. They will also always save a player (in a bubble) it touches regardless of their color. Hedgehogs can also eliminate ghosts on the cemetery and tomb levels (but then disappear). Hedgehogs cannot use bombs.

Catch the Leader In this particular mode, one player of each team is given a Flag of their team color to indicate that they are the leader. Once the leader is defeated, every member of that person's team dies.

Combo Mode Combo Mode features the revival of defeated opponents. The team with the most kills within the time period gets the 'crown' and wins the match. If all teams have the same amount of kills, then the winner is the team who did not die as often.

Time Bomb In Time Bomb mode, one person is randomly chosen to carry a bomb on their head. That person must then touch another player, regardless of color, and then the person who got touched will carry the bomb. If a player doesn't touch another player before the five second time limit, water will burst around them and they will be trapped in a bubble and another person will be chosen again.

Monster All of the players are on one team and they have to work together to defeat monsters before the time runs out. There are three stages: the first two have monsters and the last one has the boss. If you defeat the boss, lots of lucci, money that you can spend afterwards at the shop, will appear as an award. Also, the one who popped the boss will be awarded extra lucci, the amount of which is determined by each map.

Zombie In Zombie mode, you battle zombies which are players that are controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Prior to battling, you can customize their levels for difficulty, and different zombies for different attributes. For example, the purple gorilla starts with a greater range, but only one balloon, compared to the green zombie, who starts with two balloons but smaller range. When victorious, certain amount of lucci is given to the player, and zombie points which can be used to unlock different zombies.

Boss Turtle This recently launched mode features 3 levels: the first two levels in which the player must "paralyze" all the stars with his/her bombs and the final Boss Mode, in which the player attempts to defeat the Boss Turtle by constantly laying bombs on it.

Reception

GameZone's Michael Splechta gave the game an 8/10, saying "PopTag! is a fun game that doesn't require players to invest a ton of time into it to enjoy themselves. It has fun modes that let players enjoy the game on their own, and short VS. matches that can get extremely competitive."

See also

• KartRider
• Online Bomberman

References

External links

• Official website
• Nexon America, English American Site (discontinued July 14, 2011)
• AsiaSoft (PlayPark), Thailand (discontinued)
• Gamemania Taiwan
• Nexon Korean
• VNG, Vietnam