PopTag!

Crazy Arcade or Boom Online has a gameplay similar to Bomberman of Hudson Soft. The aim of each game is carefully planting the bubble bomb and try to kill the opponent when the bomb explode.

Released: 1 January 2001
Platforms: MS-DOS Windows
Genres: Arcade Maze Online Strategy
Developers: Nexon
Publishers: Nexon
Modes: Multiplayer
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Fantasy Kids

About

Crazy Arcade (Korean: 크레이지 아케이드) is a free South Korean online multiplayer game developed by Nexon. It was first published in 2001. It was released in North America as PopTag!.

It has offered up to five different game modes throughout its history: Bomb and Bubbles (BnB), Tetris, Hidden Catch, Dizzy Pang, and Bz, but 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 spawned a franchise, having been followed by the release of the spin-off games CrazyRacing KartRider, CrazyShooting BubbleFighter, and CrazyRacing AirRider.

›Story

There are 11 main characters: Boz, Dao, Diz, Moss, Ike, Melvin, Evie, Plunk, Santa, Lodumani, Shao so player can choose whoever they want to play as. There are 8 players in one game. There are standard mode, which players are divided into team to fight each other. Or free mode, where you can freely choose your team (maybe 1 vs 7 or 4 vs 4).

In mission mode, 4 players team up to kill one boss. There are 100 maps for standard and free mode and 7 mission map.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Players must kill their opponents by setting water balloons that pop and release water both vertically and horizontally. Being exposed to the water causes characters to become trapped in a bubble. If a teammate makes contact with a trapped player, the player is released from the bubble. If an opponent does the same, however, or if the player does not make any contact within a short period of time, the player dies, which may or may not remove the player from play, 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 six people at a time, as 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.

Development

Crazy Arcade was developed and published by Nexon. It was released on 16 October 2001.

In 2003, Hudson Soft claimed that Nexon had plagiarized its video game Bomberman to create Crazy Arcade, thereby committing copyright infringement. Nexon reportedly conceded on 2 April 2003 and paid royalties to Hudson. However, Nexon later disputed Hudson's claim, arguing the latter does not have rights to exercise copyright infringement over Crazy Arcade, and filed a lawsuit against the Japanese company. The case was concluded in 2007 as the Seoul Central District Court ruled it in Nexon's favor.

Reception

By 17 October 2002, Crazy Arcade was a commercial success, gathering a total of 35 million players and 330 thousand concurrent users at maximum.

GameZone's Michael Splechta gave the game an 8/10: "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".