Free MMO review: Kongai

It's that time again. Yes, time for a free MMO review by yours truly. Today I'm reviewing "Kongai," a free online flash-based Trading card game. Since I haven't be able to play actual games this entire week, I've been taking interest in browser-based games, stuff I can play from anywhere and relatively quickly.

So this is Kongregate's online TCG. If you aren't familiar with Kongregate, they're yet another flash gaming site, though set apart from the vast amount of others by their achievement system/chat integration/and general UI. Kongai integrates into all of this, by allowing you to obtain cards from doing certain challenges in many of the games on their site.

But, onto the game itself. Kongai is an online TCG (trading card game, minus the trading). It's gameplay consists of turn-based 1v1 deck combat. Each player has a custom deck made of 3 characters each with their own skills and attacks. You enter the lobby and the game will automatically find an opponent based on your skill level. You take turns attacking one another until all 3 of your opponent's cards have been defeated. When this happens, the game ends.

The actual gameplay is very fun. I"m not a big fan of turn based combat but I enjoyed this one. There are 3 types of attacks - direct damage attacks, debuffs and heals. Pretty generic stuff, but with some cool things here and there. Some characters have really powerful attacks that can only be used at certain times. My personal favorite is Juju the shaman's "touch of doom" spell, which counts down for 4 turns and then deals 99 damage (an instant kill pretty much). However, this spell can only be used when in close range with the enemy, which forces you to risk taking some serious melee damage (something a spellcaster isn't good at).

Since the game is a TCG, there aren't really any animations. The game art looks very nice though, and the UI is very easy to pick up. The first time you play the game online you might experience some "WTF?" moments. This happened to me, so I'd recommend playing against the computer a few times to get ready for the real stuff.

I really like this game. It's easy to pickup and play, yet still challenging. My only complaint is the fact that a lot of your opponents will disconnect if they know they are going to lose, leaving you without a 100% victory. But if you can get past that, it's good fun. A D/C will still count as a win anyways.

New rating scale, as below:

Awesome (it's... awesome!)
Meh (just okay.)
Sucks (horrible. too many flaws to count)

Graphics: Awesome
^A good overall style. UI is well-polished.
- - -
Gameplay: Awesome
^Fun and addicting, game flows well.
- - -
Replayability: Meh
^Fun here and there, but not enough depth to be played for hours.
- - -
Sound: Meh
^It's there. Not exactly thrilling, but appreciated.
- - -
Originality: Awesome
^Yeah, I know. It's just a TCG made into a flash game. But for what it is, it's original. The characters, style, and accessibility are all something I haven't seen before.

Final Score: Awesome

By the way, if you sign up and try it out, hit me up. My username is CDEnigma.