ToonTown Online (Disney) Review!

 This is a review of the online game ToonTown online by Disney.
To see its website and more information, head on down to www.toontown.com
Toontown and the Toontown logo are all owned by Disney!!! 
All the pictures I have put in this article are copied and pasted from searching on Google, and all of them (and the rights to them) belong to their respective owners.


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Hey guys, and welcome again to app reviews.
Today we'll show you some great features and downsides of the Disney online video game Toontown Online.

Ages/Audience
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This is a great video game for kids ages 6 and up! Truthfully I've even seen teens and kids play it side by side. It's rated E for everyone, so there's nothing to worry about letting your child play it.
Today I went into the game with a one month membership to see what this game has to offer.

 The World
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Players can explore worlds within the game including ToonTown central, the starting world, which Mickey Mouse (the popular disney character) owns. The other worlds (or realms, you may call them) are themed, such as Donald's Dock, which has a working boat that a player can ride on to get across a lake with a small island in the middle.
 
The rideable boat in Donald's Dock.

 There's Minnie's Melody Land, which is decorated with Pianos, Tubas, and many (giant) musical instruments which a player can walk through, walk over (which activates Piano sounds) and run across.
There are many lands in the game to explore besides the ones listen above.
Players can create their own character, choosing from a Dog, a Cat, a Mouse, a Pig, a Horse (Member only) a bear (also member only)


 A character in Toontown Central

The Enemies
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The enemies are Cogs, robots that roam the streets of ToonTown guarding their Cog Buildings, which used to be 'Happy toon buildings, into sad cog buildings' as Tutorial Tom, a friendly Non player character blue dog puts it.
And how do players defeat these robots? Well, "Cogs can't take a joke".
So Toons (players) subdue these Cogs by throwing gags at them, which consist of Cupcakes, Pies, Water Guns, Seltzer bottles, Horns, and more as you progress through the game!
 A Money bags cog.

When cogs are defeated, their upper torso will spin in circles until the cog explodes into gears. The Toons then do a victory dance while looking at an above chart showing how many points each toon got in the fight. (Up to 4 toons can help each other to fight cogs, restore cog buildings, and go into cog factory elevators)
Going into a cog building: Up to 4 toons enter an elevator with a countdown timer that appears when at least one player hops into the elevator. Once the timer ends, the elevator goes up to the first level of the building. (Cog buildings can have 1-6 whole levels!)
The first cogs are usually the least tough, and provided at least one toon doesn't go sad (We'll talk more about going sad later) a new elevator opens which the toons proceed through and go to the next level. The last level has very tough cogs, and special cogs like ones called "The Big Cheese" (Has a very 'cheesy' head! the "Legal Eagle" (Like an eagle with a business suit) and more wacky names. Hopefully the toons haven't run out of gags yet! One of the stronger cogs then is zoomed in on as he makes robot mumbling sounds and a speech bubble appears saying, "I'm the boss". That way toons know he's a dangerous one and he's the Boss of the building.
After the toons win they do another victory dance then go to another elevator which empties out to the outside of the cog building. The building squishes and bounces then turns back into a happy toon building! The shop owner is safe and if you look inside the building, you'll find a lovely surprise for everyone to see- portraits of the toons that won and saved the shop, with a nametag underneath saying the toon's names!
Fighting cogs in a cog building - IGN

Now as I promised, I will now tell you about "going sad".
So every toon starts out with what's called a Laff Meter. It keeps track of how many Laff Points you have. Cogs will attack toons by throwing things like pink slips and thunder clouds to drain players of their Laff Points. When a toon runs out of Laff Points- you guessed it- they go sad. The toon reappears at the playground of the realm they are in and have their head hanging low until they find a Laff Boost (Such as Ice Cream cones in ToonTown central, Starfish underwater in Donald's Dock, Music Notes in Minnie's Melody land, etc) or wait a little bit for a Laff Point to come back. They can then run around like normal but need to get more Laff Points by telling their pet to do tricks or finding Laff Boosts. Also completing a quest and reporting to the toon Headquarters will heal their laff completely.

Chat
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Chat in-game can be typed, or you can select pre-written phrases from a drop down menu with family friendly options. A few of the choices, under the drop down Category "Stinky" is supposed to be used for saying things like "You Stink!" at cogs, but unfortunately they have been abused sometimes. When typing chat, the player can only type if their parent or account creator has marked Speed-Chat Plus available- otherwise they are limited to the drop down menu and can only read chat that has been sent with the drop down menu.
Also when you use typing chat, the words must be words that are already approved by disney, and many common words are already set to be approved, so you need not worry as long as you can spell well enough. It is reccommended that younger kids just use the drop down speed chat option, as it's easier and safer, because with type chat, some people have found their way around it, like to call something/somebody stupid ( an unapproved word ) they have typed "stu paid" ie, "That's stu paid!".
Two toons chatting

Toons can report players that have done something wrong like using that, or have otherwise been purposely mean. When a player reports another, the report is sent in and a Moderator looks at the chat log to see if it is indeed true that the reported player has done something wrong. Unfortunately, though, Moderators cannot check if a player was doing something not chat related, like blocking other players from getting somewhere or completing the objective in a trolley game (mini game).


Just one more thing to cover:
How much does it cost???
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Anyone can play it for free, with restrictions.
Free players unfortunately cannot enter cog buildings, factory elevators, and a few other things. The website is not clear as to what the restrictions are of free-playing, but I do believe that many of the realms in the game are member-only. Also you must be a member to decorate the in game house by buying new decorations, but everybody gets a home for free.
If you purchase membership, you get many good features at a low cost.
Membership options are:
$9.95 USD A month (50% off first month!)
$49.95 USD Semi Annual
$79.95 USD Annual
These costs are recurring and only available in US Dollars.

Overall, this game is a great game for all ages and I highly recommend it. Even I have enjoyed playing it!

Anyway, thanks for reading and have a great day!


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Written by Mellisa M. Young, Trenton, New Jersey
If I missed anything in this review, please give me a holler and post a comment! Thanks!