Multi-player online battles for kids

Manga Fighter is a multiplayer third person shooter for kids. Unlike most games of this genre, there’s no blood, and there are no soldiers, just brightly colored cute Manga style characters.

To play you have to sign up for a free account, which is really easy, and download the game client. The initial download is only 180MB, but when you load the client it will download a lot more. How long this takes of course depends on your internet connection speed, but expect at least ten minutes of downloading.

The game itself is much like any online game – you choose a character from a list and off you go. Each character model has slightly different attributes, but none are better overall than the others. In the game lobby you choose what type of game you want to play – the usual range of modes exist, from death-match, team death-match and variants on capture the flag.

The arenas are colorful, and well designed. Manga Fighter runs smoothly, with only occasional glitches. Movement is just like any shooter – keys for movement, mouse for looking and shooting. The problem with Manga Fighting comes from the extras you can pay for – if you buy credits you can upgrade your character – but this makes some games really unbalanced. If you have “noob” (new player) weapons, no amount of skill will help against a better armed Manga Fighter. This doesn’t ruin the game, as there are plenty of new players around to compete with, you just have to put up with being unfairly killed sometimes.

In terms of being for kids, while it’s true there’s no blood or gore, it’s still based on running around shooting players, so some parents may feel it’s still too violent.

Manga Fighter is an enjoyable and easy to play multiplayer shooter, but playing against more powerful competitors feels unfair.