Urbaniacs
3.67
RATE IT:
.: Style
Urbanics is a BBMMO that revolves around creating your own superhero avatar and using it to do various tasks. When you log in, you have the ability to create a superhero using a head, a torso, and legs – each one designed for one specific superhero, but with the ability to mix and match.
This superhero is then able to “travel” through the various parts of Urbaniacs, where he can play superhero games, travel through the Urbaniacs world (known as “the streets”) or battle other superheroes and villains.
Urbaniacs is very character based, in that the goal is to interact with other people’s characters and boost up the power stats of your own. These power stats can be used in battles, either with other users of Urbanics or with the mini battles against various enemies that appear to pop up on the top of the screen.
You also earn Urbaniacs money, which can be used to purchase cars, equipment, and clothes.
There are several community aspects of the game. You can talk to other users in the streets as well as participate in the forums. You can also create your own superhero allies and enemies with which you can battle in group.
There is not a great deal of mini-games available, and many of the games are related. All of the games are also fairly quick. This makes for some enjoyable gameplay but users do have the ability to complete everything there is to do in the game in a few hours, which can be somewhat disconcerting for a BBMMO.
The artistic style is similar to what one would see on Cartoon Network’s children’s cartoons, in that they are not shaded, mildly goofy and have many exaggerated features.
Overall, the game tries to keep itself goofy and light hearted, with no specific rules or paths you need to travel. Rather you can choose to do whatever you want at any given moment, either trolling the streets or battling at your leisure.
.: Plot
The story behind Urbaniacs is created by the individual. You, as a superhero (or villain) create your own story by participating in what you choose to participate in. You live in a world run by Mayor DaMan, head hero of Urbaniacs, that protects the population of Urbanville from the evil Goatfist.
Your goal is to join one of their groups (with a neutral option available), level yourself up and battle enemies.
Every day you are given 5 free trainings with which you can upgrade your characters stats. This is done relatively at random using a generation machine much like a slot machine.
Once you start in Urbaniacs, you are not strong enough to fight most of the other users or the random battles that pop up on the top of your screen, so the best place to start is either by meeting people on the streets or playing the mini games and boosting the amount of Urbanics money you have, known as Urbos.
Each mini game has a maximum amount of cumulative Urbos you can make on any given day, and these numbers are very easy to reach, so you can find yourself having maxed out your Urbos in a very short amount of time, and you may need to move on to other aspects of the site.
In the game, you are expected to defeat ghouls, but these are more prominent in mini games and random events rather than in battles, where you are more likely to battle other users.
Another goal of the game is to earn “Props.” When you meet people you like, you can give them props or “Diss” them, which lowers their props rating. The more you like someone you meet, the more props you give them.
In Urbaniacs, the goal is to level up your superhero character. You create your own plot in that you level up your character using whatever methods you wish.
.: Safety
Urbaniacs is a very safe game. It is free, so there is no risk of people stealing your personal information. There is no place for personal information on the site (though you are allowed to give your first and last name if you wish) because the purpose of the website is to create your own imaginary superhero character.
There is no sign of scamming by other users, because there is not a great deal they can scam from you. Occasionally there will be people that try to trick you on trades on try to get Props from you, but this is generally harmless. There is also a message box where people can private message you, but these can be reported are thus far are rarely abused.
There is also little to no objectionable content on Urbaniacs. With the exception of a few very mildly “raunchy” games, such as the wedgie toss, and the very non-violent cartoon violence, there is nothing that should offend either parent or child, unless one is offended by hip hop beats or flashy cars.
The interaction in the forums is mostly limited to the game, though there are forums for users to discuss whatever they like.
The forums revolve around role playing, or participating in the hero forum, or participating in the villain forum, etc. There is also a place for users to create their own raps and poetry about their characters, and this forum tends to be a place where users battle rap each other. It can reach PG-13 levels, but rarely is there any foul language as most of the forum users are trying to keep it low key. There is also a very easy “report this” button, so any bad behavior is quickly removed.
Overall, Urbaniacs is one of the safest BBMMOs around.
.: Gameplay
There are very few problems with the gameplay in Urbaniacs. The flash games have very few issues and the games are easy to understand – borderline simplistic – with simple controls and very little thinking involved.
Battles, which are the cornerstone to Urbaniacs, are played by clicking on either attack, defend, item, sidekick (you can get sidekicks in the game that help you in battles), super powers, taunts and fleeing. Once both you the enemies have chosen your moves, the results are shown in the box in the middle.
When you start, it is very difficult to win a battle on your own, especially one of the random battles against the computer characters. But if you use the site for a while, level up your stats, and find friends with whom to battle with, you are sure to become stronger as time goes on.
This type of text based game is not for everyone, so anyone that joys more interactive battling will likely want to play something else. You do not get to watch your characters attack others, nor do you get to see any movement at all. There can also be long delays before the other characters choose their moves – including the computer characters, so battles can take quite a while.
The rest of the games are very simple, but can be fun. You can play “Kick it – Ninja Style” and run through the streets, jumping over pedestrians and shooting the ghouls. The time speeds up as you go along.
Other games, like the wedgie toss, are a mixture of both skill and luck. Although you can correctly fire the man as far as you can, at best the character only travels 150 feet – but then, eventually, you start to hit objects that you cannot control that either stop you or throw you further, and the high scores can be as much as 2000 feet or more, implying that they consistently hit objects that flew them further through no skill of their own.
In fact, almost all of the games on Urbaniacs require more luck that skill. Flipping a coin and choosing heads or tails is on game, another involves you choosing whether or not the next card (in a set of 52) is going to be either higher or lower. There is a little skill involved in probability, but in general the game is nothing but luck.
This can make gameplay both fun but frustrating. Most people prefer games where they have some control over the outcome, but in Urbaniacs, you are just as likely to get the high score as you are to fail miserably regardless of how well you know the game and your skills as a gamer.
Finally, these games are how you earn Urbos, but Urbos are both incredibly easy to earn and have maximum daily allowances. Most games allow you to make 2-5,000 Urbos per day max, and with almost every one of those games you can reach that maximum in 15 minutes or less. In that respect, if you are not battling, you can finish the maximum amount of Urbos in a few hours.
While this type of gaming platform is fun for a lot of people, it is very much not for everyone and those that want a much more interactive game with a great deal more to do will want to play a different BBMMO.
.: Community
A large part of Urbaniacs’ popularity lies in the community aspect. Its members greatly enjoy the role playing, it seems, as people that play on Urbaniacs often try to assume that persona. You can see how seriously they take their character if you read their profiles, which are written almost solely as though they actually are their characters.
The forums are fairly interactive, but not all of them are used very often. With a few of the forum topics you will see that new posts hadn’t been created in over 24 hours or more, which for a popular RPG is a very low post rate.
In addition, often times when you go to the streets to try to interact with others, you’ll notice that there is no one there. Thus interaction is limited. People have the ability to try to interact in other ways, such as clicking on a random person’s profile (you can see them often popping up in the corners) or meeting them in battles.
There is also a part of Urbaniacs that resembles a blog, known as “City Hall,” but it does not have a commenting section.
The profiles section of Urbaniacs is another way of interacting with members, as is giving props. But you will quickly notice that although the community aspect or the game is one of the reasons it is popular, it often appears that there isn’t much of one when you play the game.
Urbaniacs is a very popular online game, and it has been featured on some major news channels as well as some newspapers. That said, it can be difficult to see what makes this game considered such an online community as besides the forums there does not seem to be much interaction taking place at any given time.
People do give “Props” often, which is nice, but they tend to give them with the hopes that you will give them back.
Urbaniacs is fun, and certainly has its moments, but it does not appear to be an MMORPG that is going to experience rapid growth without some additional changes.
4.00
This superhero is then able to “travel” through the various parts of Urbaniacs, where he can play superhero games, travel through the Urbaniacs world (known as “the streets”) or battle other superheroes and villains.
Urbaniacs is very character based, in that the goal is to interact with other people’s characters and boost up the power stats of your own. These power stats can be used in battles, either with other users of Urbanics or with the mini battles against various enemies that appear to pop up on the top of the screen.
You also earn Urbaniacs money, which can be used to purchase cars, equipment, and clothes.
There are several community aspects of the game. You can talk to other users in the streets as well as participate in the forums. You can also create your own superhero allies and enemies with which you can battle in group.
There is not a great deal of mini-games available, and many of the games are related. All of the games are also fairly quick. This makes for some enjoyable gameplay but users do have the ability to complete everything there is to do in the game in a few hours, which can be somewhat disconcerting for a BBMMO.
The artistic style is similar to what one would see on Cartoon Network’s children’s cartoons, in that they are not shaded, mildly goofy and have many exaggerated features.
Overall, the game tries to keep itself goofy and light hearted, with no specific rules or paths you need to travel. Rather you can choose to do whatever you want at any given moment, either trolling the streets or battling at your leisure.
.: Plot
3.00
Your goal is to join one of their groups (with a neutral option available), level yourself up and battle enemies.
Every day you are given 5 free trainings with which you can upgrade your characters stats. This is done relatively at random using a generation machine much like a slot machine.
Once you start in Urbaniacs, you are not strong enough to fight most of the other users or the random battles that pop up on the top of your screen, so the best place to start is either by meeting people on the streets or playing the mini games and boosting the amount of Urbanics money you have, known as Urbos.
Each mini game has a maximum amount of cumulative Urbos you can make on any given day, and these numbers are very easy to reach, so you can find yourself having maxed out your Urbos in a very short amount of time, and you may need to move on to other aspects of the site.
In the game, you are expected to defeat ghouls, but these are more prominent in mini games and random events rather than in battles, where you are more likely to battle other users.
Another goal of the game is to earn “Props.” When you meet people you like, you can give them props or “Diss” them, which lowers their props rating. The more you like someone you meet, the more props you give them.
In Urbaniacs, the goal is to level up your superhero character. You create your own plot in that you level up your character using whatever methods you wish.
.: Safety
5.00
There is no sign of scamming by other users, because there is not a great deal they can scam from you. Occasionally there will be people that try to trick you on trades on try to get Props from you, but this is generally harmless. There is also a message box where people can private message you, but these can be reported are thus far are rarely abused.
There is also little to no objectionable content on Urbaniacs. With the exception of a few very mildly “raunchy” games, such as the wedgie toss, and the very non-violent cartoon violence, there is nothing that should offend either parent or child, unless one is offended by hip hop beats or flashy cars.
The interaction in the forums is mostly limited to the game, though there are forums for users to discuss whatever they like.
The forums revolve around role playing, or participating in the hero forum, or participating in the villain forum, etc. There is also a place for users to create their own raps and poetry about their characters, and this forum tends to be a place where users battle rap each other. It can reach PG-13 levels, but rarely is there any foul language as most of the forum users are trying to keep it low key. There is also a very easy “report this” button, so any bad behavior is quickly removed.
Overall, Urbaniacs is one of the safest BBMMOs around.
.: Gameplay
3.00
Battles, which are the cornerstone to Urbaniacs, are played by clicking on either attack, defend, item, sidekick (you can get sidekicks in the game that help you in battles), super powers, taunts and fleeing. Once both you the enemies have chosen your moves, the results are shown in the box in the middle.
When you start, it is very difficult to win a battle on your own, especially one of the random battles against the computer characters. But if you use the site for a while, level up your stats, and find friends with whom to battle with, you are sure to become stronger as time goes on.
This type of text based game is not for everyone, so anyone that joys more interactive battling will likely want to play something else. You do not get to watch your characters attack others, nor do you get to see any movement at all. There can also be long delays before the other characters choose their moves – including the computer characters, so battles can take quite a while.
The rest of the games are very simple, but can be fun. You can play “Kick it – Ninja Style” and run through the streets, jumping over pedestrians and shooting the ghouls. The time speeds up as you go along.
Other games, like the wedgie toss, are a mixture of both skill and luck. Although you can correctly fire the man as far as you can, at best the character only travels 150 feet – but then, eventually, you start to hit objects that you cannot control that either stop you or throw you further, and the high scores can be as much as 2000 feet or more, implying that they consistently hit objects that flew them further through no skill of their own.
In fact, almost all of the games on Urbaniacs require more luck that skill. Flipping a coin and choosing heads or tails is on game, another involves you choosing whether or not the next card (in a set of 52) is going to be either higher or lower. There is a little skill involved in probability, but in general the game is nothing but luck.
This can make gameplay both fun but frustrating. Most people prefer games where they have some control over the outcome, but in Urbaniacs, you are just as likely to get the high score as you are to fail miserably regardless of how well you know the game and your skills as a gamer.
Finally, these games are how you earn Urbos, but Urbos are both incredibly easy to earn and have maximum daily allowances. Most games allow you to make 2-5,000 Urbos per day max, and with almost every one of those games you can reach that maximum in 15 minutes or less. In that respect, if you are not battling, you can finish the maximum amount of Urbos in a few hours.
While this type of gaming platform is fun for a lot of people, it is very much not for everyone and those that want a much more interactive game with a great deal more to do will want to play a different BBMMO.
.: Community
5.00
The forums are fairly interactive, but not all of them are used very often. With a few of the forum topics you will see that new posts hadn’t been created in over 24 hours or more, which for a popular RPG is a very low post rate.
In addition, often times when you go to the streets to try to interact with others, you’ll notice that there is no one there. Thus interaction is limited. People have the ability to try to interact in other ways, such as clicking on a random person’s profile (you can see them often popping up in the corners) or meeting them in battles.
There is also a part of Urbaniacs that resembles a blog, known as “City Hall,” but it does not have a commenting section.
The profiles section of Urbaniacs is another way of interacting with members, as is giving props. But you will quickly notice that although the community aspect or the game is one of the reasons it is popular, it often appears that there isn’t much of one when you play the game.
Urbaniacs is a very popular online game, and it has been featured on some major news channels as well as some newspapers. That said, it can be difficult to see what makes this game considered such an online community as besides the forums there does not seem to be much interaction taking place at any given time.
People do give “Props” often, which is nice, but they tend to give them with the hopes that you will give them back.
Urbaniacs is fun, and certainly has its moments, but it does not appear to be an MMORPG that is going to experience rapid growth without some additional changes.
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