Overview - a little about the game from Toontown Online's Factsheet

Launched - October 2002

Description:
Disney's Toontown is an award-winning online game for ages seven and older where players join a community of Toons and work together to defeat evil robot cogs. Toontown is full of Toontastic fun -- from street battles and minigames to parties and racing, it's easy for Toons to find activities they love!


About the game:

• Create your cartoon character and start your adventure
• Join forces with your Toon comrades to defeat evil Cogs - corporate robots who want to destroy Toontown's fun
• Team up with friends and family in street battles & bossbattles, or challenge them to a kart race
• Spend your jellybeans customizing your Toon & Estate with Toony clothes & furniture.. and even adopt a pet Doodle
• Play tons of mini-games, explore the neighborhoods, go fishing, grow a cream pie tree, and throw a party

New for 2010:

• Toontown is coming alive as fire hydrants, garbage cans, and boxes decide to get into the action
• Sidewalk props pitch in to help Toons in battle by giving gags an extra boost & cheering them on

Info for Parents:

• Rated E for everyone, accredited by both TrustE and the Better Business Bureau
• No third-party advertising
• Parental control chat technologies and moderators to help ensure Toons stay safe during play

Toontown is Free to play, but by becoming a member you get extra bonuses:

Membership Options (August 2010):

• $9.99 a month
• $49.95 for semi annual
• $79.95 for annual

The Geek's Thoughts and Observations

I have to confess I never tried Toontown online until 2010. I have never been one for the virtual world games. Over the years I have stayed clear of almost all of them. The one exception was the Virtual Magic Kingdom back in 2005 which I spent quite a bit of time exploring.

Toontown Online is Disney's longest lasting virtual world, having gone live back in 2002 and now claiming over 50 million users have logged in. After spending some time exploring this world over the past few weeks I can see how you can be drawn in and spend hours upon hours exploring the world, competing in games, or completing toontasks. The game does a great job of having something to do for most types of users. You can be as active or passive as you want. There is a large variety of activities so if you search around you are bound to find something you will enjoy.

The basics of gameplay are you enter the world and create your Toon. Once created you do a couple tutorial tasks as the system teaches you how to navigate the world and some of the options you have as a player. Then you are free to explore and play. Picking up the interface should be a breeze for most users, especially kids whom it is targeted at. Within a few minutes I was up and running around the world. Within a few hours I was well on my way to building a successful character and almost hooked on the game. I say almost because the target age for the game is 7 years and older (not someone in their 30s). I do not know any seven-ten year olds right now so I was not able to get any feedback from the target demographic. If you have a child in this range and would like to share your experiences please drop me an email, I know others would like to hear what you have to say.

The images above give you a glimpse into the immersive world of Toontown Online and a sample of how the world appears to the players. Being a disneygeek of course I wanted to see how they integrated Disney into it. As you roam the world you do come across and have the opportunity to interact with Disney toons. I ran into Mickey several times as well as Goofy. There are references to others, I saw Minnie and Daisy signs. Most of the game play though is not centered in the "Disney" universe and the players you interact with are for the game specifically I believe (I did not recognize them, correct me if I am wrong here, please... i do not know all the Disney Channel, DisneyXD, etc.. characters).

The system is completely web based and will work on both a MAC and PC. I played using a laptop on a FIOS connection and had no problems at all in terms of speed or performance. There was one game that does not seem to work with my computer (it appears to be a Vista/Graphics card issue) but everything else works with no hiccups.