Joystiq

Happy Wars has two million cheerful warmongers

Alexander Sliwinski — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EST

Free-to-play Xbox Live game Happy Wars has reached 2 million soldiers on its leaderboards, developer Toylogic announced today.

"We always continue to make improvements on improvement to have millions Happy Wars fans be happy. We'd like to continue to deliver additional updates in the future," said Happy Wars game director Yoichi Take.

The latest update, which is number four if you're counting, adds a new mode, more items and additional customization slots. What is war good for? Making people happy, of course!

Gallery: Happy Wars (E3 2012)

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Happy Wars has two million cheerful warmongers originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Happy Wars currently missing from XBLM [Upate: Available now!]

JC Fletcher — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EST

Update: Happy Wars is now available on the Xbox Live Arcade and at Xbox.com.

Today was supposed to be the launch day for Xbox Live's first free-to-play game, Happy Wars. However, the free-to-play revolution hasn't taken hold on Xbox yet, because the game isn't there. As of writing, the only Happy Wars content available on the Xbox Live Marketplace is a trailer; the game's entry on the Marketplace as accessed on the Xbox only gives you the option to "rate" it.

"I know the team is aware of the issue and actively working on it," Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb told Joystiq, promising to tweet an update when information is available. In the meantime, you'll have to find another cheerful skirmish on which to take out your frustrations.

Happy Wars currently missing from XBLM [Upate: Available now!] originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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XBLA's Happy Wars attempts to bridge East and West with adorable melees

JC Fletcher — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:00:00 EST

I saw a lot of games at E3 about war, but none were anywhere near as adorable as ToyLogic's multiplayer XBLA game, Happy Wars. It's an online multiplayer (15 versus 15) action game about capturing territory and defeating everyone in sight, but with a distinctly rounded, cutesy look that makes it stand apart from its peers. Finding myself put off by all the gore and elephant monster brains that featured in this year's games, I welcome a more family-friendly take on fighting.

You control one of three classes to storm the enemy's part of a map. I was a warrior, who could use sword attacks and a variety of special attacks, like rock throws and spin moves, that rely on a refilling meter. You capture territory by destroying enemy statues and working together to rebuild new ones - which become spawn points for your team. The match ends when, using a giant battering ram weapon, you break into the enemy fortress. Before that, there's a lot of rushing into crowds and mashing on buttons to attempt to survive the pandemonium.

The combination of cute characters and chaotic fighting seemed incongruous, until Toylogic CEO Yoichi Take told me his influences: "We played the Battlefield series and Castle Crashers." Take believes that Japanese gamers will find a cute war game more palatable than other realistic, brutal and bloody war games.

Why, then, is it on Xbox - the least popular console in Japan - if it's hoping to capture a Japanese audience? "I would like to play Happy Wars with people worldwide," Take said, and the Xbox is more popular worldwide. "Happy Wars is a multiplayer game, and Xbox multiplayer is most played."

Gallery: Happy Wars (E3 2012)

XBLA's Happy Wars attempts to bridge East and West with adorable melees originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Delight in XBLA's 'Happy Wars'

JC Fletcher — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:15:00 EST

Originally shown only in Microsoft's booth at TGS, the trailer for Toylogic's Happy Wars is now available for all to see. And now that we can actually look at it, it looks really fun!

Players choose their chibi, cartoony character class (warrior, mage, or cleric), and then take part in 15-on-15 battles which mostly seem to involve crowds of players hacking away at one another while other players shoot at them with cannons. There also appear to be tower defense elements, but those seem to be less important than the fightin'.

At the official website, you can see new, cute footage of each class' special attacks. Happy Wars will break out on XBLA next year.

Gallery: HappyWars (XBLA)

Delight in XBLA's 'Happy Wars' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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