GDC 2009: Dungeon Fighter Online, A First Look

SAN FRANCISCO--Though the 2009 Game Developers Conference has drawn to a close, many new and upcoming games were shown at the event in playable form. However, some were present only in concept form--one of these was Dungeon Fighter Online (formerly known as "Dungeon and Fighter"), despite the fact that the game is already up and running in Asia (and quite successful, according to publisher Nexon).

Walking-and-punching will go massively multiplayer in Dungeon Fighter Online.

The long and the short of Dungeon Fighter Online is that it will, in fact, be a free-to-play massively multiplayer game with experience levels, desirable loot, a "cash-op" store where in-game items can be purchased for real-world money, and persistent, customizablecharacters that can be one of five different basic character classes (and each of these basic classes will have four different sub-classes for further differentiation). But it will also be a 2D sidescrolling game similar to arcade classics like Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Golden Axe, where you walk continuously from one side of the screen to the next, repeatedly pummelling any opponents that are dumb enough to get in your way.

If you're familiar with such classic arcade games, you'll know that cooperative play is an obvious feature to have in such a game, and Dungeon Fighter Online will definitely support this. However, it'll also apparently have player-versus-player combat in 2D arenas as well. Nexon hopes to launch this unusual online game stateside in the second half of 2009.