Wizard101: FREE Multiplayer Online Game for the Whole Family!
Entertainment, Product Reviews, Tech-Related, Toys & Games — By Lindsey on February 20, 2010 at 11:56 am
Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime – an adventure that your entire family can take part in!
I’ll have to admit that before being introduced to Wizard101, I didn’t know much about online multiplayer games except that they looked intimidating (to me), and that people love them. My husband has played them before, and I’ve watched over his shoulder and wondered what the draw was. I even tried his game once (DAOC), and although I enjoyed it, I was annoyed by the people who would come over and try to friend me or talk to me when I was trying to adventure. Hello! I was busy! I figured maybe I wasn’t the type of person who should be playing the online games after that and gave up. ;-)
I recently joined the wonderful Game Review Network, and was excited when I was given the opportunity to review Wizard101, a game I had never heard of but appealed to me for the following reasons:
- It is totally FREE to play on your PC!
- It won MMORPG.com’s Best Family Game of 2009 Award!
- It involves wizards and magical worlds (sweet!).
- Your characters get to go to wizard school (Harry Potter immediately jumped into my mind, of course).
- It is family-friendly, easy enough for a kid to play, and has settings that allow you (the parent) to control all of the social aspects of the game.
So here is my full experience and opinion of the Wizard101 online multiplayer game…
Getting Started
In this online multiplayer adventure game, you create a student wizard character and immediately are thrown into Wizard City, where you begin schooling at The Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. “The magic of Fire, Ice, Storm, Life, Myth, Balance, and Death are taught here by the school’s esteemed faculty of full-fledged Wizards.” When you create your character, you choose a primary school of magic (Fire, Ice, Storm, etc) – and each one has its own strengths. This gives the game a major boost in replayability since you can change things up with your next characters.
You can customize your character completely, something I enjoy doing. I probably spent too long customizing mine. ;-) Here she is:
Game Quests & Wizard Duels
“In your quest to save Wizard City, you’ll make friends, duel with creatures, solve puzzles, play minigames, and collect pets while exploring the many worlds of Wizard101.”
There is definitely a lot to do. In the game, people who need help with quests have a yellow question mark over their heads. You can stop and talk to them, and accept or deny the quest. Right in the beginning, I found three people who needed help with something, mainly fighting off the “bad guys” who were roaming the streets. Fighting gives you experience and you earn gold and other special items, so its very rewarding.
Dueling, or fighting off the bad guys, involves using magic spells that you’ve learned at the wizard school. These come in the form of a card game, and you and the enemy take turns casting spells. The special effects while dueling are fantastic! I was totally thrilled by the scenes and love watching the duels.
Friends can duel with you to take out a monster, and you can duel against other wizards as well. And, as with many similar games, you can run out of mana (the energy you use to perform spells) and life. It’s nice to have a friend nearby when this happens because they can help heal you if your mana or life are depleted.
Controls & Ease of Navigation
I was relieved to find that the controls are easy to learn. You can click the mouse or press “x” to talk to people, and the navigational controls are the arrow keys on your keyboard. Getting around the map, talking to people, and walking through doors, etc. is a cinch!
How Many People Can Play At Once?
The whole family can play together if you have enough computers! There is a lot of opportunity for interaction between players, making it a blast to play with your friends and family.
Replayability
This is definitely a game that is something you your kids won’t want to stop playing. It is probably going to be great as a reward system!
Why Kids Will Like It
- Customizable characters and living quarters
- Mini games, player versus player dueling, player versus monster dueling, and questing galore
- You can earn clothing, equipment, pets, and badges
- You can friend other players online, start or join groups, and chat live as you play
- The graphics are impressive and the music is superb!
How Safe Is It For My Kids to Play?
You can control and oversee all aspects of your child’s social interaction with other players online.
- All usernames are pre-generated (your child can choose from a variety of different names from a drop-down menu)
- There are two chat options – menu chat (pre-generated options like “That was fun.”) and actual text chat.
- Password-protected parental controls
- Moderated message boards
- Full control over what your child sees while playing (see image below)
Although it says Crude Humor and 10+ in the rating box, I’m not entirely sure why. I’ve been playing this game for over a month now and I haven’t come across anything crude at all. In fact, I was pleased to find that there aren’t any revealing costumes and that there isn’t any “adult” humor to shake my head at or hope my child didn’t see/hear. It is a very decent and clean game. I have heard that children as young as 5 and 6 are playing the game as well, and I’m not surprised.
Cost:
I know, I know, I said it was free. And it is – at least your access to most of Wizard City is. You also get to participate in player versus player dueling practice and are able to decorate your dorm room or a Wizard City house as a free member. For full access to this extensive game, you have a few great options:
1. Pay as you play using Crowns. This means you will pay $1 to $3 per area and will be able to eventually buy all access to all areas with individual one-time purchases. You’ll also have your own castles and lands to decorate and will have access to numerous other features. You can also earn crowns by inviting friends! I recommend emailing the invite to yourself and copying the url so you can send it to anyone or embed it in a blog post.
2. Become a monthly subscriber for $9.95 a month and have access to everything. This will be for hard-core gamers – families who play a lot and love it.
There are also family plans, $6.95 per account (for individual family members who want to play together and have access to everything) for two or more accounts in a family, and awesome discounts when you purchase subscriptions of six months or more at one time (I would recommend that).
And in my opinion, it is worth the money, and it’s a good deal (according to my husband, who would definitely know). Wizard101 is a lot of fun, and a great alternative to many of the game system games that are SO spendy – the ones your child will be bored of after a week.
To find out more about the plans available, visit Wizard101′s Help Me Choose page.
Final Thoughts:
Wizard101 is an addictive, fun-filled online multiplayer wizard game that I think you and your children will enjoy. Its a genius alternative to the popular but expensive online (and game system) games available nowadays, and I love that parents can control all of the online interaction and keep their kids safe. This is doubly a great game to introduce to your family because adults and children alike love it!
I like that it is free to play online even if you don’t have access to everything – it is still a lot of fun, and its nice that you can try before you buy for as long as you want! I recommend giving it a try!
If you’re ready, sign up here! <——- If you use that link (using my friend code), you’ll get a special gift when you sign up, a rare pet dragon!
Giveaway over – winners posted here!
I received a subscription to this game thanks to the Game Review Network and Wizard101. This review is 100% my own opinion, my own experiences with the product, and in my own words.
161 Comments
Wonderful idea! It amazes me that people put their time and money into making others happy.
Wizard101 amazes me in so many ways. Soaring the streets on mounts, or even questing with friends. The best family game; rising to thetop of the charts showing a kid friendly enviornment. Personally, I’d suggest this game to EVERYONE. Young and old, its a joy.
~ Olivia GhostCatcher
This game is definitely my favorite MMORPG. I don’t know what exactly it is that I love about this game, but it works! I guess it’s all the little details that makes this game so enjoyable for me. This game is certainly addicting but it’s a ton of fun. I’ve told lots of people about this game and I sometimes even find my parents playing. KingsIsle did a great job with this game and I can’t wait to see what’s new in store for my wizard. :D
I’ve been playing the past year thanks to some of my best friends who had computer problems and wanted to play it on mine, lol.
What drew me in was the community support, the Egyptian and Norse influenced worlds of Krokotopia and Grizzleheim, the spells steeped in the mythology of different cultures, and the customizable houses/gear.
The fact that I can meet and make friends with people from all over the world and of all different ages and types is wonderful too. It’s a social network AND an entertaining video game!
I’ve already started playing it with my step-son now when he comes over, and many of his friends are already on too!
I LOVE that you can create any type of character you want, and get to design their clothes and such. My friends would probably start playing if I told them how great this game is!
I love Wizard101 for many reasons, first, no matter what your mood is at the moment – as soon as you log on and start playing you automatically get happy. The game is easy to play and doesnt take too long to level. Also, since Wizard101 keeps getting new things, as soon as you get tired (if you do) new things come out and you start to play again because you want to get them. You can play with your family members too, no matter how far they are in the world. My grandma lives across the country so i miss her a lot, but she loves this game too just like me so i’ve gotten closer to my family by this game. She helps me level up and for my birthday and christmas she gives me wizard101 giftcards :) This game is well thought of by the creators and is a lot of fun, everyone who plays it has fun and gets hooked. All in all, this game is fantastic!!!
I don’t know what it is about this game, but it is strangely addictive, isn’t it? :) Four of us had been playing this, and we spent hours adventuring together. We brought all 4 PC’s into one room so that we could talk back and forth. At one point, while we were playing, we were all laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. I don’t remember what we had found so funny, but I guess it doesn’t really matter what it was. What matters is that it was quality family time – something we had been missing. The game was all we could talk about, and we couldn’t wait for everyone to get home so we could get back to playing. It was well worth the money!
Cat
Hi :)
Great review by the way! I couldnt have wrote it better myself, but i’ll try lol. I would say this game is great because i can get closer to my family with it. Almost all my cousins,grandparents,aunts,and uncles have an account on here because last family reunion i mentioned this game and i showed them how to play and they all loved it! :) Since i dont see them everyday, i get to talk to them online. This is great because now i dont have to waste a lot of my minutes on calling them, its free now :)
I would recommend this game to everyone from 6-106
Wizard101 looks very cool and i bet some of my brothers and sisters would love to play and of course i already play :)its so addicting and tons of fun! I can chat with my friends, farm some onis,and just have plain fun! Its not to hard to play and its PG and i just absolutely love it :)!
I retweeted :) http://twitter.com/kevdude90
Wizsrd101 is the bomb!!!!!! it is the best game i have ever played! im a level 21 and a death student and am discovering new things everyday. i have looked at hundreds of reviews for wizard101 {really i wanted to see what other people thought of the game and they were not as good as this one trust me!} Also this was the most complete and understandable review i have ever read. I cant wait to finish the game and finally save wizard city and help Merle Ambros who really reminds me of dumbledore from harry potter which to some people may seem really wierd but its true! what im trying to say is that wizard101 is the best game ever made and everyone should join and get a membership so you can see the awesome worlds such marleybone look for me beccaboo996 on wizard101 im a death student
I think that Wizard101 is one of the best games out there. It is fun to play, and if I could, I would play it all day(my mom would never allow that). It is a relatively easy game to set up and play, but strategy is the key. You need a good deck, and friends. I have met so many nice people willing to help me when i need it, and it is nice. My brother and I both are members, and I have hopes that one day I will become a great Life Wizard like i am in the game! If i could rate this game on a scale of one to ten, it would be 100 :) I am seriously addicted to this game!
Grace UnicornHorn
Hi! I have tried several other online games out there, and I have to say that Wizard101 is indeed a great deal of fun to play!
Your review was excellent, and highlights many of the points that make this game such a stand out.
This game has captured my attention in ways that few other titles have, and I am still finding it most enjoyable even after my Storm Wizard has reached the highest (current) level. The game continues to expand so it offers endless possibilities, with new items, quests, new worlds, and more.
Meeting new friends and helping them is a blast and teamwork is a very rewarding aspect of the game. This game is done so well, it is easy to play, appearing to be a kids game, but it draws you in, offering so much in terms of possibilities, and room for expansion that it is a sheer delight to play!
I have highly recommended Wizard101 to all of my friends and family, and to anyone else as well.. try it, you won’t be disappointed!
Hi im back i had to leave for piano so i didnt get to finish my other reply. I would recommend wizard101 to everyone and anyone and that they should aslo become a member because members are awesome!!!! The members get more experiance faster and also get to see a lot of the spiral Becomeing a member is the best thing you can do!!!!! I just finished the pyrimid of the sun and it was the best thing ever it was so fun and i gained eight levels just in the pyrimid of the sun and it was so easy and was so cool!!!! my favorite part of the game so far would have to be the different spiral rooms around the spiral my favorite one is still the bartelby one in the theme of the tree and it acctually gives you the feeling of being inside of the giant tree named bartelby. I cant wait to discover more and more of the wizard world and see what knew things await me and my other favorite part would have to be all the different monsters even though they are the bad guys seeing the way they look and how each one battles is so cool!!! I just bought my first house on wizard101 and it is so cool its my own little island that has a huge two story house and i dont have nearly enough stuff to fill my house {just yet} but outside is my absolute favorite. the outside has a waterfall and my own private woods it is so cool. so Yeah i would recommend wizard101 to everyone and that even if they are considering to join they have to become a member to get the full experiance. WIzard101 is my favorite game ever i have never played a more fun game anywhere else in the world. i log on every day and always discover more and more everyday. Just today i have invited four of my friends to join wizard101 im not sure if they joined yet but one already told me that they are not going to become a member{they are crazyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!}look for me on wizard101 by username is sierra nightcloud look for me level 21 im a death student too please look for me and become my friend!!!! JOIN WIZARD101 AND HAVE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love Wizard101. Have been playing for almost a year now and cant get enough of it. Everyone should try this game!
What i like about the game is that it is diffrent from MMO because i dont have to worry about raiding! i am completly relaxed when i play wizard 101 i feel calm and relaxed. i think my boyfriend would play and i think my sister. my mom said that she doesnt have the patience for a game lol.