There were hits and misses with the revised designs, but the choice was a bold move, and it more or less worked.

The result was a unique look that was ahead of the anime-influenced curve soon to hit American media. Led by Sung il Ji, FusionFall ’s 2D art team gave every Cartoon Network character featured in the game an anime-inspired makeover.

The aim for an older audience is very likely also the reason behind FusionFall ’s most notable feature, its anime-inspired aesthetic. This action-packed story played a major role in FusionFall ‘s appeal to older teens, which MMOs like ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean severely lacked. The world of FusionFall was basically a sci-fi-action makeover of the CN City bumpers that graced the network a few years prior to the game’s release - every Cartoon Network character lived together in one big world, but now that world was nearly destroyed by the ongoing fight with Lord Fuse. Games like ToonTown Online and Club Penguin didn’t have nearly as much going on as FusionFall. Puzzles, platformer elements, raids and exploration were thrown into the mix to make for one of the more substantial kids’ MMOs at the time. Players would receive missions from various Cartoon Network characters, and defeating evil Fusion versions of CN characters would rewards nanos, mini versions of the character they defeated, which would aid them in battle with various powers and customizable features. With Fuse’s sights set on Cartoon Network Earth, the players had to suit up, gear up and rise up to save the day. The premise and gameplay centered around Planet Fusion, a mass of planets led by Lord Fuse, who wants to take over and absorb every planet in the universe. Work on the game began in 2006, culminating in its release in 2009. Looking back, the game stands as a time capsule of a period in which the relationship between American and Japanese pop culture was beginning to shift, eventually leading to the mainstream popularity anime now enjoys in the West.Ĭartoon Network FusionFall was developed by the now-defunct Korean game studio, Grigon Entertainment, and was directed by Levon Hakobyan and Greg Grigon, both of whom also wrote the game alongside Erab Azraeu.

Thirteen years later, what’s most striking about FusionFall is its position in pop culture history. Infused with console platformer mechanics, the fun of seeing your favorite cartoon characters interacting in the same universe and an art direction that applied some anime aesthetics to characters like Dexter from Dexter’s Lab, FusionFall was an appealing if unexpected concept. At 2007’s San Diego Comic Con, Cartoon Network revealed an ambitious project to the world: an MMO called FusionFall based in a universe inhabited and shared by past and present Cartoon Network characters , which was threatened by an alien invasion that only the players and their customizable avatars could defeat.

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