Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 74 Ratings

  • Summary: Happy Wars is a casual multi-player action game in which a large number of players control comical characters in fun battles. In a variety of fantasy battlefields including grasslands, a dark world, and the ocean floor, players can control any of 3 types of characters: warrior, mage, and cleric. Cooperate with friends to enjoy action on the grand scale, casting magic spells, attacking castles, and so on. For off-line fun, the player can take on missions in the solo campaign mode. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 10
  2. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Oct 12, 2012
    80
    Happy Wars is a simple multiplayer action game for the Xbox Live Arcade. While it is ripe with problems, it's also a free game that is worth checking out. You won't find anything original here, but the fast-paced action is both chaotic and addictive.
  2. Oct 15, 2012
    70
    There's minimal pressure to spend any money, the AI-controlled bots are intelligent enough to fool particularly stupid game reviewers, and the battles manage to be adorable and epic at the same time. Unfortunately, the repetitiveness in the sound design and gameplay makes the excitement level drop too quickly.
  3. Oct 24, 2012
    70
    The title developed by the guys at Toylogic combines remarkable qualities and defects which, unfortunately, push it away from a totally positive evaluation. On one hand the game is accessible and fun (at first glance), but on the other, it ends early, it's repetitive and the matches are not always adequately balanced.
  4. Oct 19, 2012
    40
    With very little reason to come back after a few quick rounds, I don't foresee Happy Wars being a staple of the Xbox 360 multiplayer scene for very long.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Negative: 3 out of 17
  1. I've really been enjoying Happy Wars. The huge team battles are pretty epic and the tower defense style gameplay is very addicting. Totally worth downloading and trying out. Expand
  2. Its a great game to waste your time with. Thanks to the simple controls and simple interface, its easy for anyone to get involved in this game. Everyone from family members of all ages o you girlfriends can jump in on the fun.

    The best part is that you really don't have to buy anything. You can still get great stuff for free and still have a pretty good time:)

    Only downside ive seen is that it might get to repetitive, but that problem gets solved quite fast if you got friends whom you tag along with.

    So go ahead. Download it. You wont regret it.
    Expand
  3. It is surprising to see a free XBLA game but after the rise of the F2P games Microsoft was too tempted I guess. Happy wars is an arcade third person tower defense kind of game with a clear focus on 15 vs 15 multiplayer action. Even though this game is based on multiplayer it still has bot matches and a short single-player where missions are unlocked by ranking up in multiplayer. This game gives a good story with single player that has its cute humor and gameplay just like multiplayer. The whole game is based on a single mode which is destroying the enemies tower which is inside a castle. It may not seem like much but actual strategy is required because 15 vs 15 games can become a disaster with no organization. You have 3 classes to play as, warrior, mage, and cleric which is a support class. These classes are balanced since every class can counter everything with strategy. Items are to be found, equipped, and leveled up making your character more epic, which leads to unbalanced multiplayer sometimes since experienced players may have too much armor and may seem immortal to new players. This is also the 5th arcade game to have 400 achievement points which is awesome for achievement hunters. My main issues with this game are simple, the first is that matchmaking is horrible, it takes extremely long and you often loose connection, sometimes before or after the game has started. My next issue is the fact that you need a gold membership to access the game, I would like to access bot matches and single-player without gold which is unfortunate for people who don't have gold. The last issue is that matches can be a mess and its easy to get lost in the disaster of 15 vs 15 people devastating everything. For now, this game still needs to be perfected and even though it offers fun gameplay there are still downsides which could be fixed with a few patches, I still need to see what the future holds. I'd say you should give it a try, but don't be completely positive about the experience. Collapse
  4. Connectivity issues, unbalanced matchmaking, and slow reward pacing drag down what otherwise couldve been a pretty fun game. Finding a game can often take 5-10 minutes, which is unheard of in this day and age, and it's not due to a lack of players in the community. There are tons of people playing this game, and yet still, the server fails to connect everyone a lot, restarting the process all over again. When you do finally find a game, you still may lose your connection, and all your experience from a long match. It's not fun when half the time spent with this game is completely wasted by doing nothing. Assuming connections are working as planned, gameplay is still very much a hit or miss affair, since your teams are incredibly unbalanced. A player at a low level should always get pummeled by a player 20 levels higher. Good luck, cross your fingers you don't keep running into those players in the battlefield. Leveling up can be so addicting, what with all the enticing loot to upgrade and all, however, because this game is free to play, the company makes its money through micro transactions. With that business mindset, they have made it so your progress is very slow, tempting you to fork over your money for better gear to progress faster. Making you play with people at much higher levels only adds to that. Perhaps progress wouldn't be so slow or frustrating if there were no connection issues, and players could spend all their time actually playing. Underneath all the annoying things about this game there IS some enjoyment to be had. Customizing your character builds is very addicting, and 30 player battles can get very hectic when everyone is frantically unleashing team coordinated attacks to smother opponents. For perspectives sake, IF matchmaking was faster, more fair, and progression wasn't at a snails pace, this game would be good, and fun, and ultimately worth the time, a 7...but it's not. Expand

See all 17 User Reviews