Monster Fusion is a monster collection role-playing game developed by Headlock, Inc. of Japan and published by Tetris Online. This is the third Japanese style RPG game that Tetris Online has published on Facebook after Lost Trails and Monster Fantasy. Monster Fusion launched in June and first made our list of top 20 emerging Facebook games in late July.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Monster Fusion currently has over 314,809 monthly active users and over 39,993 daily active users.

In Monster Fusion, players create monsters by paying soft currency for Gacha machines that generate different types of monster depending on machine type. The machine types range from silver, gold and platinum; the monster types are common, uncommon and rare. Each machine has the chance to produce higher level monsters. With up to a team of three monsters, players can participate in quests by paying quest points or combat by paying battle points.

There are three types of quests: Job, Story, and Battle. Note that a Battle Quest is separate from the Battle multiplayer mode that requires the use of battle points. Job consists of pressing an action button to complete a task while Story has the player meeting various characters and types of monsters as part of a narrative. Battle quests are scenarios where the computer pits your team of monsters against another team in a combat simulation.

The Battle mode differs from the Battle Quests by pitting players against one another. Like the quest version, the only actual action a player takes during battle is selecting an opponent. There are currently no penalties for losing a Battle.

The “fusion” part of Monster Fusion is a distinguishing feature of the game. Players complete the process by first selecting a base monster, then a secondary monster and a fusion material obtained through gameplay or purchase. Once all components are selected, the fusion process produces a new monster that improves on the base monsters’ attributes.

Outside the quests, combat and fusion, players create an avatar and monsters that roam around a virtual “ranch.” Players are free to decorate the ranch, but they must also clean it and feed the monsters as gameplay objectives. Visiting other players’ ranches is the primary form of social feature in Monster Fusion; the game rewards players with premium currency for a first-time visit to a friend’s ranch for the first 10 friends a player visits.

The game monetizes through the sale of its premium currency, Monster Coins, which can be used to buy the platinum Gacha machine along with monster food, monster tricks, soft currency, and other items. With the exception of the platinum Gacha machine, most items can be bought with the game’s soft currency, gold. Note that the game’s first-time visit Monster Coins bonus is currently set to five and that using the platinum Gacha costs 50 Monster Coins — meaning players can only gain one monster from a platinum Gacha machine without spending Facebook Credits on Monster Coins.

Publisher Tetris Online tells ISG that it will continue to work with developer Headlock on improving the game’s social features and overall experience.

“The social component is obviously also a very important part of the game, so we’re exploring new ways to exploit the competitive elements,” Said Casey Pelkey, VP of Marketing for Tetris Online. Localization for other social networks and platforms is also part of the long term growth plan.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Monster Fusion with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Having been in the works for many months, MapleStory: Adventures is Nexon America’s foray into the social game space and it takes its most famous online property the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game MapleStory to the Facebook platform.

MapleStory: Adventures is in the process of being entered into our traffic tracking service, AppData. Facebook currently lists the game as having 84,728 monthly active users as of the end of the game’s closed beta period.

The game on Facebook is not an MMOG but a regular RPG. Players receive quests and kill creatures to gain experience points and equipment for their characters. The game is a 2-D platformer and looks and plays remarkably similarly to the MapleStory MMOG, and players will recognize the MapleStory style characters, art and humor.

In place of synchronous play with friends as expected in MMOGs, MapleStory: Adventures allows players to hire their friends characters to party with them in an asynchronous manner. That is to say, the computer animates the characters rather than players behind a keyboard. Other social features include the usual gifting found in many other Facebook games, and the requirement for a certain number of friends in order to unlock portions of the game.

Players start off with a level one wizard or warrior and get sent off immediately to kill monsters, collecting experience points, coins, collectibles and equipment along the way, hiring friends as needed to defeat stronger boss monsters. All action is simple point-and-click, and an energy gauge restricts the amount of actions a player can perform in a certain amount of time. Players can refill the gauge with potions by waiting or consuming potions that can be purchased with soft currency, hard currency, or gifted by friends. Character customization is another big part of the MapleStory experience brought to MapleStory: Adventures. All equipment items have unique appearances and the better the equipment, the more fanciful and colorful it looks.

Maple Story: Adventures is live as of today with full monetization in place. During our session with the game during its closed beta, we observed that the developer means to monetize the energy gauge as well as the character customization. Additional monetization comes from virtual items like keys to open treasure chests and scrolls for skill improvements — though, like energy refills, these items can be gifted between friends.

At Casual Connect in Seattle, we spoke with Nexon Vice President of Business Development Won Il Sue about the developer’s goals for the title. Though Nexon has invested in social game developer A Bit Lucky, Sue says that MapleStory: Adventures is not in competition with the other studio. Rather, MapleStory: Adventures is a learning exercise for Nexon aimed at putting the MapleStory franchise in front of a larger audience. The end goal, says Sue, is to link the two games either through a coupon-driven cross-promotion or perhaps through a more complex tie on the back end.

“[A Bit Lucky] is not just a financial investment but a strategic investment,” Sue tells ISG. “We can help [the developer] bring their upcoming game to the Asian market. And we can learn from them [through Lucky Train].”

So far, Nexon has learned to keep MapleStory and MapleStory: Adventures as fundamentally independent products with elements that work to their respective native platforms (e.g. the energy gauge). Sue says Nexon will be especially interested in seeing how paid items in Adventures perform compared to how those same paid items perform in the original game. At this time, Nexon does not plan to bring all paid items from the original game to Adventures.

MapleStory: Adventures enters open beta today. Interested readers can follow its progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Six Gun Galaxy is KlickNation’s latest offering in the Facebook arena, a fully 3-D Role-Playing Game set in a post-apocalypse future earth which has declined to a frontier society.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Six Gun Galaxy currently has over 200,000 monthly active users and 22,000 daily active users.

Six Gun Galaxy is complex enough that KlickNation released a Wiki to inform players how the various skills, attributes, statistics and modifications (cybernetic implants) work in the game. The Wiki also helps players make choices in the avatar they choose to play as well as the allies they recruit, for otherwise, the information is not available in the game.

The game has an engaging storyline, interesting characters and a graphical style that evokes the intended visceral, gritty feel. The game features are tied quite nicely into the social features of the game. Players build a town to earn cash that allows them to buy equipment, modifications and also recruit allies. Friends visit each other’s towns to earn cash and energy rewards, and friends can also choose to either fortify a building or rob it.

Apart from quests and combat with in-story enemies, players at level 10 can begin to challenge other players in a “rival” system in an asynchronous manner that earns them experience, cash and respect, which is a measure of their prowess and puts them on a Player vs Player ladder. Respect also acts as a different form of currency that is used to buy allies that are part of the player’s combat team.

Six Gun Galaxy monetizes by selling Platinum which can be used to purchase energy refills for actions, stamina refills for PvP or equipment and allies. It is to be noted that KlickNation is still tweaking the prices of some of the items; currently, the most powerful items in game are Platinum only, and these can be four times or more powerful than any other similar level equipment purchased with in-game cash.

Combat is turn based and can be frustrating as they are die-roll based, so an unlucky miss and a critical hit occurring between opponents usually means sure failure on side, especially in the early levels. Also, there isn’t a way to gauge the strength of the enemies wandering around the maps. Engaging in combat takes you to a separate screen where there could be more than one higher level opponent and a second wave as well.

KlickNation will no doubt continue to improve on the game and populate the Wiki with information currently missing, but the game is compelling enough that we see a slow but steady climb in MAU.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Six Gun Galaxy with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Bingo Blitz is the latest game to join Facebook’s growing cadre of Bingo games. Created by independent studio Buffalo Studios in Santa Monica, CA, it is also their first venture into Facebook games.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Bingo Blitz currently has just over one million monthly active users and over 342,000 daily active users.

Although billed as “not your grandmother’s bingo game” Bingo Blitz closely follows the same skill-based mechanics. Players select to play up to four cards and daub the numbers on their cards if they are called, by row and number, and call Bingo when they have daubed five in a row or all four corners of the cards. The difference from straight-up church hall Bingo is the powerups, which are earned as you daub numbers. These have to be activated and range from daubing random numbers on your cards to adding treasure chests to numbers on your cards to earn additional coins if daubed. The other difference is progression. Players earn experience with every game played and as the level up, open up new cities where the Bingo cards are more costly but also earns higher rewards. In this game, players earn experience points and coin even without winning. Calling Bingo gains the player more XP, coin as well as collection items and progresses players faster through the levels.

Credits are required to purchase Bingo cards and these are collected as players log in every day. Coins buy items in the store which includes custom daubers, powerups and keys, which are used to open treasure chests that players earn at the end of each game. The game monetizes by selling credits which can also be converted into coin, a slots game to win additional coins for a Facebook credit and Buffalo Studios also recently integrated Adknowlege’s Social2Web monetization solution into their game.

Social features in the game include a chat bar for players to want to chat and some players do and the ability for friends to gift each other powerups. Players with more active friends playing the game also earn team bonuses of extra credits.

Buffalo Studios may have found the secret to “stickiness” in Facebook Bingo games by adhering to the essential skill and mechanics of Bingo for Bingo Blitz. This stands out in the field among other Bingo games such as Bingo Adventures reviewed here, Bingo Derby reviewed here, Bingo Charms reviewed here, and Big City Bingo, which all deviate from the skill-based core Bingo play in one way or another.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Bingo Blitz with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Auto Hustle developer MetroGames recently committed to revisiting some of its older Facebook games for a mobile expansion through publisher Chillingo, but it appears as though there’s still life on the social network even for its oldest games. Recently, match-3 game Biotronic turned up on our top 20 list of emerging Facebook games after last appearing on our top 25 games in July of 2009 . The game is still well below its peak traffic of over four million monthly active users.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Biotronic currently has over 493,400 monthly active users and over 85,800 daily active users.

The game moves at a slower place than Bejeweled with seven different shapes and colors of small animated icons on an 8 x 10 rectangular board. A timer counts down for each level as the player races to fill a progress bar by completing matches in order to progress to the next level. Combinations, longer matches and the use of power ups advances the bar by a larger margin and a lucky combination can easily boost the player up into the next level. Interestingly, any unused power-ups also carry over into the new level.

Players have to wait until all actions and animations are complete before they can make another move, which creates a more deliberate sense of gameplay. Hints have to be manually selected and a penalty is applied to the timer for each hint a player selects. The biotechnology theme is reflected in blinking-eye icons and space-age sounds and music.

Social features take the form of a weekly, monthly and all-time leaderboard showing the level and highest scores reached. Instead of a gifting system, players are able to challenge a friend to a game or taunt friends of higher leaderboard rank with several different messages about overtaking their position.

The game monetizes by allowing players to pay a single Facebook Credit to replay levels where they didn’t beat the timer, which essentially is the insert-quarter method recently applied by Namco Bandai’s Pac-Man for Facebook. Each successive replay in Biotronic, however, increases in price. Additionally, players can buy one of two power-ups to use in-game: a bomb that is activated only when a match is made with it, and another bomb that is activated with a double mouse click. The chance to buy each item is offered to the player at the beginning of each new level.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Biotronic with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Martial Arts Masters is a martial arts fighting game developed by Softon Entertainment and published by Manic Frog on Facebook. Since its launch early this year, the game has climbed slowly but steadily in numbers, recently landing on our top 20 list of emerging Facebook games.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Martial Arts Masters currently has over 592,800 monthly active users and 37,000 daily active users.

Martial Arts Masters is a strategy game, rather than a combat game a la Shadow Fight. Players take the role of a fighter within a dojo and then go out to fight other players in an asynchronous fight that is represented by a progression bar. The strategy comes from the six different dojo styles players may choose from: Taekwando, Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing) and Boxing. Each style has an advantage over another style for a sort of rock-paper-scissors dynamic. Players pick opponents from a random list ranked by number of fighters in the dojo and by level, or they may challenge their friends to a bout. Each bout contributes to the player’s overall level, which in turn earns statistic points to apply toward the fighting styles, or Spirit and Energy gauges.

Players can recruit as many friends as they wish make up a team, which ultimately determines the power of your dojo depending on the strength and level of each fighter, plus any equipped items. Players are placed in regional groups depending on their hometown location listed in their Facebook profile. Leaderboards show where the player stands within their region and players can seek out top-ranked players within other regions to challenge.

At the lower levels, the game is mainly about training your fighter to challenge weaker opponents. As the game progresses, the player’s dojo takes on a rating of dishonorable, competitive, or hero — dishonorable being reserved for dojos that only challenge dojos far weaker than their own. The game takes off at the higher levels with large dojos earning access to new features. For example, there is a Challenge Tours mode that allows players with enough Spirit to take on eight different dojos at a time. Players can also take on an entire region and challenge dojos that have been placed on a blacklist. We’re not entirely certain what gets a dojo blacklisted — a glance at the option reveals both Dishonorable dojos as well as Hero dojos. A blacklisted dojo, however, carries a cash bounty for the player that defeats it.

ETA: Players can pay cash to blacklist a dojo.

Higher level players can also buy in or buy out of Hard Core mode with 20 gold bars or Manic Cash. In this mode, players to earn twice the experience for wins. Losing in Hard Core mode, however, results in a loss of experience points for a uniquely punitive approach to gameplay. Also in this mode, players are vulnerable to challenges whether or not they are online. To exit Hard Core mode, a player has to pay more virtual currency to switch back to normal mode.

Monetization comes from an offer wall, or the purchase of Manic Cash or gold bars in exchange for Facebook Credits. Manic Cash is used to buy equipment and dojo items that increase power or shorten wait times by refilling Energy or Spirit. Interestingly, all items purchased by Manic Cash can also be purchased with gold bars — even though gold bars are more difficult to come by in-game as the player only earns one per level gained.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Martial Arts Masters with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Weeds Social Club is Facebook game tie-in created to promote Showtime television dark comedy series, Weeds. The game puts the player in the shoes of Nancy Botwin, the main character of the show who becomes a marijuana dealer to support her white upper-middle class family after her husband suddenly passes.

The development and publishing of this game is a bit complex. The actual game was developed by casual games outfit Mytopia, which has some experience with card and tile games on Facebook. Publishing, meanwhile, is handled as a collaboration between Ecko|Code — serial entrepreneur Marc Ecko’s games label — and Lionsgate Entertainment, which produces the TV show on CBS Corporation’s premium cable network, Showtime.

Weeds Social Club is currently in closed beta with just over 14,500 monthly active users and over 1,700 daily active users, according to our data tracking service AppData.

The premise of the game follows the plot of the TV series, where the main character’s objective is to earn money through selling weed to save the home from financial woes. The actual gameplay is a farming simulation where the purchase of seeds and pots is combined with a light-tweaking mechanic substituting for traditional plant-watering. Once grown, players harvest the weed and then sell it on the streets or open a market with a dealer. Players can also buy furniture to decorate their house and to stash bags of weed.

Weeds Social Club is mission-based, though players can also just grow weed to sell as a free-play experience. A character progression system unlocks better seeds and nets the player points to assign to skills, like the ability to sell more bags of weed per hour or reduce the risk of being caught. Risk adds a strategic element to gameplay as the player works to balance each plant’s odor rating with planters and weed storage options that reduce the odor. The higher the odor, the higher the risk of being busted. When busted, players lose a percentage of cash and bags currently in their inventory. Completing a quest for a corrupt law enforcement agent gets your record wiped clean.

As the game is currently in closed beta, monetization features are not currently live. Social features are also not in place yet, though there is a toll that cycles through your friends’ profiles and recommends them as neighbors. Game balancing and quest text are also still in development.

While farming sims and TV show tie-in games are nothing new for Facebook, marijuana-themed social games haven’t enjoyed the same growth of genre. Pot Farm currently has fewer than 1 million monthly active users and a Cheech & Chong marijuana-themed game launched to a slow start in the middle of June. It may be that Weeds Social Club enjoys an edge over these titles due to its TV tie-in status, but it’s not how clear how dependent the game is on its Showtime connection.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Weeds Social Club with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Slotomania is a slot machine gambling simulation from developer Playtika, which was reportedly acquired in part by Harrah’s, a casino brand in the Caesars Entertainment Corporation. Launched in December 2010, this game recently made a reappearance in our weekly lists of fastest-growing games by daily active and monthly active users after being absent for several months.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Slotomania – Slot Machines currently has over 4,179,000 monthly active users and over 912,000 daily active users.

Slotomania engages players in the same manner as slot machines in Las Vegas by using colorful graphics, music, and a steady stream of winning free coins to keep them playing. Players start the game with 200 coins and access to a “Farm Fortune” slot machine that features large, colorful cartoon-y farming icons such as chickens, barns and pigs on a three by five grid with a set of numbers along the left and right side of the board that form lines from one side to the other. Players choose how much virtual currency to bet on a spin and across how many lines they want to hope for a match.

The video game element comes from leveling up individual slot machines. As players place bets within a specific slot machine, they gain experience points. When they reach a new level, they unlock a new slot machine with a different theme (e.g. “Bubble Rumble” at level two with 250 points). As the games level, the number of lines within the slot machine also increases, allowing the player to make larger bets and earn more prize money.

To keep players engaged, the game provides coin bonuses at each level, allows players to send friends either free spins or coins. Similar to Playtika’s other title, Farkle Pro, the game also rewards players every four hours by giving them free coin bonuses. Social features include a Reel Game, which is a slot machine with friends’ profile pictures in place of the icons, as well as the usual Wall post achievements. The game monetizes through selling coins and with a TrialPay offer wall. The game is fairly generous with free coins, which perhaps explains the 20%-25% retention rate of daily active users as a percentage of monthly active users.

Interested readers can continue tracking the progress of Slotomania with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Smeet is a virtual world served through Facebook via a pop-up window described by Berlin-based developer Smeet Communications GmbH as a free browser-based 3D social chat game. Roughly 40% of its users are under the age of 18, giving the game an odd traffic life cycle as recorded by our traffic tracking service, AppData.

Smeet launched in September of 2010 and steadily climbed in monthly active and daily active users to a high of 582,000 MAU and 63,000 DAU between February and May 2011 when it first turned up on our list of emerging Facebook games. The game took a heavy hit to its numbers between late May and mid June, tapering down to just over 360,000 MAU and 32,000 DAU. We surmise that the drop coincides with school exams and finals, with the number of users picking up again in the last week now that summer vacation has officially begun.

The core experience of the game is to hang out and have fun by chatting, customizing your home and sharing your favorite YouTube movies. Smeet gathers information from your Facebook profile and populates a Smeet profile for you, displaying an avatar of your stated Facebook gender and your age and location. Your name and location may be changed in the game, but age and gender cannot. Clicking on another avatar displays that user’s profile, including Facebook profile photo, Smeet screen name, age, gender and location. Interaction tools range from animated actions (emotes) to private chat (whisper), as well as in-game messaging and friend invitations. In almost every public space, there are video screens streaming YouTube videos that players have shared.

Smeet Communications addresses the safety of minors with a page on their website and also a “For Parents & Teachers” category in their blog. There was an area in the game that the reviewer could not access because they were “too old.”

Players complete missions in the game which range from adding a location or uploading photographs to your profile to playing mini-games in specific areas. From missions, players earn badges as well as Fame Points that are used to level up your character and unlock new locations or rooms in your virtual home. Some mission rewards are paid out in coins, the game’s soft currency, which can be used to purchase customizations and other premium content. Mini-games abound in the world of Smeet and each shows a daily ranking when you access it. Like missions, some mini-games pay out in coins while others pay out Fame Points.

The 3D home building is not very sophisticated at time of writing. To move an object, players first have to put it away in their inventory, then walk their avatar to where they wish to place an object and access their inventory to place it, then save the room. Objects also come in boxes which have to be unpacked, some using many clicks, each spaced several minutes apart.

The game monetizes through that sale of its soft currency via Facebook Credits and several other pay methods we expect to see phased out after July 1. Third party advertizing also plays a large role in the game from sponsored clothing available and branded stores like the NBA store to video ads that plays as you wait to receive a reward after completing a mini-game. All around Smeet, players will also encounter characters carrying signs that say “Free Coins.” These are not player scams; they are actual characters placed in the world by the developers that link to third party offers which are tied to a coin reward.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Smeet with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

Platinum Life: Country by Heatwave interactive for CMT (Country Music Television) joins the ranks of Facebook Games developed to promote a genre of music or a band. Among others, we’ve previously looked at the hip-hop genre game by Platinum Life: Web Edition by the same developer, as well as New Boyz:The World created by Funtactix previously and expect more to join to join the party.

According to our data tracking service AppData, Platinum Life:Country currently has 14,515 monthly active users and 1,052 daily active users.

The game is still finding its feet. The launch was pushed back by 10 days, going live on June 13th; after that, a new loading screen with “under construction” graphics confused users who thought that the game was down, accounting for the slow start tracked by AppData and the recent dip in users.

Here’s what the game offers users, as is, especially country music fans.

Platinum Life: Country streams music by artists featured on CMT, including the artists themselves as cartoon avatars. A new player selects one of these artists such as Dolly Parton, Trace Adkins, Colt Ford and Big & Rich as a mentor(s) and they will hear their voices and avatars as they play through the game.

The game itself combines the social aspect of building communities and visiting your friends’ communities to do chores for rewards and a “performance” mini-game which is a game of four card draw based on luck. Each action requires energy, called “moxi” in the game and gains fame (experience) for levels. Building isn’t simply buying and setting objects down on the map, some yield only coins and fame, some actually yield coins, moxi, fame as well as ribbons which are used to upgrade building objects. The game monetizes by selling Platinum points using Facebook credits which is used to buy premium buildings for your community as well as moxi and customization for your avatar.

What the game does right is the large avatar that a player gets to create at the start of the game, with over 400 items of customization and four different stances. This gives a stronger sense of identification for the player and the player gets to see the avatar on stage at each performance. Even facial features and hair can be changed without cost so a player could decide to be a happy brunette one day and a sad red-head the next. Additional customization items are purchased with in-game coin as well as Platinum points. The game also features a camera that allows the player to post pictures of his or her avatar, and an option to view your friends’ avatars.

Country music streams continuously in the background, so a player may even use the game as a country music station. In the future, CMT expects that the game will be a platform for the artists to announce new music and another avenue for getting their music out to country music fans. Players who build a movie theatre will be able to watch CMT content including music videos and TV content. This is an announced feature which will be live in a coming upate. As new features and mini-games are added into Platinum Life:Country, we have no doubt that it will have its devoted followers.

Interested readers can follow the progress of Platinum Life:Country with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.