Sugar Rush is a brand new game by Nexon, the folks behind the hit Maple Story MMORPG. Like Maple Story, Sugar Rush is a 2D, side scroller with cartoony graphics. But Sugar Rush is not a traditionally MMORPG. Instead, players join or create rooms and battle it out 2-8 players at at a time in various modes.

The Closed Beta went live on November 20, 2008 and there are currently 3 playable classes; the Brawler, Ninja and Morpher. Each class plays very differently and has a different distribution of the four stats: Attack, Agility, Defense, and Focus. Each level, players receive several stat points to distribute among these four stats. Sugar Rush has an impressive amount of appearance customization for a 2D game. Players can chose from several head, eye, eye brow, mouth, and hairstyle types and colors. Many of these features can be ‘warped’ for more detailed customization. The item shop is already full of clothing, weapons, and other accessories that can be purchased with ‘bash cash’ earned by playing the game.

For those of you who make it into the beta, a short tutorial covers the game’s basics. Movement, wall jumps, combat, skills, and special moves. Sugar Rush is generally a very simple game and the NPC robot enemies are easily defeated. The PvP game modes are locked until level 2 and 3 but a single match should be enough to level up. What ever mode you play, the game is won by collecting more ’spark’ than the other team or players. Spark randomly spawns all around the stage and can be stolen by hitting opponents. Defeating opponents and random power ups also reward spark. From my experience, Sugar Rush is a fast paced game with simple gameplay. It may appeal to a broad audience but it still needs a lot more content to keep players hooked.