Body Check Online -- Hockey Meets Anime
Gravity Co., Ltd., is a South Korean multimedia company listed on the NASDAQ as "GRVY"--I can't decide if it's more fun to pronounce their stock symbol as groovy or gravy. Anyway, their flagship product is Ragnarok Online, a hugely popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) based on Norse mythology. If you've never seen that ungainly MMORPG acronym before, perhaps you've heard people talking about other multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft and City of Heroes.
Body Check Online is the first online hockey game in futuristic settings. Rather than adopting the complex rules and fixed uniforms of real life ice hockey games, the game highlights upgraded equipments [sic] and daring actions based on crashing, smashing and speeding."
Check out their hockey-meets-anime website; here's desktop wallpaper featuring male and female players wearing equipment that would make Don Cherry's head explode. They also boast Blade Runner-esque artist's conception drawings of "NYC Rink 1" and "NYC Rink 2".
My impression is that the game is in the spirit of NFL Street, though with cyborg players and without any NHL licensing. In other words: simplified gameplay and rules, with an emphasis on big hits, blazing speed, and ludicrously muscled and armored players. Up to ten gamers can compete simultaneously, though Gravity recommends 3-on-3 as optimal.
It's interesting to see a game like this pop up in South Korea--hardly a hockey hotbed. One would think Gravity plans to eventually expand Body Check Online to Japan's rabid gaming market. I'd love to give it a try, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the game's North American debut (a request for more information by OFB has gone unanswered). Nonetheless, it's pleasing to see the sport we love embraced in the Far East, even if in a dramaitcally modified and virtual form.
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