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THQ*ICE, a joint venture between THQ and ICE (a Shanghai-based MMO publisher) recently announced that the closed beta for its upcoming Dragonica Online will be starting next week. The closed beta starts on June 30 and will run until July 14, and you can sign up at the official website, the official Twitter feed, or the official Facebook group.

For the uninitiated, Dragonica is a combination free-to-play MMO/side-scrolling action game. So instead of mouse-clicking and spamming the number buttons to watch a bunch of combat animations, you actually have to do stuff like run, jump, and attack like you would in an action game. In fact, the game's combo counter even tracks how many successful blows you've landed; a successful string of attacks (let's say 50 hits on the combo counter) usually results in an experience point boost. Another gauge, the monster counter, tracks how many foes you've beaten in succession without being taken down yourself; beating up 100 monsters in a row could earn you a special treasure chest with even more loot than usual.

Other gameplay details include "friend points" (earned when in a party of up to four players, and redeemable in town for experience points), a crafting system, player-versus-player gameplay, achievements (called "Accomplishments" here), and microtransactions for character customization (mostly in buying newer and fancier outfits). While the game is slated to go into open beta later this summer, and then launch in the fall, next week's closed beta is a good opportunity to check this game out, to see if fighting shark pirates (yes, that is exactly what they are) in a side-scrolling action-RPG is for you.