It's been notable that Korean-headquartered Nexon are really trying to break casual, free-to-play pay for items MMO MapleStory in the States. For starters, I've seen ads for the game (which was profiled very handily on sister site Worlds In Motion) on the back page of major game magazines like Game Informer in recent months.

But even more interesting are the slightly surreal filmed commercials for the game over at the official site - they've been showing on sites like IGN, but be sure to check them all out - include Pig, Snail, and Fish. Snail is particularly odd, and features a kid with snails in entirely inappropriate places.

Really, online world MapleStory is underdiscussed in gaming circles - for those don't know, and as WorldsInMotion's Leigh explains, it's "...classic MMO with some platform-style gaming elements mixed in-- it's unique in that it's a 2D sidescroller, rather than the usual three-quarter or first-person 3D environment." Sure, it's particularly popular in Asia, still, but it'll be interesting to see if it get popular in the States, given the marketing push. [Via Joel Reed Parker.]