Once Upon A Time.....

We all know them. All too often they appear on the Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance. A good few of them even creep onto the Wii. There's a small handful of them on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Even a mere smattering on PC. They're the ultra vibrant, colorful, Saturday morning cartoon inspired saccharine cute games. Banjo Kazooie, Little Big Planet, anything with the words “Mario” or “Yoshi” in the title, and most things published by Square-Enix that have a number lower than IIX easily fit into this group, though that's only the beginning. For better or worse, love or hate, these games bring the youngsters into the gaming fold. They're the gateway games to more hardcore games. If you let Junior spend too much time with Elebits, tomorrow he could be worshiping on the occult altars of Diablo, or slaying hordes of zombie mutated humanoids in Left 4 Dead. All because of some cute, cuddly little elephant shaped bug...things.

But there is an alternate approach that may be too terrifying to comprehend. Something sure to make people everywhere convinced that the world will end in a giant “pop.” What if the cuteness of Little Big Planet was merged with the gratuitous violence of Afro Samurai? Fairy Tale Fights is just that game. Fairy Tale Fights takes us to a world of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in all its colorful charm. Cute characters of the Claymation variety prance around in their comical world. Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (from the Beanstalk), the naked Emperor (don't worry, he's wearing a leaf!), are off on an adventure to find the bears' missing tea kettle to preserve their own dwindling popularity.

Make no mistake, despite the childish dreamland charm of the game, this is by no means a game for children. It may well qualify as the only fairy tale rated “M” for “Mature.” Little Red isn't the innocent girl visiting grandma' she used to be. Instead, all the main characters are deranged carnage-loving, blade-wielding psychos with a crazed look in their bulging little eyes! Fueled by the Unreal engine this is no graphics lightweight no matter what the simple platformer appearance may make you believe.

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