| My...What Big Knives You Have.... My overall impression of Fairy Tale Fights has a few reservations. The brightly colored magical kingdom with its deceptively devious undertones and playfully demented world are hard to resist, and the level design, enemies, level gimmicks, and the sheer fun of slashing through piles of crazed gingerbread men is more than enough to enthusiastically recommend the game. Those fearing a button masher however should be forewarned, it is indeed a simple button masher, or rather, stick wiggler, often yielding a mid-air thumb, no longer gripping the controller, raised in the air and waggling away to keep up the pace. There's not much offered by way of strategy, and with a lack of penalty beyond treasure loss, there's arguably little challenge, though I have a feeling true death and life counts would have made the game intolerably frustrating. Instead it's more of an adventure to experience than it is a challenging fighting game. Regardless of the implementation, though, the game is still fun enough and worthy of more than one visit, especially with a friend or two. It's something that needs to be experienced to appreciate the wry humor of your favorite fairy tales turned devilish. It's great fun, and a delighting adventure, so long as you're not expecting the strongest gameplay mechanics to date. If you love retro arcade gameplay, however, you surely won't be disappointed. It's hard to give this a terribly high score based on the one dimensional gameplay. Planning out the design more would have created a much more lovable game. On the other hand the ingenious motif and strong casual action adventure gameplay have more than a little value to it.
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| Graphics
- Sound - Gameplay - Depth
- Multiplayer | Reviewed
by John Del Percio |
GRAPHICS
90 % |
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The graphics are quite stunning, though that should come as no surprise given its Unreal pedigree (coding horrors aside.) The fluid dynamics work as advertised, and the art style is a delight. Colorful fairy tales are rendered in Claymation fashion with a warped aura and playful air.
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SOUND
70 % |
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The jazz trio highlighting the lumberjack section is wonderfully out of place, giving way to the all too casual culling of foes and may well be the highlight of the sound. Through the rest of the game, the music becomes somewhat background and monotonous, though good enough on its own. Unfortunately it gets drowned out by the near endless groans and crashes of the endless fighting.
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GAMEPLAY
42 % |
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Sadly, the gameplay is the low point of the game, better only than the depth. There's no true gameplay mechanic beyond button mashing in a straight line. Fend off an arena horde, move to the next one. Repeat. That's not to say there's no fun to be had in it and a more casual gamer may find it pleasant enough in a self-playing sort of way.
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DEPTH
38 % |
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Depth. There is no depth. The story is somewhat loose and unexplained. Our main enemy is, in theory, described in the introductory sequence. In reality, even at the end of the game we're left wondering what exactly our enemy is, or why he's our enemy at all. The gameplay depth is also non-existent given the button mashing nature of it. Toward the end in the giant's house we get our first taste of coherent story and motive. It's a shame it took so long to develop.
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MULTIPLAYER
95 % |
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All the other flaws aside, it's a fun game to team up just for the adventure. Unlike some games such as Little Big Planet, the camera's pan and zoom for two players doesn't often interfere with the ability to play it. We'll see what The New Super Mario Bros. Brings later this year with its multiplayer centric platform design, but as of now, this is one of the better implementations I've seen for multiplayer co-op on a single screen in the genre.
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I must confess a bit of guilty pleasure in playing this game. On the surface, I know that critically, there is little to like about the gameplay, however the game presented a pleasant casual adventure all the same. The score may reflect a lot of biting and chastising – all of it deserved – yet if you don't mind an old arcade button masher in a fun twisted world, the game is better than its critical gnashing of teeth may allow. Ironically I had more fun with this technically sub-par game than many games that have earned a much higher critical score. As with everything, your experience may differ.
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