[360/PS3] Fairytale Fights Review

[pseudopseudo]

Fairytale Fights Review

Title: Fairytale Fights
Platform: 360/PS3
Developer: Playlogic Game Factory
Publisher: Playlogic Entertainment
ESRB Rating: M
MSRP: $59.99 (360/PS3)
Editor: Justin "pseudopseudo" Heeren

What's Hot: Imaginative, colorful visuals that you can just completely ruin with the blood of your enemies. Interesting "Salami Violence" system that allows you to slice your enemies every which way.

What's Not: Repetitive gameplay with levels that seem designed specifically for you to die repeatedly. Basically no replay value whatsoever (unless you're an achievement/trophy whore).

I'll lay this out there in the interest of full disclosure: self-hype kind of ruined this game for me. To explain: after a closed-room session with Playlogic at E3, I came out thinking that with a little more polish, Fairytale Fights could be a dark horse for one of the best platformers of the year. It captured my imagination like no other game at the conference, and just looked absurdly fun.

Playing through it at release, the game just doesn't live up to any of the high expectations I had set for it.

In the game you play as one of four characters (Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Beanstalk Jack or The Naked Emperor) who are fighting to keep themselves relevant by any bloody means necessary. They've been forgotten over the years and a giant is threatening to burn their books and banish their stories to obscurity forever. You must fight your way up to and through the giant's castle to take back your book(s) and save your story.

Before jumping headlong onto the hate train, I will say that the game isn't completely flawed. The things that Playlogic really focused on at E3 are definitely the strengths of the game. The first being that Fairytale Fights was developed using the Unreal Engine, and it shows. The graphics are crisp, beautiful and quirky. The book-themed universe of Fairytale Land is just oozing with personality. You can tell that a lot of time was put into both environment and character design when it comes to aesthetics. Fights' creators definitely had a certain look in mind, and I think they achieved it 110%.

The other thing in this game that provided a lot of entertainment was the "Salami Violence" system: there are certain points in the game where you are slicing enemies in half, and a little picture-in-picture window pops up to show the carnage. This window displays all the gore in its full glory. Enemies literally falling apart, complete with the bones/guts/brain matter inside each cartoony body. Is it overkill? Probably to some, but I think it really pushes the message that Playlogic wasn't holding anything back when it came to the violence in the game.

The violence was definitely featured way too heavily, and the gameplay suffers because of it. Fights is technically labeled an "action/platformer", but it would have played so much better if more energy was put into the platformer aspect of it. The controls are actually pretty decent; where it fails comes in the static camera angles that often become a hindrance along with really sloppy level design. There are so many times while playing through where I'd fall off the edge of a level - many times by no fault of my own. Whether it was because I slid off on account of the massive amounts of blood, my character throwing too many swings into a combo and following an enemy down, or just a bad camera angle making a tough jump near impossible I found myself facepalming on many an occasion. It almost seems like the decision to give the player infinite lives was a cheap attempt to soften the blow of the fact that you'll be dying all the time.

Co-op mode only made the experience slightly better for me. The levels go by quickly on account of clearing out all the enemies faster. Also, if you feel like slowing down your progress at the price of comedy turning "friendly fire" mode can result in some good belly laughs when you slice your partner in half, or melt him/her with acid. If that kind of stuff entices you, then the arena mode is actually something you'd probably dig. The arena levels are small, but the mode is kind of fun in a very "Super Smash Bros Brawl" kind of way.

Gameplay woes aside, I think my biggest problem with Fairytale Fights was that for as much personality the characters and visuals had the game really fell completely flat when actually trying to tell the game's story. The presentation of the story (outside of the few cutscenes) really wasn't all that intriguing. For a game about fairytale characters, I would assume that storytelling would be an integral part of the game. In Fights, it just seems like an afterthought.

To be blunt, there's little to no replay value for Fairytale Fights unless you're really hardcore about achievements/trophies. Playing through the game, you really have done all there is to do. There are something like 140+ weapons to collect, but there's no real incentive for collecting them all, minus the achievement or trophy. There is a loot system, but the only thing you use the loot for is to upgrade a statue that sits in the hub area of the game. Nothing else to use your riches for, otherwise.

The critical failure of this game lies in one question: who does it cater to? I can't imagine for a second that this game was ever meant to be played by children. At the same time, the game isn't really made well enough to cater to the older, discerning gamer. If Playlogic had spent more time making the game good and less time polishing up a violence system that eventually gets old, the story of Fairytale Fights could be a great one. In the end it's just a story with an ending that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Score: 2.5 out of 5 CoGs


Justin says, "If you're really into cartoon blood and guts (fans of Happy Tree Friends come to mind), give it a rental. Otherwise steer clear; the aggravation isn't worth it."

[Wilkz07]

well i guess this one's a skip. It looked like fun but I wasn't going to drop $64 on it when BBV didn't have it to rent. Based on the score, I doubt I'll get around to play it unless a rental place picks it up.

[Talanvor]

I had wondered what this game was about when I first saw it. For some reason I had imagined it to be similar to Raze's Hell.

Oh well, this seems like it should be a bargain title, I can't see it doing well as a full priced release.

[Hawkzombie]

Good lord...I thought this was going to be an Arcade game. 60 bucks?? WAAAAAY too much.

[Chimpbot]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

I had wondered what this game was about when I first saw it. For some reason I had imagined it to be similar to Raze's Hell.

Oh well, this seems like it should be a bargain title, I can't see it doing well as a full priced release.

I'm planning on snagging it as soon as it hits that bargain bin; the over-the-top violence seems like it'd be a great time waster, but I'm not spending full price on it. $20 smells like a decent bargain to me.

[Wilkz07]

word. i'll get it when it goes to the cheap bin. or rent with gamerpass at bbv