Review: Fairytale Fights

by David 'Hades' Becker [ Thursday, 5th of November 2009 - 07:11 PM ]

Well that is the very basic version of what is going on in Play Logic's Fairytale Fights. A fun little platformer game where no creature is safe from being hacked into little bits or crushed into pulp. How does it size up? Well let me tell you.

Controls:

Looking at this game, you would think that it would be pretty much the same basic controls for any other game in its genre, which it is, to an extent. The main deviation from the standards, move with stick and use buttons to attack and jump, is actually to the main bulk of the controls: the Attacking.

All of the attacks and combos for each character and weapon in the game are all controlled via one of the controller's analog sticks. One that you would normally feel right moving around the camera angles and all that. This feature is an interesting attempt at innovation, but it also got very frustrating.

No it wasn't that hard to get down the swing of using the stick for combat, but every now and then the old habit of trying to move the camera would have me reaching for the right analog stick. Of course, most of the time this occurred while precariously balanced on a small ledge. Then the character would swing because I was trying to move the camera, which then made them plummet to their death. If this was not the case so often, this control scheme would have been a great new twist.

Graphics:

Plain and simple, the entire game is done in a cartoon and low grade graphics set up, as you can see from the surrounding screen shots. That isn't bad at all. This is especially true since there is a lot of blood and gore, which clings very well to everything, and I do mean everything. This is part and partial to how well the Unreal engine handles liquids. That, of course also lends to one of the other great visuals in this game, mixing fluids together in a smooth form. Not like that you perv.

When you throw an acid bomb and it splashes into blood, one doesn't over power the other. They both stay visible and "mix" well. Great little extra in the game and to show off a little bit, even though there were a few glitches that came with it.

Every so often, when blood covered everything, the edges of the pools and splashes would vanish and leave behind solid black blocks. Like the edge shading and blending would loose the image that was suppose to be loaded and it would just place in a block place holder. Not a bad thing, unless there is a lot of liquid on the screen and enemies rushing all around. Everything gets lost quickly to the glitch that pops up here, including your character. Just shows that while pushing the edge of the technology, there is still a ways to go to be perfect.

One last thing on visuals I want to touch on is the evisceration video that plays as you kill with a slashing weapon. You can see an image of what I'm talking about above. Any way, it is cool every now and then to see the enemies get slashed to pieces, but its placement could have been a bit better placed. At least when playing with multiple players. It overlays on the screen and the action does not stop. If one of your buddies or even two of your buddies do one of these kills, the screen gets completely covered with the animation and all the others still alive get to keep cutting you up.

I died quite a few times because I was moving toward an enemy near an edge and one of these popped up and obscured my view leaving me falling yet again. Just like the camera angles, these could have been better placed to lessen frustration and frivolous suicides on the end of players. Cool in concept, just not done properly.

Audio:

Just as I expected when I picked up the game and placed it in, the audio for the game is very "Disney" and Fantasy like. This is excluding the slicing and weaponry clashing sounds. That is, all of the background noise and level noises in general are very sing-song like, just like you walked into a Fairytale. Surprising, I know. The only time this theme is disturbed in the game is when it comes to all the violent sounds added in. Once again not too surprising.

What is interesting is that Play Logic totally missed on the opportunity to have the actors from their commercials to actually do the voice work for the characters in the game. In fact, there is no voice work in the game at all, outside of the basic SIMs type of voice work. Although there is a spliced-in piece of voicing mixed in every now and then, but they seemed to have missed out on a great opportunity for voice acting.

Also unfortunately, just like the graphics, there is also a random glitch that would pop up during or before a boss fight. A glitch that made the entire game sound like a very bad Prodigy song on repeat. Picture a random bass beat playing over and over with a very choppy MP3 of monster roars. It forces you turn the volume down for the fight and then force a reset of the game to fix. Just another thing that was not intended as I was able to play the fights without the glitch as well. It just could have used a bit more polishing.

Gameplay:

The best way to look at this game it as if LittleBigPlanet and Smash Bros. got together and had a very bloody baby. It is part platformer and part slash the hell out of each other and everything around you until there is a pool of blood. It's a nice little hybrid of the two that leads to some interesting gameplay. It balances the two of these almost perfectly too.

During the game you would get hit with what seemed like an endless wave of things to kill. Just when you think you can't take anymore, a platform only level is thrown at you to bring it back to that style of play. Then you would see a level where both elements are perfectly balanced. The only drawback to that is that when it was balanced, levels seemed to go on for way too long. But this was generally only done in the build up for a huge boss fight.

Overview/Final Words:

This game had a very fun and twisted view on some of the old classic fairytale characters that have been idolized for ages. Something that I really enjoyed because it really can't be happily ever after all the time. Not to mention that some of the stories originated in darker and twisted themes that then were "Disney"ized. That and who doesn't like seeing a Crazed Snow White killing bunnies with a carrot? Honestly.

I will say that unless you plan on getting every achievement/trophy for this game, it is better off as a rent then anything. One good play through and a few arena battles and you can pretty much have enjoyed everything the game has to offer up. If only you could change the story as it goes along, then it would be good for multiple play throughs. That is unless you fall under the aforementioned category of achievement whores.

There are loads of hidden items and things to do in the game that if you are a collector of these things, then you will have days of enjoyment and plays for the game. In fact to get all of the achievements/trophies, you have to play through the game on each mode by yourself and then with a friend or three. But outside of that, the replay is a little low here but worth at least one solid romp through the twisted fairytale lands.