Review: Fairytale Fights

Like many video games, Fairytale Fights gained attention because of the unique appeal of its basic concept. A violent, adult-themed twist on classic fairy tales has worked as a draw to many entries across various forms of media. However, unlike those more successful books, movies, or even games, Fairytale Fights totally abandons its core premise during its execution. Furthermore, this title manages to implement only barely-mediocre action and presentation elements.

I was initially quite impressed when booting up the title. The colorful and stylized characters and environments displayed during the introduction left me reminiscing the Nintendo 64 title Banjo Kazooie, which is somewhat of a feat by itself. Each character in-game has a distinct personal look that still ties into the overall art direction, and the environments display a lush amount of detail between scrolling background elements and the user-accessible areas.

These are basically the only high points to Fairytale Fights – while not playing the game, the title seems to be filled with charm and whimsy. Unfortunately, the core gameplay is basically no fun. Before I get into how the game is played, I would like to explain the plot a little bit. I can’t, really – throughout the course of the game I didn’t pick up on a plot. Nothing was explained to me. I have, though, come to hear that the four main characters have fallen out of grace and wish to regain their admiration from the peoples that inhabit their realms. I looked this up online.

Any of the four playable characters are accessible from the start to romp through the main quest missions, yet none of them handle any differently from the others. Players use the left analog stick to control the direction of their chosen protagonist, and the right analog stick makes that character attack. X jumps, O pushes, R1 picks up items and L1 switches between the two available items.

Each character runs and jumps around the levels in a slippery fashion. This is made worse when attacking, as enemies that bleed leave copious amounts of blood behind on the level. Running across this blood with any sort of momentum results in a faster-than-running slide, essentially ruining what little control the player had beforehand.

Performing attacks during combat is equally flimsy. Players use the right joystick to attack, but the direction that the joystick is pressed has almost no influence over what direction the player character attacks in. To make matters worse, when attacking, a player cannot control the direction their character is moving. Any kind of alignment to be used while attacking requires the player to stop attacking and more or less walk in a large circle to get back into line. Coupled with the slippery blood, this makes combat frustrating.

The real kicker here is that many of the areas that are flooded with similar basic enemies (as well as most boss fights) have cliffs or other dangerous obstacles to be avoided. Being swarmed with twenty Lumberjacks or Gingerbread men is annoying enough, but players will have to actively maneuver their endlessly-sliding character away from edges or pits of lava or unnecessary, questionably-placed sawblades. The whole system then becomes an exercise in patience.

Combat is aided very minimally by the inclusion of over 140 weapons throughout a whopping three varieties – bladed, blunt, and ranged. Players will probably be playing with basic knives and axes throughout the title, out of comfort and speed in combat. However, each time the player dies (and this will be often), the actively-selected weapon will be dropped along with a bunch of “riches”, the game’s currency. This will leave the player running around to collect their lost money and find any nearby suitable weapon, which more often than not is a low-level waffle iron or a beaver-shaped mailbox. Wells are located within specific levels that charge for a higher-end weapon, like a wooden chainsaw or a staff that shoots poision, but again, these weapons will be lost upon the next untimely and unexpected death.

Random treasure chests scattered about levels only drop potions (Love potion for healing and charm effects, or poison potion to kill enemies or make your character vomit), weapons, and riches. Riches are basically the only collectible item within the game, and they only serve two purposes: first and foremost, the few trophies/achievements that are unlocked by acquiring X number of riches, and the statue that resides in Taleville. The statue can be upgraded as money is collected until its completion is 100% and its trophy/achievement is unlocked.

Taleville itself is one of the nicer areas of the game; however, its purpose is to slow down the functionality that most games offer as a simple menu. Essentially, Taleville is a town that the player can roam around to change the game’s few options. On the far right is the character selection area, appropriately telling the player to choose their Insignificant Character. Further left is the aforementioned Statue, beyond that is a Taxidermist that will tell you how many enemies that have been killed for all of their different varieties. Lastly are the basic and default options menu and the New Game/Continue menu.

To break up the monotony of the standard story mode, players can peruse through the levels using online co-operative play. While this does make the game a bit more fun, as it takes some of the heat off of the main character as well as instill a measure of comfort in that you’re not the only one suffering, it really doesn’t change how the game is played. It does, of course, make combat more frustrating – each time an enemy is sliced apart, a ribbon pops up on-screen visually detailing how that foe met his demise. This little close-up covers a large portion of the screen, leaving Player 1 or Player 2 totally in the dark about what he or she is doing. The only real consolation for playing through the game in co-op are the co-op exclusive trophies/achievements to be unlocked.

Also available is an arena battle mode. This mode is available to solo players or online multiplayer battles, and is just more of the same. Beat X number of enemies using N strategy, collect the trophies/achievements, move on.

A game of this caliber wouldn’t be complete without a few glitches, and quite surprisingly, there are only a few. The most prominent issue I noticed was that sometimes enemies would just not notice me. I could be right in front of them, and they wouldn’t even budge. They are literally there to die trying to kill the player, so maybe those few were just apathetic about their fate. Twice in the game I respawned after a violent death fighting off a horde of foes and was not able to move. I could attack, but I couldn’t move.

Though it isn’t a glitch, the game quite often respawns a player right into the thick of battles. Players will become revived only to die in a hit or two, leaving maybe one second to try to get away. This issue was especially prominent in the battle with the Candy Witch, who has a spell that turns you into some kind of red candy fetus, or something. I would be transformed, eaten, die, revived, transformed, eaten, et cetera. A similar occurrence happened in a level where I was tasked with running between rolling logs. Each time I was hit, I would die, and respawn just as a log was about to roll over me again.

The only somewhat redeeming quality to Fairytale Fights is the music. Its ambient, crisp, and I found it to be quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, the wordless grunts of all the characters in game and the sound of stylized death never really gave me the opportunity to appreciate it.

Fairytale Fights as a concept is flawed. 98 percent of this game is combat that is way too underdeveloped for anyone over the age of twelve, yet the ludicrous amount of blood and dismemberment earns this game an ESRB rating of M, effectively disallowing anyone under 18 to play it. Even as a ten-dollar downloadable title, this game would be an iffy choice. At full-retail price, this game is an insult to any consumer that unknowingly makes the purchase. Slippery combat, brainless gameplay, and a non-existent plot are going to send this game straight to the bargain bin.

Doin It RIGHT: - Colorful stylized environments. - Interesting premise.	Doin It RONG: - Boring, repetitive combat. - Slippery controls. - Almost non-existent fun factor.
FINAL SCORE: 3 / 10

.