Fairytale Fights Review
Fairytale Fights Review
It’s understandable when a game comes out with lowered expectations, a meaningless romp meant only to kill a couple hours with mindless fun. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact, entire sections of the industry pride themselves on doing nothing but budget titles and doing them fairly well. The thing with it is, they need to know when they’re a budget title and sell themselves as such. Fairytale Fights developer, Playlogic, obviously didn’t get the memo, because somewhere down the line someone at that company actually thought this game was worth $60. I can only assume that’s some type of inside joke we’ll never be privy too.
Fairytale Fights is a straight up action platformer centered on famous fable characters with an added dose of gore. I’d tell you more about the story, but Fairytale Fights didn’t bother so why would I? You play as; Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood, Naked Emperor or Snow White. None of these characters act or move differently and the story doesn’t change course for any of them, so it doesn’t really matter who you choose to play as.
The fighting is done with the sloppy right analog stick mechanic seen in the game Too Human. While that wasn’t a shining example of fun brawler it was still far more fun than what Playlogic does here. Push to face enemy, wiggle analog stick and character attacks. Hold it down for a power attack. That’s about it. There’s also a button for block, but it either doesn’t work, or enemies don’t swing to hit you if you’re holding it. We’re talking barebones stuff here kids, and they get it all wrong.
Visually the game is mostly unimpressive, but it’s not entirely awful. I’m a fan of cute cartoon takes on common staples in literature, especially when it’s done with a twisted sense of humor. Fairytale Fights is definitely an adult game, there are moments when you can kill a bunch of people leaving a massive blood pool that you can slide around in or leave red tracks behind you as you run. It’s funny and dark and is enough to sell games when done right. Here, unfortunately, the camera is so far back and uncontrollable that it’s hard to decipher enemies’ types clearly, and animations don’t seem well defined. Even on a 60 inch screen this was hard to see, and it really hurts the game.
The other area that it kills all enjoyment for, and this is disastrous, is with the platforming. Given the weird angles and far back nature of your player view, the depth of field makes it a tough task to gauge distance and level. Add to that the fact that your player will bump into invisible walls directly above them when to close to an object, which is counter-intuitive to what the object appears to be, the platforming in this game becomes frustrating and an ultimate killjoy to the overall experience.
Boss Fights become a bane of which you’ll never quite recover either. They’re always simplistic, but extremely cheap. There’s no limit to lives, and you respawn immediately upon death with much penalty at all, but they don’t even manage to do this right. During bosses you’ll often be killed in one hit, the game will spawn you in an area that’s instant death. Who thought this made the game fun I don’t know, these fights end up being nothing more than a test of attrition as you’ll inevitably beat them but it never seems worth it.
Fairytale Fights could have been a decent budget title that would find a decent sized niche to sell to. But they get everything wrong, even the most basic of things, and make no effort to appear like they even attempted something resembling a creative narrative to carry the game. By the time I played this it was 49.99 on shelves, and I’m sure the price will plummet by the time you read this. But I can’t even recommend it as a rental, as there’s a far better game out there to derive at least a couple of chuckles from – Fairytale Fights has none.
The World: What should be an easy play on well known fairytale characters, becomes one of the most benign and uninspired take I can imagine. Just because you make Little Red Riding Hood a psychotic killer does not mean you’ve created something good. The level’s are nice enough though, if a little uninspired by the end of the game. 5/10
The Story: There is none. And they don’t even seem to pretend that there is. 0/10
The Combat: It’s very simplistic, and has no depth whatsoever. The blood and dismemberment does add to so the brutal nature of the game, which can be amusing, if not a little childish. 5/10
The Platforming: A frustrating camera kills the games sense of flow. Dying has no penalty but that doesn’t mean you want to do it over and over again. It’s not that levels are designed poorly, so I’ll give them points for that, but they hold themselves back by not giving you a clear view of where and what you’re supposed to do. 4/10
The Value: The game plays for a decent length, and there’s a fair amount of achievements or trophies that take some time and are actually a little challenging. Sadly, some of these also seem glitched. There’s a multiplayer arena to much about with friends. In no way is this worth full price, budget bin or bust. 5/10
SCORE: 38%
