Hands-On Preview: Fairytale Fights

Sorting through my mental list of  games that were presented at PAX this year, I decided to the first game I needed to write about was Fairytale Fights. (You may have briefly heard about the controversy surrounding this game a couple weeks ago, when it was rumored that the developers were fighting to include a ‘œKill 1000 Children’ achievement.)

Most other full retail releases at PAX had large queues and even bigger hype surrounding them: Left 4 Dead 2, Bioshock 2, Uncharted 2, and The Beatles: Rock Band are just a few of the titles that were swamped with gamers dying for a chance to play. Do you see the pattern in the titles above? All of these major games at PAX were sequels to already well-established franchises. All of the heavy-hitter games had the luxury  of big name developers and publishers that have plenty of money to spare for marketing and promotion.

Fairytale Fights, however, is a completely new IP without the marketing power of a big publisher and developed by a relatively obscure studio called Playlogic. Will it measure up to some of the AAA-titles it will be competing against this season?

(Warning:  Some of the screenshots after the break are a bit violent.)

When approaching the Fairytale Fights booth, it struck me that even though it stood in the lobby before the exhibition hall, it seemed that people were simply passing it by. The few people who were playing the game however didn’t seem to want to give up the controller any time soon.

For those who foolishly missed our wonderful PAX podcast specials, I’ll throw some background information your way. The game is a colorful and bloody depiction of fairy tale characters who are literally fighting their way out of obscurity. The four available characters are Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Emperor (from the Emperor’s New Clothes), and Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk).

The gameplay is fairly simple; it’s a 3D side-scrolling brawler. You can pick up different weapons and items as you go along, and in true brawler fashion you can beat the stuffing out of both your friends and enemies. To be perfectly honest, picking up different weapons was much more enjoyable to me than picking up items. Though there were also a lot of one-time attack items such as Love Potions, I found myself ignoring the items and concentrating on trying out all of the various melee weapons. To be fair, this is a problem that I end up having with most brawlers: I simply don’t pay attention to such silly details as ‘œdefense’ or ‘œstrategy.’ (This may or may not be the influence of Streets of Rage).

The variety of weapons is quite impressive. It boasts 140 different types of weapons, from axes to enemies such as garden gnomes. The combat is pretty standard for a hack and slash, with fancy physics that recognize the exact angle you swing your weapon at and cut through your enemies appropriately. While this is a nice touch, I honestly didi’t pay close attention to it in the game because I was a little preoccupied with sliding through the large puddles of blood.

Yes, you heard me right. Call me a weirdo, but I was completely obsessed with slipping around on the blood of my enemies. I giggled with glee, zooming through the level on a trail of the stuff. I was even more excited that there will be a trophy/achievement for sliding a certain distance. I think I even let out a quiet ‘œWhee!’ while I was playing. (Not too loud of course, because that would be  unprofessional.)

According to the developers, the game uses the ‘œvolumetric liquid system’ in which the blood will actually use cohesion to puddle like liquid would in real life. Again, something really cool that will probably be lost to the player, as it doesn’t have a major impact on the actual gameplay.

However, this ties in to one of the major problems I saw in the two levels being presented. The physics for running around in the world feel a little bit loose and slippery. This was not really an issue when I played a level that was outdoors with no edges to fall off of. However when I got to level where there were raised platforms, I found myself frequently falling or being pushed off the map to my death. This happened even when there was no blood on the ground. While the mode I was playing with allowed me to immediately respawn, it was still a bit annoying. Some of the obstacles on these high-ground levels were also pretty difficult to get through’”and this was while playing through with only two people. I can’t imagine the type of mayhem that would occur when using all four players. I have to say while this may not frustrate everyone, it was quite a turn-off for someone like myself who is used to more linear brawlers like Castle Crashers.

However, unlike Castle Crashers, multiplayer doesn’t require you exit out of your current session every time a new player wants to join. It’s a bit of a relief to know that If I’m playing a level, my friends can jump in and jump out of the game at will. Hopefully this feature won’t suffer the same lag as the recent Splosion Man, because lag in a 4-player game with friendly fire can only end in broken friendships and rage quitting.

To be honest, this game doesn’t look all that bad. If the physics get tightened up a little it could prove to be a quite a fun (if a little mindless) kill-fest. It will be rated M of course, seeing as there is probably more blood than a butcher shop in this game. Keep your eyes peeled in the coming months for a full Negative Gamer review.