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Is everyone sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin…

Once upon a time there as a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood. Miss Hood lived in a happy fairy-tale land, and though she stood only knee-high was happy in every way. One sunny day she decided to take a walk with her good friend, the naked emperor. It was so sunny outside that the King even decided not to wear any clothes, but Hood did not mind and so they set off into the forest. They ran happily through the lush green landscape for many many minutes but soon they became surrounded by a variable onslaught of bloodthirsty lumberjacks. It looked as if poor Hood was outnumbered, but then, in the distance, she saw a golden chest gleaming in the forest light. Hood ran to the chest and was able to use her powerful fists to smash it open before the lumberjacks drew too near. With one final almighty blow the chest burst open, reviling a host of shiny and sharp weapons inside. What joy Hood felt! Without hesitation she picked up the largest hammer and ran happily towards the lumberjacks, swinging it about her with wonderful speed and agility. Following suit, the emperor picked up a shiny silver saw and began to slice and grate his way through the crowd. Bright red blood as vivid as the cheeks of the happiest of children gushed forth as the lumberjacks flew about them in a sea of dismembered limbs. Hood turned to the emperor, blood rolling down her cheek and laughed merrily. Smiling back, he took her hand and they happily skipped on through the forest.

The End

Well its not really the end, it wouldn’t be a proper review if it finished there now would it! As you have all seen by now, fairytale fights was another of the games on show at this years Eurogamer expo. Advertised under the tag line “Welcome to the Tragic Kingdom” the idea of this game initially confused me slightly. Was it going to be a play on fairytales as I had expected? Or more of a dig at Disney? Well people, you need wonder no more because I am going to try and make sense of this bloody yet cute new release.

Just moments into the game it becomes obvious that the story centers more around traditional fairy-tales than anything else. The tagline may have been eye-catching, but I can now report that I did not see a single Disney reference in the entire time I played. Sorry to disappoint you if you wanted a chance to kill Mickey, I could be wrong so it may yet happen. Instead, the level we played involved journeying through the forest to find the stolen magic storybooks. This was a simple enough quest, though I must say that I was disappointed with a lack of wider context to the story. With random characters including Snow White, The Emperor, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (and the beanstalk), the story would have been confusing enough if well explained, let alone how it was presented at the Expo. The game charged into the first level with only a brief explanation of characters and scenario, and I would have liked a little more. I am guessing this was merely due to the fact it was a demo, however if the start of the game is the same as it was in the expo, prepare to spend the first few levels a bit confused. Besides that, the game had simple objectives, mainly find the stolen storybooks whilst killing as many evil fairytale characters on the way as possible. Easy really.

As expected the graphics in this game are extremely colorful and over the top. The trees, houses and even characters themselves are robust and chunky, giving the game an extremely childish feel which was obviously meant to make it more shocking when blood begins to flow. Set in a magical fairytale land, the levels are taken straight out of a storybook, and though we only played in the forest setting I am sure that similar inspiration will be taken throughout the game. I liked the way this game had a great sense of depth, making you feel as though you could run far into the distance instead of being restricted as you are in so many 2d platform games. Though I generally liked the look of the game I did feel as though a little more thought could have been put into making the level design more inventive. Everything was as expected, and It would have been nice to include some adult jokes in with all of that childishness.

As for the gameplay… well there is no way of defining this apart from simple hack and slash, with A LOT of added comedy blood. The controls are very easy, with simple actions such as running, jumping and slashing allowing you to progress quite far into the game. One thing about the controls I did like though is that combat is controlled by the right hand stick. This allows you to spin your weapon up down or in full circles really quickly, and adds a much more manic, out of control feel to the gameplay. The game also has an abundance of different weapons, including hammers, saws, clubs, guns, sticks and rolled up newspapers. These weapons can be picked up either from the corpses of enemies or gained by breaking open chests placed frequently throughout the levels. As well as the obvious killing, other challenges along the way include moving saws and swinging axes which block your progression through the level. Though they are well animated and fun to play with, the difficulty level is nothing like that of their ‘Tomb Raider’ pre-decessors, now that really does take us back to our childhoods….

Anyway, where violence is concerned, there were things I liked and things I hated about this game, so time for a sum up. I liked the over bloody violence mixed with the fairytale theme. For example; when there is enough blood on the floor your character actually slides about in it, which is very funny to watch. I also like the variety of weapons, as sometimes you reach for a hammer and end up with a rolled up newspaper. I did however find the game too easy, and if I find it easy I’m pretty every hardcore gamer in the country will think likewise. Another thing which I found distracting was the close up views it insisted upon showing me of my enemies dismembered bodies. I’ll explain. When an enemy was killed in a spectacular way the game would show a massive (and I mean half the screen) shot of the body being flung about with blood flying everywhere. I found this not so much disgusting, but distracting and after a while I ignored the left hand side of the screen completely. I mean everyone loves comedy violence, but there is a limit, and I can’t help but thinking that anyone over ten would find this not so much amusing as confusing. I can’t help feeling that this space could have been put to better use, and therefore I think this is a major failure in the games design.

Overall I enjoyed playing this game at the expo, but I am not sure that I would enjoy playing it all the way through alone. With friends around the novelty of fairy-tale characters beating each other to a pulp makes the game enjoyable, but playing on your own I have a sneaking suspicion that this one could get a tad repetitive. It is as if all of the ingredients for a great game are there, but that it is aimed at an audience much younger than the violence allows it to go on sale to. I hate to say it, but for a dark fairy-tale it could really do with growing up a little.

Not every story has a happy ending, but if your lucky even the worst ones end up with you being tucked in and kissed goodnight.

GuitarGirl24