Fairytale Fights Review

Fairytale Fights: there’s so much you could say about it, but so much should be left out. Here we have a game from Playlogic Game Factory, which tasks you with taking one of four classic fairytale characters (Little Red Riding Hood, The Naked Emperor, Jack (of beanstalk fame) or Snow White and restoring them to their former glory.

The general idea here, is that all four characters have became old news, so they are on a quest to do ‘good’ deeds to restore their fame – this includes chopping lumberjacks in half and chasing after the Three Bears’ porridge kettle.

Fairytale Fights is a hack’n’slash game, meaning all there is to do is kill people and viscerally take them apart. One of the games most touted features is ‘volumetric blood’, and you will see loads of it. The good old claret seeps out from everywhere, on everyone and you are given trophies and achievements for sliding through a certain amount of blood and spilling enough of it. This game may be based around the fairytales we all grew up with, but it’s all about the violence. 

Upon first playing it, I was loving it. There was blood pouring everywhere, and I was able to slide around in it and kill lumberjacks with nothing but a carrot as a weapon – however, the thrill did wear off when I started to see some of the games more pressing problems.

As a hack’n’slash, all you need is an attack button, block button and maybe a jump button – Fairytale Fights has two out of three.  Block has its own button, as does jump, but to attack, you push the right analogue stick in the desired direction and the attack should be focused that way; problem is, you’ll often-time find yourself slashing away at nothing while you yourself get butchered. Sloppy attack mechanics aren’t good in a game about killing.

I was also rather disappointed with my first boss encounter – a rather large beaver, which had to be killed. Problem is; this took much longer than it should have and was a fairly monotonous task. The boss battles do go on, and you’ll find yourself getting bored of it by mid-battle most times. The game’s humour shows through during the cut-scenes but is diminished by the repetition that follows, unfortunately.

The game’s single biggest problem though, is its camera work. The camera is set so far away from the action that you’ll struggle to make out what’s going on most times. All the blood is great, but it’s no good if you can’t see what’s shedding it. When you get those particularly nasty kills, though, such as an enemy being sliced clean in half by a cleaver, you’ll get a nice zoom-in, 24-style split screen to see it in more detail, which is a nice touch.

Now all these criticisms draw much of the fun out of the game, so much so that I was unable to complete the game without enlisting the help of a friend. I took the game around a mate’s house and we played through the entire story mode together, which was more fun. The same problems stand, but it’s a lot more fun to have someone to play through the game with and appreciate the jokes and humour with you.

Being able to play through the story mode with another player is one of the game’s best features, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.  The game prides itself on its humour but some of the jokes fall tremendously flat, leaving you wondering why you’re bothering when one of the games main draws isn’t up to par. Some things in the game are truly giggle-worthy, such as the big bad wolf getting ready to blow the house down as one of the little pig’s jumps out the door in slow-mo, Max Payne style and blasts the wolf with a shotgun.

Unfortunately though, the humour isn’t always spot on, or even close in some cases. Together with the bad camera, the annoying combat and overlong boss encounters makes the game a chore to play through.

This is a game which starts off well, but you soon realise that its only down to the amount of blood you’re seeing whenever you so much as point a finger at your next victim. This quickly wears off when you see the many flaws the game actually has, which is an unfortunate shame as it’s a great premise that hasn’t been explored much in the past.

One to maybe rent to see what you think, or at the very least - if you know you will enjoy it no matter what - play through it with someone else; though I suspect that’ll apply to very few people. A potentially fantastic little hack’n’slash platformer ruined by awkward camera work, bad fighting controls and not enough good humour.