ESRB: M for Mature
Genre: Adventure Hack & Slash
Number of Players: One to Four
Developer: Playlogic
Release Date: Oct 27, 2009

Buy/Rent

Buy it for the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 on Amazon.com

These are not your childhood fairytale stories!

In an attempt to regain their popularity, you and up to four friends can star as Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Naked Emperor or Jack (of the Beanstalk variety) in a hack and slash adventure where no creature is safe.

You will start your journey in Taleville, a peaceful village where the rhythmic slaughtering of fluffy pink bunnies is normal. You can view your main statistics from this page, see how many types of weapons you’ve used in battle, and build an idol of yourself for everyone to worship. Sadly you cannot interact with any of the villagers; Taleville being the only place where violence towards others is forbidden. Here you will also choose to play Quest or Arena modes and have other players join you in battle.

Knock your enemies into spinning blades and off bridges to their doooooom!

Our first task in Fairytale Fights is to find out what happened to the Kettle belonging to the Three Bears. It’s been stolen, and if we want to become famous again, we are going to get it back. The first four chapters of the game have us exploring the Lumberjack’s forest, and man, these are some vile lumberjacks. To defeat them, we must be very aware of our surroundings, as they are several different types of weapons to find either lying on the ground (such as twigs or lumberjack axes) or inside chests. Chests also contain jewels, which you will slowly lose the more you need to be revived. Bringing jewels back to the village with you is great since you need to pimp out that statue. Also, be on the lookout for Wishing Wells, as spending some coin on them will provide you with weapons, sometimes of the rare variety.

The Naked Emperor does a Glory Attack

Attacking the enemy is easy enough when all is said and done. Using the right analog stick, make sure you are facing the enemy you wish to slice to pieces and rotate in various directions. The higher the combo, the greater the rewards. If you are holding certain weapons, you can also pull off a Glory Attack. For this, your combo meter must be flashing gold. With the right weapon in hand, say a slicing weapon, activating the Glory Attack will let you control exactly how you want to chop up your opponent.

When playing Quest Mode with friends, you can either have Friendly Fire on or off. Turning Friendly Fire on allows you to beat up your teammates as well, stealing their coins and weapons. Trust me, there are plenty of times when you might want to steal the weapon your friend is using. Especially when you are stuck with the squeaky Toy Bunny!

Snow White needs her meds

In addition to the slicing and dicing aspects of the game, there are also levers and apparatuses that come into play. This is where my biggest gripe with the game comes in. In certain instances, the camera angles make it impossible to see what you are doing, either they are zoomed way too far out or they are on such bad tilts that you cannot see what it is you need to do. When playing with others, if one player crosses a platform before another, it will sometimes make it near impossible for the other to even see themselves on the screen. I had this issue a couple times with the ferris wheel like platforms. I would let the other player get across first, which made the camera zoom out more to make sure he was still on the screen.

Arena Mode throws you and your friends into an arena where you will battle it out, blood a flying! This mode can be accessed locally or over Xbox Live. You can create timed matches and set the points values for winning each round. There are several achievements to be had in this mode.

Bumming around in Taleville for 15 minutes unlocks an achievement

I do love that so many of the classic fairytale characters make appearances in this game. Goldilocks looks and acts like a drug addict looking for her next porridge fix, there are Gingerbread Men, the Pied Piper, and the Mirror on the Wall is the tour guide for the game. Playlogic also did a wonderful job bringing the locations to life. Everything is wonderfully cartoonish and cutesy, which makes the bloody mayhem of the game that much more enjoyable.

When all is said and done, Fairytale Fights is a great game to pick up and play for a chapter or two. Just like any game of this nature, I tend to get a bit frustrated at certain points, mostly with the boss battles as it took a couple minutes for me to figure out the patterns or what I was supposed to do. This is definitely a game you want to play with other people. While it is fun by yourself, playing with friends really adds to the experience. As well as helps out when you are taking down bosses.

Overall Opinion:

Would I buy Fairytale Fights? In a heartbeat! Then why do I have both Buy and Rent for my rating? Well, I can see how some people would blast through the Quest Mode in a day or so and never utilize any of the multiplayer options. Also, its just better with friends, so if you don’t have any friends, a rental is probably all you’ll ever need for the game. Since I have someone to play Coop with me, purchasing the game is of greater benefit. And despite my issues with the camera angles, I really do love the game play. Would I ever let a little kid near this game? Most definitely not! The M rating is important to keep in mind. There is blood everywhere, and the fact that there are achievements for spilling blood and sliding around in it should suggest that its not really something children should be playing.

*Review product was provided by Playlogic, and does not affect the outcome of this review.*