ESRB:

RENT

Virtually every family based movie these days gets a movie tie in game to go along with it. Usually these games are not very exciting and kids bore easily. While I cannot compare how closely this game matches the story of the movie, I can tell you about my experience with Tom, Jake and Hannah and the creatures that took over the house.

The game begins with Tom, Jake and Hannah going up to the attic to fix a broken satellite dish. Suddenly they are being attacked by small robotic creatures. From the attic the threesome must work together to get out of the attic and make their way back into the house and save the adults who are under control of aliens.

Tom and Jake are capable of wielding weapons, while Hannah is good for reaching hard to get places by either crawling or double jumping. The boys can hold up to two weapons as well as throw grenades. Household items can be found throughout the house (usually once you rescue an adult) and are used to upgrade your weapons.

Like any level based adventure game, you are going to find yourself blasting through each level until you reach that level’s boss Alien. Health and grenade pick ups are randomly placed throughout, as well as screws which assist with upgrading your weapons. Giant Question Marks can be spotted when there is a new skill or information the game needs to give you. Some boxes can be moved or destroyed, there are moving platforms and collapsing floors to deal with as well.

The neatest but also most frustrating part of the game is using the touch screen to aim your weapons more accurately. By touching your stylus to the targeting circle, you can drag it in the direction you want to shoot which is the best way to take down flying targets and aim for vulnerable spots on the bosses. While I liked this feature, I found it a bit awkward to move my character while doing this, so I reserved using the touch screen for enemies I could battle while not having to move.

The game is pretty straight forward: destroy the enemies, get to level boss, fight, repeat. Kids who were fans of the movie will most likely enjoy the game at least long enough to play it through once, but since you do not have as many character options as the console versions, there is little replay value.

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

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.*

This game is two-player co-op and I was informed before starting that this game had friendly fire so we could actually attack each other. So I grabbed a friend and started playing in the fairytale world. The game will have four players and four characters. Two were available for the demo those two characters were Little Red Riding Hood and The Naked Emperor but I was informed that Snow White and Jack form Jack in the Beanstalk will be joining the cast. I was then informed about the blood content in this game and let to roam the world freely.
The game is an interesting mix of the platformer and fighter genres it is also not a button masher but instead an analog masher. The analog stick is used for attacking and the right bumper is used to pick up (sometimes throw weapons if you want to be creative) and of course the A button to The game progresses kind of like a side scroller and when enemies pop out it becomes an all out brawl. Every so often chests appear and when those are beaten up weapons come out and that is when the game becomes that much more fun.

The game was created using the Unreal Engine and it looks nothing like it. The game is completely original and it pushes the limits of what I thought previous technology could do. I was also informed that the game has a Biometrical Liquid System which means blood actually coagulates like it does in real life. Blood becomes slippery and has realistic properties. It also has Dynamic Slicing which makes all slicing absolutely realistic and fun. We were while playing actually able to find a glitch in that mechanism while playing the game. An enemy threw an ax at my friend’s character and it got stuck on the character messing up the whole walking and control, but still it was great and I loved playing (and QA testing apparently).

This game took a lot of time and effort to complete and it looks like it’s going to pay off. I must say I think I’ve finally found a game on the 360 that I will enjoy playing over and over. I can’t wait until the game is released on October 29, 2009.

Editor’s Note: You can read Cherith’s First Look at Fairytale Fights from E3 here.  We’re including this new article to answer some more questions that weren’t available this summer.

Fairytale Fights

Playlogic has added two new characters to Fairytale Fights which will be launching later this year. Previously we met Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White. Now we’ll meet The Naked Emperor and Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.

The Naked Emperor is dressed in his birthday suit but thankfully doesn’t reveal too much. Jack is a young boy that has beans to swap.

“Fairytale Fights is the creative brainchild of our talented development team at Playlogic Game Factory and that’s why we wanted it to be the first next-gen title that Playlogic builds in-house from the ground up,” said Rogier Smit, executive vice president for Playlogic. “The game combines a truly unique storyline and fantasy environment with simple intuitive controls to offer players a whole new level of bloody slice-and-dice gaming.”

Here is the latest trailer:

Fairytale Fights

Playfirst has sent us the latest trailer from Fairytale Fights. In the trailer you can see Little Red Riding Hood’s mad chainsaw skills, how much Snow White loves axes, and quite a bit of blood.

You can read what Cherith thought about the title during her E3 first look here.

Fairytale Fights is a hack ‘n slash adventure game where the violence is real, and the blood stays on screen.  What I think I loved most about this over-the-top game is the picture-in-picture view of your recent kills where you can see exactly where your blows landed, and which limb (or half of the body) you sliced off your enemies.  Because of the way the game is controlled, you can manage your violence in the way you see fit – choosing to lop off apendages or slicing down the middle, or some mix-and-match of all the options.  The volumetric liquid system built into the game also means that not only will the blood stay on screen, it has realistic properties so that it’ll stick to you, your weapon, the surroundings and if you get too much in one spot on the ground, that area will become super slippery.

During the demo, I asked one of the developers who the other fairytale characters would be (since they’ve only released two out of the four so far) but they’re not telling.  I’m looking forward to the surprise.  Fairytale Fights is due out this fall on both the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Obscure: The Aftermath, the sequel to 2005’s acclaimed survival horror game Obscure, picks up two years after the terrible events at Leafmore High. The kids start college at Fallcreek University , but soon discover all is not well as strange black flowers appear all over campus. After some experimenting with the flowers goes wrong, the survivors are left with vivid dreams, which begin to manifest themselves in reality.

You will be able to play as one of six characters, each with their own unique skills. There will be an interesting co-op mode where a second player can join in and drop out at any time. The soundtrack will be performed by the Boston String Quartet and the Paris Opera’s Children’s choir.

“We are thrilled that this critically acclaimed title will be available for the PSPgo when the system makes it debut,” said Rogier Smit, Executive Vice President of Playlogic. “Our talented team has crafted the game to fit the unique co-op capabilities and controls of the PSPgo while also maintaining the exciting gameplay and stunning graphics featured in the original console versions.”