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.*

Designer Kristie Kelly and Disney will be announcing a brand new dress to add to the Disney Bridal collection. The dress in the picture is inspired by Giselle while the new dress is inspired by Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. The new collection will also include Snow White Diamond Edition gown, all new “Maidens” for bridesmaids, “Blossoms” for flower girls and a new line of jewelry.

The Princess Tiana gown has an ivory hue with a hand beaded rouched bodice of silk chiffon; a cascading pleated silk skirt and a waterfall train. The Snow White Diamond Edition gown is in conjunction with the release of the Blu-ray disc of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

“The Princess Tiana gown is a very special part of the Disney Princess collection,” said Kelly. “When I look at this gown I see a modern woman that is very comfortable with her own identity. The gown is designed for a bride with a modern sensibility and effortlessly exudes both romance and sultry flair.”

There aren’t any pictures out of the gowns yet, but continue to watch www.disneybridal.com.

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.

D23Expo

The D23 Expo invaded the Anaheim Convention Center from September 10 through the 13. The expo covered all things Disney and when Disney says that, they mean it. The coverage one would expect about upcoming additions to the theme parks to Bridal Gowns based on the Disney Princesses and everything in between. Each day of the conference featured different upcoming Disney Properties including Princess and the Frog, Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Toy Story. Disney also brought in star power. Members from Dancing with the Stars and other ABC properties showed up to meet with fans and sign autographs. But the big surprises were appearances from John Travolta, Milley Cyrus,Tim Burton, Nicholas Cage and everyone’s favorite pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

All day there were panels that were very interesting, if you could get into them. I attended the expo on Sunday the 13th and had anticipated attending four panels. I attended one. The panel I attended was the Pixar Imagineering panel which went over the details of Pixar inspired rides and attractions. Pixar believes in taking their IP and extending on it in the parks. No ride or attraction will be the same story as the film, but an extension of the story that allows one to feel like a part of the world. It is quite amazing to see what attractions they have inspired around the world. Tokyo Disney has a Monsters Factory that put you in the exact factory. California Adventures is getting Cars Land that is 3 acres of the Cars world.

One area of the expo floor showcased what technologies are coming to Disney theme parks and attractions. I met Otto, the talking robot that interacts with the crowd completely based on his Artificial Intelligence. I also met a real sized Wall-E and Lucky the dinosaur. On display was a model of what Cars Land will look like as well as a model for the new Mansion in Disney Hong Kong.

D23 Expo

Vinyls were huge at Disney Expo. I bought six Vinylmation Mickeys and am now addicted. I want the whole set! I also bought the special D23 Vinyl Mickey that one can only get at the event. In the slideshow below you can see pictures of many unique vinyls that were on display and for purchase.

D23 Expo

Speaking of Alice, I was then invited to a Tea Party. On display they had various hats and the fashion jewelry that was recently announced as part of the Alice in Wonderland Fashion line debuting next year. To be honest, the Mad Hatter freaked me out..but I guess that’s what he’s supposed to do.

I sat in on a talk with John Lasseter, chief creative director for a Q&A about Disney properties and where animation is going. First question out of the gate was about the recent acquisition of Marvel. Mr. Lasseter did not have anything to say about the acquisition or what we might expect to see in the future.

D23 Wedding

The sale will be October 22-25 at the following location:
Costco Wholesale
Westlake Village Location Only
5700 Lindero Canyon Road
Westlake Village, CA 91362

I spoke to another lady about planning a Disney fairytale wedding. They take care of everything but prepare to spend money! The cheapest package is a weekday wedding for around $17,000 and a more recent wedding was priced at $109,000. Definitely for the princesses that have some money to spend on their happy day.

My favorite part of the expo hall was the Art of Disney Princess exhibit. The art pictures are all in the slideshow and a book will be sold soon online and in stores. The fashion tops, scarfs and purses that were on display were so pretty! Those will actually be onsale in October at Vault 28 in Downtown Disney and Nordstroms. I recommend the Snow White tshirt. It’s beautiful.

A huge announcement made at D23 Expo was the announcement of the re-imagining of Star Tours 2.0 in 2011.

Here is a video of the movie announcements during D23:

Here are the pictures I took at the event (click on the picture to advance to the next one):

I do have a D23 bag to giveaway. Just comment below and I’ll randomly pick in the next few days!

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.