Once upon a time, there were four classic fairytale characters: Little Red Riding Hood, the Naked Emperor, Snow White and Jack, and they were a little pissed off. See, their glory days of fame and prestige had passed, and their iconic stardom in the land of Taleville had been aggressively usurped.
With no other choice but to use force to reclaim their status as renowned icons of the fantasy world, the fairytale foursome embark on a campaign of gratuitous violence that will have them hacking and slashing legions of cute animals and storybook characters into small, bloody pieces.
And that’s the gist Fairytale Fights, Playlogic’s bizarre re-imagining of some of the world’s most treasured childhood stories.
Fairytale Fights is a traditional hack-and-slash adventure game reminiscent of titles like Lego: Star Wars. You play as one of the four fairytale characters (three other games can hop in too for some co-op action) and progress through levels, beating the living crap out of everything with an arsenal of knives, clubs, muskets, etc.
There’s environmental hazards like giant saw blades to toss hapless foes into, and certain weapons will allow you to unleash a powerful special attack once you build up your combo meter. There’s also the periodic boss fight thrown in to break up the unchecked mayhem, but there really isn’t much more to Fairytale Fights beyond that.
You never have to adopt any sort of strategy in combat since you have infinite lives, and as a result, the gameplay can get a little redundant once the novelty of murdering adorable animals wears out. It’s still fun in a mindless button mashing sort of way, but it would have been nice to see a little more complexity in the gameplay to vary things up a bit.
To its credit, Fairytale Fights does offer an arena styled death match where you can fight it out with other players. However, it’s a pretty lackluster feature that feels more like an afterthought than anything else.
The real appeal of Fairytale Fights hinges almost exclusively on the shock factor and its morbid, charming sense of humor.
The gameplay is entertaining but shallow, but the perverse, twisted world that Playlogic has created is nothing short of brilliant. Characters are cuddly looking and levels are bright and colorful. This just makes the pleasure of running rampant and slashing things into bloody chunks as Little Red Riding Hood all the more visceral and disturbing but strangely rewarding.
For instance, one early achievement in the game is awarded to you for taking a carrot and brutally stabbing a nearby bunny to death with it. It’s dark, ironic humor at its best, and Fairytale Fights is full of hilarious moments like that.
Fairy tales are universal and full of innocence and magic. Destroying all that in Fairytale Fights is oddly fun. Whether its savagely defeating Hansel and Gretel, slaying a rampaging Pinocchio or finding out that the game actually credits you for spilling blood and turning it into a slip-and-slide, Fairytale Fights’ ability to combine childhood nostalgia with cuteness and extreme, gory violence is easily the game’s strongest asset.
The real problem with Fairytale Fights is its price tag. $60 is way too steep for a game so simplistic and repetitive. It’s definitely a step above the normal downloadable arcade games found on Xbox Live or PSN, but it’s still a far cry away from being able to compete against other full priced games. Unless you’ve already played all the other games that have come out so far this holiday season or have deep pockets, it’s hard to justify dropping $60 for what Fairytale Fights has to offer.
Final Verdict
Fairytale Fights is a fun, simple hack-and-slash game that benefits from its bloody violence and eccentric, tasteless humor. It may not be the most in-depth game ever developed, but if you run through it with a few other friends, it’s a very enjoyable game play experience. The only thing preventing Fairytale Fights from being a recommended purchase is its price tag.
If the price drops to $40 sometime over the next few months, it might be worth picking up. Until then, though, it’s a solid rental.
Final Grade: C
Fairytale Fights is developed and published by Playlogic. The version reviewed was for Xbox 360 and it is available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
