Fat Princess Review

The video games industry has become a huge business over the years, and as such, less and less risks can be taken. However, should risks succeed, the rewards are generally much greater and with that in mind, Titan Studios set out to make a rather quirky and comical game called Fat Princess.

As the name implies, the game centres around a Fat Princess, although things weren't always this way. In a fantasy world, there were two kingdoms that lived peacefully until one fateful day. The princesses from each kingdom met in the forest and stumbled across a large cake, which they proceeded to feast upon. However, they became addicted to its incredible taste and continued to eat the cake, day after day. It was believed though, that a kiss from a prince would remove the curse of the cake and the story revolves around trying to manipulate affairs so that the princess from the player's kingdom is picked by the prince. Each level in the story is prefaced by a few drawings and a summation of the story that is provided by a strictly English narrator. It all seems rather absurd and that's exactly what the developers were going for as it helps to distinguish Fat Princess from the deluge of other titles available on the market.

There are seven levels available to play in the Story Mode and they help to introduce the various game modes that are on offer. The first few levels ease the player in slowly, before the difficult ramps up and it becomes a lot more tactical. On each level in the Story Mode, the player is assisted by another 15 AI controlled players, which helps to simulate a real battle. With 16 players on the opposing team, it's easy to see how things can get quite hectic. This is where one of the few downsides to Fat Princess can be found though, as the AI isn't exactly spectacular - especially on the capturing missions. It seems as though if the AI was left to its own devices, the game would actually last forever and it's sometimes frustrating to feel that the AI isn't actually attempting to aid any attempts to complete the level. Fortunately the difficulty is such that completing the objectives almost single-handedly is achievable.

To achieve the objectives there are numerous classes at a player's disposal. The Worker class forms the foundation of the game, as they are used to collect resources. These are required to upgrade a player's castle, allowing for building defences, upgrading classes and building offensive devices. Without Workers, one side can easily find themselves fighting an uneven battle and it brings about an interesting dynamic, especially online. The other classes offer a mixture of playing styles, with melee combat, healing, and ranged attacks all catered for. Each class can also be upgraded once by spending resources appropriately, which unlocks a slightly different way to use the same class. The actual attacking is fairly straight forward, each class has a normal attack and a charge attack, with L1 allowing players to lock on to a specific target. It's effective and gets the job done.