Fat Princess
Once upon a time; in a land far far away, two princesses went out into the woods and stumbled upon an endless supply of cake growing out of the ground. I shit you not. This stirred things up a bit and now mighty empires consisting of workers, soldiers, archers, wizards and priests are locked in a bloody, ruthless battle revolving around abduction and over indulgence.
Now that the stage setting has been laid out, let's get into it shall we? Fat Princess is a pretty cool game I must say. Flashes of RTS, Co-Operative strategies and bloody cartoon goodness comprise this PSN exclusive download only title. It's fast paced, hectic and a tit load of fun. Useless nobodies appear magically at a consistent rate that don't do very much at first but bitch slap and run around. This is when you take a stroll on over to a hat machine and choose your destiny. It will more than likely be short-lived but for that glorious time you can defend your chubby princess to the death by putting on your warrior, ranger, priest, mage, or worker hat.
There are a few different game modes including Snatch 'n Grab (capture the flag style) Team Deathmatch and Invasion. Snatch 'n Grab involves your team capturing the opposing teams princess. This is the only real time the title of the game applies. A good strategy is to load your own princess up with cake so that the other team is slowed down significantly when carrying them back to their stronghold. Deathmatch is a complete slaughter house where you must kill every enemy to win the game. Invasion consists of capturing outposts by standing next to them for a certain amount of time. These game types are challenging and require a group of synchronized players working towards the same goal. If you can't keep up and get things organized, there's a good chance your team will lose. You can play through all the crazyness with your own objectives in mind but it's always a smart idea to move in packs.
You upgrade your characters abilities by collecting resources such as metals and wood which are put towards hat machine upgrades. Once the hat machines are upgraded, stronger weapons and special abilities become available. It's a tried and true RTS element that we've all seen before. It's a lot of fun to try on all the different hats once you spawn after dying (and trust me, you will be dying...often) and ensures that you're not stuck playing as the same character throughout the match.
Fat Princess looks great as well. The games cartoonie cell shaded style contrasts wonderfully with the blood gore spread around the battle field. Characters look good, animations are smooth and even though there's so much going on, you can't help but notice the beautiful colours and art work. The music is reminiscent of some mid-evil fairytale tunes and adds a nice touch as well. The presentation throughout the game is top notch. All menus follow with the style of the game and some of the options or titles are pretty funny. The game is chock full of humour and is always keeping you entertained.
Online play at times can be a little choppy unfortunately. This is mainly due to the fact that 32 people can play simultaneously and you have no idea who's playing with a crappy connection. There's a second or two of lag that occurs when a lot is going on at times but it's never really terribly bad.
The single player mode will introduce you to the game play mechanics and strategies involved in wining particular matches. You should be able to breeze through it in an hour or so and you'll get a shiny bronze trophy for your efforts. If you're a fan of co-op, online RTS and hack 'n slash games this one is a no brainer. For $15 it's worth your hard earned cash and will provide tons (pun yo, best believe) of online fun.
