by Diosa HolmesWhat do you get when you combine Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Champions of Norrath, Herc’s Adventures, and Little Big Planet? Okay, so maybe that particular combination equates to something I have secretly yearned for on my wish list, but what better way can I describe the brilliant aspects Fun Bits Interactive incorporated that aligns with some of the top-rated re-playable games? Fat Princess Adventures looks to be a game that is easy to jump into, entertaining to play, and accessible for any skill level.
Let us back-track a bit and summarize the prequel, Fat Princess, developed by Titan Studios. In the Legend of the Fat Princess, two princesses were playing together in the Black Forest of Titania. They came across an enormous cake growing out of the ground, and before they knew it, one small taste became a frantic eating of an entire slice. Their fathers sent out search parties to retrieve them and were shocked to discover their daughters’ bellies full to the extent of explosion. The Kings, believing the cake to be cursed, forbid anyone from eating the cake again. Unfortunately, their daughters had an insatiable craving, so the Kings ordered their men to continue feeding the princesses more of the cursed cake. Months went by, and a message from Prince Albert alerted them of his up-coming visit to choose a bride, which would eventually break the curse with a kiss. With the threat of the Prince choosing one daughter over the other, both kingdoms kidnap each other’s princesses, in hopes of breaking the curse.
If you played Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake, developed by SuperVillain Studios, on the PSP, you will get a more in-depth story. In fact, the original version for PS3 was only 7 chapters long. Fistful of Cake was extended to 15 chapters, including a mission to the Great Oracle who, in turn, reveals how to break the curse. The soon-to-be released Fat Princess Adventures is about how the kingdoms from the first game join forces to battle the Bitter Queen and her army of Gobblings.
The background music is epic and classical with quality sound effects for metal to metal combat, magic explosions, and more. The giggling of characters and funny remarks of the voice-actors are crystal clear. The comments remind me of the humorous quips of Herc’s Adventures. The developer revels their great cast, including Tom Kane, who was the narrator in the original. Kane was the voice-actor as Quincy Sharp in all the Arkham games, but probably most known for his credits with Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Fun Bits Interactive captured the charm and style of the original game and upped the framerate to 60 fps, making the visuals look precise and distinct. Fonts were creative in the original game, but they were not as readable as Adventures. The developers added more effects, to give it a 3-dimensional perspective and a less “cartoony” look. The original game reminded me of playing the tiny unproportioned characters from the Legos games, but this current version brings a whole new charm. The characters are just outright fun to watch as they patter across the screen. The most noticeable visual for players is when a character extends into “chubby-mode”, he runs around half-naked. If you wanted to, you can even drop off all your armor and run around in your skivvies. One thing I hope the developers added to the game are intermittent movies that look like the animation in the official trailer.
Unlike its original 32-player prequel, Adventures is a co-op RPG action-adventure with up to four players. You can play online or offline, easily dropping in or out of the game. Differences between the original and the current one in development is that you can choose the personality type of the character, such as hero, emo, clown or evil genius. Doing so changes the lines in the script, making each experience with the characters fresh and amusing. The different characters interact and improvise off of each other, keeping the same humor and sauciness that players loved about the original, yet allowing new banter to drive the story. Instead of feeding the cake to the princess to prevent her from getting kidnapped like the original game, you consume the cake to heal. Too much cake makes you go into “chubby-mode” so that you can get the “smack-down” on the enemies. This time, the princess is part of the game, helping with the quests as a companion, but not as a playable character. You will have to save her at times, but she has the ability to fight with her rainbow magic. You also have the ability to go into Awesome Sauce mode (when your bar progresses to full violet) which allows you to have a greater boost, transforming “you into a cake-fueled engine of earth-shaking destruction” (Funbits). There is no Priest class in this version, since characters can heal themselves. If a fellow player’s character dies, he can be brought back by another player by standing next to him. If his life is not restored in time, he just gets warped to the next checkpoint, similar to Little Big Planet’s portals.
There are still different classes, starting with four: the engineer disarms traps and bombs, the mage uses magic from afar but perishes easily, the archer has range power, and the warrior pushes the enemies back with his shield-bashing. The type of play and weapons you choose changes up each character’s actions. The customization in this game is enticing. Between choosing your class and personality traits, you can also choose your skins or whether you would like to play as a male or female. There is also full customization of armor, hats, weapon-types and gear, as you level up your loot and your character. Changing your class can be done at check points, so if you did not like playing a mage, you can switch over to a warrior. Another favorable aspect is that you can have the same class as another player, so if you want to play with four archers, then go for it!
In Adventures, there is both competitive and cooperative aspects. Competitively, like Champions of Norrath, the gold you collect is not distributed throughout the entire party, so be aware when opening chests as one of the other players may snag your gold (sorry Baulder’s Gate fans!). You even get extra gold when you are the first to a checkpoint. You can use your gold to upgrade weapons and buy gear from vendors. The cooperative aspect is collecting gear which gets distributed throughout the whole party in multiplayer mode. When you get a helmet, so do each of your co-op players.
Overall, it sounds like Adventures has a lot of replay value. The dungeons change each time you play. Just on the story-base experience alone, developers estimate a 6-8 hour gameplay. The world of Fat Princess Adventures is larger than before, where you can explore locations like Pirate Caves, Salty Mountains, Lost Lake, Black Forest, the Mines of S’morsia, and more. I am really looking forward to some hack-and-slash Fat Princess Adventure action later this year.
Developer: Fun Bits Interactive in collaboration with Sony Santa Monica Studio
Systems: PS4
Release Date: TBA 2015
See it on YouTube:
Fat Princess Adventures | Official Announce Trailer | PS4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0NRjCkUmc
Fat Princess (PS3) GamePlay (2008)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMF4oD3E0_c
Stage Demo: Fat Princess Adventures – E3 2015
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZ2ps9u2PY
The Legend Of The Fat Princess (Full Story)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxWbOdrIwME
Fat Princess Adventures Gameplay Demo: IGN Live – E3 2015
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kto-gfUr9IM
Additional Resources
www.funbits.com/
fatprincess.wikia.com/wiki/Fat_Princess_Adventures
sms.playstation.com/fat-princess-adventures/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Princess