Titan Studios’ Fat Princess certainly has a hysterical premise. It’s a team-deathmatch game that features cartoonish visuals, tons of gore, multiple classes and upgrades. Did I mention the whole feeding the princess cake makes her enormous and hard to move? The game’s concept, visuals, and overall feel are instantly appealing, but Fat Princesses tend to stumble due to their weight and there are certainly some stumbling blocks that the game must overcome.

When the game first came out it was utterly unplayable online. It had horrendous lag and matches were incredibly unstable resulting in constant restarts, searches, and utter frustration. The game has a single player game, but it is basically just a quick intro to the multiplayer modes with a nice storybook presentation to tie it all together. Fat Princess is all about 32 player strategic deathmatch action and it stumbled out of the gate with a terrible online experience. It’s slowly improved, but is still a blemish.

The gameplay of Fat Princess is sort of like the Legend of Zelda; you control a medieval type hero in a cartoon world from a top-down perspective. Like Zelda, tapping the attack button will quickly slash your sword while holding and releasing will unleash a stronger spinning attack – that is of course if you are playing as the warrior. Princess has 5 upgradeable classes which is what really contributes to the game’s addiction since you can swap hats at any time during a match and start playing the game from a different angle. Tired of walking around slashing at enemies? Simply, grab a worker’s hat and start chopping down trees and collecting resources. If you get bored of that, grab an archers hat and start shooting at enemies from a distance. Upgrading these classes gives the player even more options. Archers become Rangers and gain musket-type shotguns, but Fat Princess is all about player choices. When you upgrade a class, you can switch between the two weapons/abilities at your own leisure. It’s almost like each class becomes a 2-in-1 deal.

The class system is by far the most interesting thing about Fat Princess, but the visual style and Fat Princesses themselves are certainly delightful as well. The cartoon characters and over the top gore all contribute to the game’s uniqueness, but nothing quite tops a cutesy princess exclaiming, “More cakey please.” The contrast between the cutesy presentation and over the top violence certainly kept me smiling and slashing away.

For the most part, each map in FP offers a different experience, but ultimately I could’ve used a few more levels and a little more variety – perhaps with ongoing support, FP can get some new maps and play mechanics that keep the cake coming. There’s a good amount of game modes and it’s nice that defensive and offensive players are equally rewarded with points. It’s a shame that Playstation owners aren’t as talkative as Xbox owners, since a coordinated team can dominate in FP. That fact speaks to this game’s relatively deep strategy and team-dependent gameplay. Fat Princess consistently delivers on its comical juxtapositions, but it’s solid core gameplay is plagued by some glitches and lag. With some ongoing support and a little more variety, Fat Princess could be one of the best multiplayer games on PSN.

]]> http://www.indiegamemag.com/fat-princess-review/feed/ 0 http://www.indiegamemag.com/gsbpreview/ http://www.indiegamemag.com/gsbpreview/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:32:08 +0000 Mike Gnade http://www.indiegamemag.com/?p=1749

Gratuitous Space Battles by Positech Games is OUT NOW!

If Ascendancy, Starcom II, Dune II, Starcraft and Command & Conquer mean anything to you, then Gratuitous Space Battles (GSB) from Positech Games is probably a game to start getting excited about. GSB, like Positech’s other offerings, is a deeply strategic game about space ships blowing each other to bits. The gameplay focuses on designing ships, created their formations, giving them orders, and then watching the battle ensue with plenty of eye candy.

Action fanatics will love watching the visceral battles, but may be a little miffed that they cannot make any real time decisions, but strategy fans will quickly become deeply involved in tweaking every aspect of their ship and formation to earn more honor and unlock new ship parts.

The first attempt at defeating an enemy is usually a crapshoot since you only know the enemy’s formation and ship types – not their weapons and defensive abilities. This is where the strategy really comes in; watching a space battle is not just about the explosions and special effects show, it is important that player’s pay attention and learn from everything that is going on. Figuring out why you’re getting your ass kicked is crucial to altering your strategy so that you get a victorious outcome.

The game is definitely one to check out. If you don’t have total ADD, you’ll quickly become engaged in one of the game’s aspects. The game is already highly polished and balanced in beta form and well worth the admission price. I cannot express how thoroughly impressed I am with the battle sequences, they are simply riveting and remind me of something out of Battlestar Galactica (the new one not the old one) or the new Star Trek movie. Strategy games aren’t my thing, but I enjoyed designing some badass ships and plodded through setting up my ship formations in order to see shit blow up. Trial and Error has never been this much fun.

GSB goes on sale today for $22.99.

]]> http://www.indiegamemag.com/gsbpreview/feed/ 0 http://www.indiegamemag.com/game-3-by-the-behemoth/ http://www.indiegamemag.com/game-3-by-the-behemoth/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:15:50 +0000 Mike Gnade http://www.indiegamemag.com/?p=1150

The Behemoth has revealed more about it’s 3rd Game in this development video. It looks like Game #3 is going to be a collection of competitive platforming game types. The video shows off the “soul” mode and the highly customizable weapons and characters. The game certainly isn’t grabbing me as much as Castle Crashers initially did, but it’s still early and let’s be honest the behemOth hasn’t had a bad game yet.

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