Fairytale stories usually start with a beautiful princess in distress and a handsome prince comes to save the day. The tried and true ending is "Happily Ever After" and everyone feels good about themselves. That is pretty much the opposite of how Fat Princess is structure. The story might start off with two pretty princesses but that is where the similarities end. Those princesses find a magical cake in the woods that sets off a flavor explosion on their taste buds. Turns out, the cake was thought to be cursed and it is the only thing the princesses want to eat. Said cake makes them grow to enormous proportions. The only thing to break the curse is a kiss from a fair prince. What do the kings do? Kidnap the other princess and lock her in the dungeon. A full scale war breaks out and the two kingdoms go to bloody war. Like one of the trophies proclaims, "the cake is not a lie."

Fat Princess might look like a top down isometric dungeon crawler with Wind Waker-style graphics, but it is more like a Team Fortress 2 game. The two teams are given a castle that houses the opposing princess and houses that grant your person the ability to specialize in a role. You can play as a warrior, archer, worker, priest or mage class. The worker can collect resources and upgrade the buildings to grant a class additional powers while the rest of the team is out slaughtering the other team. So there is a built in level of strategy in the very core of the game. All the maps are symmetrical but there are choke points and outposts to control as the tides of war ebb and flow. The visuals of the game are fairytale quality but they have a dark and disturbing twist with the buckets of blood and meaty bits that stain the ground. The capture the flag dynamics of any given battle can make the game last minutes or hours. The best part is that no matter how long the game lasts, you won't grow tired of the game.



You are able to start a battle with just a bunch of computer AI and have human players steadily replace them. Online is really where the action heats up. While the AI does a fairly good job at providing a challenge, nothing beats having a room full of real people hacking each other to bits. There are some class balancing issues that are present in the game and the option to create clans or party up is suspiciously missing. There was problem with connection but now that Fat Princess received a patch, it makes online games run smoothly.

Fat Princess is one of the defining games of the PSN. The style is outrageously cute and gory and the gameplay is simple enough that it is infectious to play. What brings the game together is the careful and smart level design that creates moments of unbridled chaos giving the 30 seconds of intense fun that is easily repeatable. It also easily features one of the best songs when the credits roll.