The more of Fat Princess I play, the more it slowly edges out every other downloadable game on my PS3 as the best game available. To put it simply, if you enjoy any kind of team based multiplayer game get Fat Princess now. While there is a single player component to the game, the heart and soul of it is in the multiplayer aspect of joining in with a team and trying to capture the other sides princess. It is so focused on this part of the game that the first option is to Play with others, where the second option is the single player game labeled Play with yourself. The whole motif of the game is very tongue-in-cheek humor as the story blatantly points out.
Once upon a time there lived two princesses in the land of Titania and they loved to play in the woods of the Black Forest. One day they found a random cake growing out of the ground... something that would have normally set off alarm bells in any normal persons head. But the intense yumminess of the cake made them keep eating it until they became, well as any patron of McDonalds would know, fat. So thats how it happened, strange cake in the forest. At least the people of Titania arent immune to cellulose.
The single player game slowly warms players up to all the different gameplay aspects of Fat Princess. Each chapter of the story takes players through different game modes, and different maps. I highly recommend playing with yourself before jumping into the real meat of the game online. There are a lot of little nuances to the game that may not be picked up if you charge straight into multiplayer.
There are five main classes for players to choose from, but unlike other games with multiple player roles, Fat Princess allows you to change your role on the fly, even in the middle of combat. Roles are given based on what type of hat you wear (making an old metaphor literal): workers gather resources, mages fire ranged damage and area of effect spells, rangers use bows and guns, the warrior gets up close and personal, and the priest obviously heals. Hats can either be collected from the hat machines in the base, or from fallen enemies on the battlefield.
All classes have a base mode and upgraded mode. For example, the mage starts as just a fire mage and upgrades to an ice mage that can slow other players movement. While the upgrades are necessary to have a better arsenal, they arent mandatory. One of my favorite classes to play is the priest, which starts out being able to heal and upgrade to be able to steal life. While stealing life makes you a more viable combat option, a healer will be needed in every fight.
Each class has a unique role to fill that is vital for success, and there are many ways to use them to win the game. Winning is only half the fun though, just playing Fat Princess is a fantastic experience in itself. The mechanics and controls are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play it, yet the strategy and teamwork is deep enough to keep players coming back for endless hours.
As players delve into the multiplayer aspect they will gain ranks and unlockable options to get fabulous with. Some of the more interesting and creative character options will take quite a while to unlock, and are completely worth it. Hairstyles like purple spiked mohawks and cornrows with wicked beards dont come easy, you know. They add just the right spice to online play that fits perfectly with the over the top violence and comic mischief that Fat Princess already has.
score 9.0 out of ten
verdict Either single player or online, Fat Princess delivers excellence in every way. The single player is quite short and should be looked at more like a tutorial for the very deep multiplayer aspect. If there were one thing Id like to see added to Fat Princess it would be split-screen local multiplayer, other than that I cant complain.
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