It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from the Fat Princess franchise. The original game, a blend of single- or multiplayer action and strategy, debuted on the PS4 back in 2009. Things went quiet after that until its sequel, Fat Princess Adventures, was announced and quickly released all within December 2015. Departing from its more strategic roots, Fat Princess Adventures takes an action-RPG focus, bringing mechanics not out of place in a dungeon crawler and blending them its signature brand of humour.
Fat Princess Adventures doesn’t waste time with the jokes either. Right from the character screen, you can start customising and tweaking them to your hearts content by hitting the “Get Fabulous” button. From there, you can dress your avatar up from hair to any bling you think makes the cut. The vast majority of these cosmetic items are named after food, fittingly enough.
You also get the opportunity to pick a personality for your character which denotes their mannerisms, posing and speech patterns. You can slide the bar from standard hero all the way down the line to mad scientist and everywhere in between. This will allow you to fill the four available character slots with unique avatars that are easy to tell apart.
Fat Princess Adventures ups the ante on its predecessor’s bright and adorable art style, so squeaky clean and family friendly it could give Nintendo a run for its money, were it not for the Kill Bill-esque level of cartoon violence when cutting down your enemies. Levels are filled with well-designed, explorable areas that reflect the game’s fairly casual nature. They’re also quite unique and it keeps longer sessions from ever feeling stale. You’re always being whisked away to the next location, new and different from the last.
For those who still obsess over Diablo 2 or demand an impossible challenge from their dungeon crawlers, Fat Princess Adventures will likely leave them wanting. Fat Princess Adventures is aimed squarely at casual players uninterested in loot grind or a life on the old XP treadmill. It’s happy to let you bat your enemies around and, while that means there isn’t a whole lot to combat per se, it does lend a certain old-school flavour to the proceedings. Because there are only two buttons that do anything – attack and jump – it feels more like button bash than button mash. You’re also allowed to jump between the game’s four combat classes – warrior, mage, archer and engineer – rather often which gives the proceedings a little spice.
In terms of story, things are again a bit on the anaemic side. It resumes at the conclusion of the war we saw in the original Fat Princess with the two kingdoms uniting to become Great Bitten. This kicks off a fairly by-the-numbers “save the princess” damsel-in-distress story. The weak plot is saved by the game’s snarky British narrator who squeezes in enough food puns and snark to keep you from thinking too hard about it. He also has a go at you if you leave the game paused for too long which is a nice touch. There are a few jokes that fall flat, trying too hard to replicate Family Guy-esque pop culture references, but I will admit that this is one of the few games where Portal’s now-tortured “the cake is a lie” joke works.
The real drawcard here however is the co-operative play. You can jump in with three friends and tear through the game’s various levels in drop-in, drop-out online co-op or single-screen couch co-op. You can also combine the two modes and have two on the couch and two online if you like. Or you can just play on your own if you’d prefer to solo the campaign.
This is a fun, if uncomplicated, way to kill a few hours. It certainly isn’t breaking any ground in terms of story or gameplay but the multiplayer is engaging, the presentation is interesting and the design is surprisingly solid. It’s the perfect party title and will likely be a hoot with friends after a drink or two. It’s also simple enough to entertain relatives over the holidays who may not have much of an interest in gaming.
Review Score: 6.5 out of 10
Highlights: Uncomplicated fun; Couch co-op
Lowlights: May not present enough of a challenge
Developer: Fun Bits Interactive
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: December 5, 2015
Platform: PlayStation 4
Reviewed on PlayStation 4
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