By Ned Jordan

Fairytale Fights sounds like it has a great idea for a novel game. Take the traditional platform game setting of a brightly colored happy land, build it with the Unreal engine, and throw in a huge variety weapons and buckets of blood - Little Red Riding Hood doesn't hop on things' heads, she eviscerates her enemies. Sounds interesting, yes, actually is interesting, no. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no...

Fairytale Fights begins in Taleville, a small little village that serves as the game's hub. Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, the Naked Emperor, and Jack the Giant Killer are feeling a little neglected and that their fame has passed them by, so when a magic kettle is stolen and taken into various storybook lands, they decide to get it back and once again be the star of the story. You can play as any of these characters, but you shouldn't spend any time on your decision because it really doesn't matter which one you choose. Each character plays in the exact same way and is pretty much devoid of personality - you're selecting a skin more than you're selecting a character. Besides, you can switch between characters freely any time you're in Taleville, so it really, really doesn't matter.

Your first few minutes with the game will be enjoyable for the novelty of it all. You'll quickly meet your first enemies and use the right stick to deliver blows at different angles. You'll soon get your hands on your first weapon and as you use it to strike your enemies you'll see copious amounts of blood spurt forth from the wounds you inflict. Death blows are made more vivid by a pop-up window which gives you a close-up view of the strike and shows its effect be it dismemberment, beheading, or a full out cleaving in two. As the blood and body parts spill across the ground you'll be able to slide across the muck as if you were skating, traveling quickly across the screen in bloody style. It's all so absurd and over the top that it's humorous … at least for the first five minutes.

There's a lot that's wrong with Fairytale Fights as a game and it doesn't take long for the flaws to start slicing and dicing all of the fun out of the experience. The first problem is with the levels which feature long stretches of seemingly endless fights against similar attackers. The levels are simply way too long, and go on and on while delivering more of the same. Every time you get to the end of a stretch you'll find yourself hoping that you've reached the end … and will feel a twinge of disappoint when you find that there's more to a level. No, this is not the sign of good game design. And when you finally reach the level's boss you'll find that the game's boss battles are long, repetitive, and tedious as well, not too mention that some of them are ridiculously hard in a poorly designed, stack the deck against the player kind of way.

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