It's one thing to save a princess from the clutches of evil, but how can you hope to save one from herself? In Fat Princess, the queen-in-waiting cannot control her own insatiable appetite, putting untold pressure on the fine stitching that valiantly holds her poor dress onto her ever-expanding body. The original was released last fall for the PlayStation 3, and though the PSP rendition contains the same catapult-slinging, axe-wielding hijinks, it cannot match the level of unbridled fun that made its predecessor so difficult to put down. Your AI allies and foes are still hopelessly incompetent, but you're unfortunately stuck with at least eight in your match if you want to play with a full team on both sides. Furthermore, because voice chat is not an option, it's difficult to work as a cohesive team while online. Local matches are still good fun, but the forgettable single-player campaign and silent online battles strip much of the appeal from Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake.
6259144What does the grim reaper do with all those souls anyway?None
Fistful of Cake is a team-based competition that pits two willing armies of the king's men against each other. Matches can be as big as eight versus eight and as small as one versus one, with blundering bots filling out teams when there aren't enough players to go around. There are two capture-the-flag match types in which you must steal the princess from your opponent's stronghold, and these serve as the most chaotic and entertaining portions of the game. Cramming cake into the mouth of your princess makes her fatter and subsequently more difficult to steal. This makes for ridiculous matches in which teams are constantly alternating between feeding their own prisoner, slaying enemies, and trying to steal the other team's royalty. Aside from capture-the-princess, the deathmatch and capture-the-outpost modes from the PS3 original return. New in Fistful of Cake are modes in which you must capture jails, bomb the enemy's throne, or don a grim reaper mask and go on a killing spree. None of these new additions can match the joy of stealing an obese princess, making them little more than diversions from the main course.
The single-player campaign is an extended tutorial that runs you through the various skills and objectives you must master for competitive matches. There are six separate classes in Fistful of Cake, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The villager has little health and no weapon, but he is incredibly fast, as well as capable of knocking items from an opponent's hand. The worker wields an axe that is ideal for harvesting resources but is also good for cutting down the other team in a pinch. As the warrior, you must get up close and personal in battle, going toe-to-toe with your shining sword. There are support classes as well. The life-giving priest, fire-spewing mage, and arrow-shooting ranger aren't very useful on their own, but when teamed up with a blood-thirsty warrior, they can swing battle in their favor. All of these classes (except for the villager) can be upgraded by harvesting resources, which gives them a secondary ability that makes them even more useful in your quest to one-up the other team.
