Fat Princess

Fat Princess
Fat Princess logo.
Developer(s)	Titan Studios Atomic Operations SuperVillain Studios (PSP)
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Engine	Quark Engine (in-house)
Version	2.00
Platform(s)	PlayStation Network, PlayStation Portable
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3 AUS July 30, 2009 EU July 30, 2009 NA July 30, 2009 PlayStation Portable AUS March 11, 2010 EU March 12, 2010 NA May 4, 2010
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single-player, multi-player, Online multi-player
Rating(s)	ACB: M ESRB: T
Media/distribution	Download, UMD

Fat Princess is a downloadable video game for the PlayStation Network made by Titan Studios and sold by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in North America and Europe on July 30, 2009, and in Japan on December 25, 2009. PSP version called Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake was released in 2010.

Fat Princess is primarily a multiplayer game for up to 32 players, with the basic goal of rescuing the Princess and bringing her back to the team's base. The players pick up and carry cakes to feed the Princess, which makes her heavier and harder for the enemy to carry back to their own castle. The game contains six character classes (Villager, Worker, Priest, Ranger, Mage, and Warrior) and three downloadable classes (Pirate, Ninja and Giant) each of which contributes to the team's task of capturing the princess in a unique way.

Gameplay

Feeding the enemy princess pieces of cake makes her harder to carry.

In Fat Princess, the player joins one of two opposing groups consisting of up to 16 characters each, with the goal of rescuing their team's princess from the other team's castle which is called "Rescue the Princess". To make their opponents' task more difficult, players can feed the captive princess cake slices. With each slice, she becomes heavier and harder to carry back to her respective castle. Over time, the effect of the cake wears off.

Players can change their character classes and abilities by picking up hats that are generated at their team's castle. Hats can also be found on the warzone where enemies have fallen. The game's six classes are the villager, priest, mage, warrior, ranger, and worker with three additional classes (pirate, ninja and giant) unlocked from DLC. Each class has its own unique set of abilities and skills. Each class life is measured by hearts: Villager 2, worker 4, mage 4, priest 4, ranger 5, warrior, pirate, ninja, and giant 6 hearts. When damage is taken your level of hearts is reduced and all classes except giant can sit to eat cake in order for your life to be full again. Villagers are fast and can stun enemies, knocking objects out of their hands. Priests can heal friends, and can withdraw life from enemies without killing them. Mages can use magic to set enemies aflame, to deal damage; or to freeze them making them vulnurable to attack by friends. Warriors can perform highly damaging attacks at close range, and can block arrows. Rangers can fire a bow or a gun at enemies. Workers can harvest wood and ore, can construct fortifications and siege equipment and can upgrade other classes hat machines. Upgrades provide alternative weapons or attacks to each class. Pirates can do both close range and missile attacks with high damage with a cutlass and pistol. Ninjas can perform close range and missile attacks, but can also turn invisible and infiltrate the enemy castle. Finally, Giants are able to stun enemies and perform the highest damaging attacks of any class; however, they are the only class who cannot eat cake to heal themselves and cannot carry resources, bombs, potions or the Princess.

On each map there are several trees and ore nodes that worker classes can use to obtain resources.

Other interactive objects are bombs, potions that turn players into chickens when thrown, and torches that most classes can use to ignite their weapons to do additional damage.

Development

A private beta for the game was held in June 2009.

There were several supporting reports dealing with the game's release date before it was confirmed for release on July 30, 2009. While some sources presently indicate the game should be ready by "late August", it was later revealed by the SCEE PlayStation Store team that, while the game will have a simultaneous local release, its release window could only be told as "[at] some point this century".

PlayStation Home

In PlayStation Home from 30 July 2009 to 10 September 2009, Sony launched a new event in PlayStation Home, which involved the player embarking on a "very special confectionery quest." The event was called "Fat Princess: Quest for Cake". In this quest the users had to hunt down eight pieces of cake locked in cages and when they managed to do this successfully they were rewarded with a "Fat Princess: Throne" for their personal apartment. This event was being held in the European and North American versions of PlayStation Home in a specially decorated PlayStation Events Space. The spaces used were Events Landing and The Gallery. The event was also held in the Asian version of Home but began on 27 August 2009 and ended on 10 September 2009. An interesting note about this event is that the redesigning of the Events Landing and The Gallery spaces and the event were done by nDreams, the company behind the world's first console-based alternate reality game, Xi, which was also based in Home.

PSP version

Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake logo

PSP port called Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake was made by SuperVillain Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in March 2010. There are four new multiplayer modes exclusive to the PSP version: Castle siege, Dilapidated, Demolition, and Jailbreak. There are also six more levels than the original, and an expanded single player story mode with the new modes added into the storyline.

Fat Roles

On June 19, 2010 an add-on pack named "Fat Roles" was released, adding three new character classes: Pirate, Ninja and Giant. A free patch released alongside the DLC added support for same-screen co-op, clan tags and password-protected private games.

Reception

Fat Princess has an aggregate score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 54 reviews. GameRankings averaged a score of 80.91% based on 41 reviews. IGN gave the game a 9/10 score, praising the game's versatility and charm. GameTrailers gave the title an 8.4/10 along with naming it the Best Downloadable Game of 2009. Some feminist groups criticized the game's premise, accusing it of reinforcing stereotypes and promoting prejudice against overweight women.

See also

• List of downloadable PlayStation 3 games

External links

• Fat Princess at PlayStation.com