From Perlo Games comes Sad Princess, a fairy tale action game with a twist.
Instead of Prince Charming setting off to rescue the kidnapped princess, this time it is a princess who must embark on an adventure to rescue a prince, whose charm in this case is debatable. I’d almost be tempted to classify Sad Princess as a feminist game, but the whole irrational and uncontrollable emotion thing leads me to believe that it might just be one big joke about menstruation.
Sad Princess is a side scrolling beat-em-up where you play as Princess Clover, who, as you may have guessed from the title, is sad. Using her sadness as fuel, you will battle waves after wave of enemies while running ever rightward toward the end of the level. There isn’t much to the battle system in Sad Princess, and I use the term “battle system” loosely here. You can essentially mow down every enemy on the screen by running forward and mashing attack. The fighting can be fun at times, but much like a person with depression, it is mostly slow and lethargic.
In between levels you are given the opportunity to purchase items using coins collected from defeating enemies. You can buy power-up items, new weapons, and monster eggs. The monster eggs are definitely the most interesting things you can purchase because the monsters that hatch will aid you in battle and will grow and gain experience along with the princess. However, the creatures end up being there just for show and are usually not that much help in battle since you can plow through most enemies so easily, which is a shame.
While the gameplay is depressive, the art style is quite a bit happier and fairly easy on the eyes. It captures that modern fairy tale look wonderfully and features some great special effects. Unfortunately, the levels are all quite small and don’t have all that much variety.
Sad Princess has an interesting premise but in the end it seems like the didn’t quite reach its full potential. The art is wonderful so it certainly looks like it should be a special game. And if the gameplay were a little tighter, it would actually be one.