Fat Princess may have disappointed a few fans with its single player mode, but Fist Full of Cake aims to get it right while still keeping the best bits of the PlayStation Network game.
To that end, developer Super Villian (working closely with Titan Studios) added 50% more content to Fist Full of Cake, plus something like six extra chapters in single player mode. There are also additional gameplay modes for multiplayer, like Dilapidated Mode where the hat machines break down and you have to go around collecting resources to fix them. Decoy Mode introduces exploding princess into the players' arsenal; Demolition Mode expands on that by challenging players to move a bomb into an enemy castle; and Jail Break Mode puts a twist on Invasion where taking over outposts reinforces your spawn limit instead of straining it.
But the best new mode is also a new hat and a new character. Grim Reaper Mode introduces a grim reaper hat that gives the wearer a kickass scythe and powers sort of similar to the dark mage character that can drain energy. The mode itself plays out like King of the Hill – the grim reaper can easily kill other characters one-on-one and racks up a crazy-high score when he does. So naturally all the other players are going to gang up on the grim reaper both to save their lives and to get a shot at wearing the hat of death.
The visual style of the PSN game is preserved across all the content and a lot of attention has clearly been paid to keeping the camera at a comfortable distance so you can enjoy both your character model and the scenery. Sadly, they couldn't keep everything just the same from the PSN game – but the stuff they cut are things I can live without. For one thing, voice chat; why would you need in ad-hoc matches where the dudes you're playing with are likely within shouting distance (although there is infrastructure multiplayer as well). The other cut is the multiplayer cap, down from 32 to 16 with human characters capped at eight. I'm pretty sure that's all you'd need in a PSP game because you're probably not going to find more than seven other people with a PSP, the game and the desire to play with you.
Fat Princess: Fist Full of Cake is exploding princess on a PSP near you hopefully sometime this year.
Note: Sadly, no screens were provided for our preview, but we'll update as soon as we get some.