"I have to say, I liked it the first time when it was called Bubble Bobble"

Ah yes, finally I get to some strange games that clone from other more well known titles and find that Fairyland Story is a simple rip-off of Bubble Bobble. Much like the old Bubble Bobble games, the point is to simply make it through numerous stages, turning your enemies into cake and tossing them over the edge and then moving onto the next stage. In all honesty, this game is extremely simple, and anyone who has the puzzle game experience should be able to play through this with little or no trouble. Simple visuals as well as a simple interface with the game play, audio and control really makes for a strange, yet average game all the way around.

-The Game Play-

Fairyland Story is an easy game to understand and get the point of right from the start. You take control of a wizard who must venture through several different castles and attempt to stop the various creatures from getting to you and capturing you in a bubble. Once you’ve learned the layout of the castles and how you have to go about using the platforms, the only other thing that you have to do is catch the enemies and turn them into cakes, pushing them over an edge so they go splat. Really, there isn’t much else to the game other than a little cat and mouse.

The further you get into the game, the more running and jumping you have to do to get away from your enemies. Though the game doesn’t have much else going for it, you are working on a time limit in which you have to clear the stage of enemies before the clock runs out. If you happen to let the cakes stand for too long, they revert back into the enemies and they’ll come after you again with a revived fever that just doesn’t stop until they overwhelm you. However, once you’ve gotten into the way that the game plays and what you have to do, it really is simple enough to beat on just a couple of quarters.

The control of the game is limited to a spell button and a jump button, which allows you to traverse through the various stages in your bubble popping mayhem. Casting the spell that captures an enemy requires a couple of presses and you have to be in close in order to do it. Once you have them captured, you can jump and then push them over an edge, causing them to fall to the bottom of the screen and out of your way! This is very easy to learn and with the right timing, you should be able to run through the game with no real control problems other than the stiff jumping that you do in certain points of the game. When I say stiff, it simply means that you have to have perfect timing in order to get the desired distance and effect of your jump, so just spend a little time practicing, and there really shouldn’t be a problem!

-The Visuals-

The visuals of the game are about as cute as it gets without becoming a completely sickening array of childish scenes and pre-school colors! The bright colors as well as the various stage layouts and designs are all well detailed, even though they do fall on the younger side of things in many instances. The different enemies that you face and even the huge bosses that you may encounter are all well drawn and thought upon, even though they do look child like. When looking at the game, you’ll find that it is aimed, visually, towards younger gamers and really not too much towards adults. However, the blend of detail and color with the addicting game play attracts gamers like moths to a flame! It isn’t all bad and the only cases of slow down that I could see was when there were several enemies on screen and you were jumping around too much, creating an action overload.

-The Audio-

The audio is set up to try and be somewhat adventurous while filled with action. While it doesn’t do a bad job in this mission, it does tend to fall to the kid gamer point of view, adding in cute sounding MIDI music. The sound effects of the game aren’t anything to be scoffed at, but they aren’t first rate, with most of the sounds being that of squishing cakes and tinny jumping sounds as you move from platform to platform. The pinnacle of the sound comes forward in the last few stages of the game in which you’re given a rather uplifting and pace setting track to listen to that tells you the end is nigh!

-The Verdict-

Fairyland Story isn’t a bad game, but it isn’t meant for adult gamers who are looking for something different. If you’re a fan of the Bubble Bobble series and the puzzle games, then you might like this title based on the face that plenty is taken from it. However, there really isn’t much here that you’ll find challenging and fun after the first ten stages or so. If you’re down to a couple of quarters and you want to spend them on something that will take a while to complete, then hit this machine {assuming your arcade has it}, otherwise, leave it be and head for something a little more normal.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/02, Updated 08/09/02