The Fancy Pants Adventures

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Release Date: April 20, 2011
Developers: Brad Borne, Over the Top Games
Publishers: EA 2D
Platforms: Browser game, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre: Platformer, Adventure
Players: Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating (ESRB): E (Everyone)


Synopsis:

The stick-figure star of The Fancy Pants Adventures takes his moniker seriously. Throughout this cartoonish platformer, you unlock new weapons, hats, and, of course, pants. Our hero wears pink, purple, and plaid with panache, and he slides along curved slopes with equal style. He likes to stay in motion, and certain sequences feel enjoyably effortless as you leap from springboards into the air and coast down steep slopes like a gangly Tommy Moe. Unfortunately, the brakes are sometimes put on in traditional platforming sections, in which the slipperiness that makes some levels such a joy becomes a frustrating liability. The clunky combat feels equally out of place in a game that relies on speed and momentum to deliver its thrills. Nevertheless, The Fancy Pants Adventures is a fun and affordable (800 Microsoft points/$10) romp through several colorful worlds, and adding a buddy or three to the mix opens up some welcome opportunities for cooperation and hysterical harassment in equal measure.

Story:

In the story pirates steal your girl from you. To get her back you must go through a bunch of worlds to find and save her. You go through tropical island levels to your own back yard. The main base in the game is the house of Fancy Pants. There a doors on each floor of the house that lead to different levels. You fight several bosses on the way to the princess. You can do all of this with your friends in multi-player and that makes it a lot more entertaining and easier to beat.

Story Rating: 7/10

Gameplay:

The gameplay is easy and complicated. Getting around levels is pretty easy since most of the time all you need to do is run in one direction. This makes going around levels even upside down easy. Fighting and combat on the other hand is very clunky and hard to use. most of your attack is just jabbing a pencil (or whatever weapon you selected) into the enemy. This can be difficult when facing multiple or sometimes even one enemy. Other then that I enjoyed the gameplay's good elements over its faults.

Gameplay Rating: 8/10

Graphics:

The graphics look like a cartoon. All the things in the game are made to look like they have been drawn. Even after you kill somethings like spiders they turn into a ball of scribbley lines. I thought the graphics were cool but they give off a little kid look to the game. They often remind me of child hood cartoons like Ed, Edd and Eddy. This was one of my favorite aspects of the game. Some people won't give it a second chance because of the cover but I think you should at least give the demo a try to see if you would enjoy it.

Graphics Rating: 7/10

Examples:

Controls:

The controls are very fun when your running across a easy level, doing flips over enemies and crazy stunts. The controls are not very fun when your fighting multiple enemies with a pencil that you can only jab with. The controls should not take you that long to learn, a bit longer though to get used to.

Controls Rating: 6/10

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Overall Rating: 7/10 (Fun game with a funny storyline and gameplay. A few bugs and can get really frustrating at times.)