Fat Princess, PixelJunk Eden Encore, and Rag Doll Kung Fu hands-on

First up is Fat Princess, the 32-player capture-the-flag variant where instead of a flag, you have to kidnap the opposing team's increasingly obese noblewoman. The game has a vibrant, upbeat cartoon style, which juxtaposes pretty well (in a comical way) with the amount of blood you'll get to spill as one of five different classes available. Workers can collect resources such as wood and metal, which are then used to upgrade your team's castle and its defenses. Workers can also build certain structures which can aid your colleagues or wreak havoc for your enemies. One of our favorites was a small spring which allowed you to vault over your enemy's castle walls. Warriors, on the other hand, are all about the pain, and will be the game's main direct damage dealer. Wizards can fire offensive fireballs, while Priests can heal team members. Finally, Archers do what all archers do--deal death from a safe distance. Each of these five classes will also sport a second ability once upgraded--Workers, for example, can throw explosives, while Priests can switch from healing a friend to cursing an enemy, which makes that enemy take on more damage.

We played Fat Princess at the Blogger Lounge on the Black Forest map, a large open space which features the two team castles on the east and west flanks with a river flowing down the middle acting as a choke point. While we didn't get close to getting a full 32-player match going, we can see how Fat Princess has the potential to be hectic, fast-paced fun. The classes themselves seem quite balanced, and we especially liked the fact that you could switch on the fly by picking up another class' hat. Even better was the fact that you can pick up your felled foes' hats as well, meaning you could even switch while in the middle of an attacking run. Fat Princess is due for release on the PSN in Q2 this year.

Encore looks to be as trippy as Eden.

Next up is PixelJunk Eden Encore, the expansion to last year's trippy, unique platformer where you played as a small Grimp jumping from plant to plant in a series of unique gardens. Encore adds five new gardens to the mix, which once again have all been designed using art, music, and sounds from Kyoto-based artist Baiyon. Players can access the new Encore levels via the starting Eden garden menu (just jump up and to the left and you're there).

Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert--who we spoke to while at the Blogger Lounge--told us Encore would add new abilities and intricacies to the core Eden experience, but was tight-lipped about the supposed big secret awaiting players who complete the new levels. He did confirm, however, that the ability to continue a level even if your timer runs out (which was introduced in the last patch to Eden) would also be present in Encore. Cuthbert was equally quiet on what new project we could expect from the PixelJunk team, although he did say E3 this year may be the time when an official announcement is made. PixelJunk Eden Encore is due out in April this year.

Fight! With puppet-like dolls!

Finally, we got our puppet anger on with Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, the upcoming four-person brawler which puts you in control of action figure-like characters. The most striking thing about Rag Doll Kung Fu--apart from its polished visuals--is the unique combat physics at play, which makes your characters move like jiggling (but lethal) marionettes. Battles take place on 2D-environments filled with platforms and other obstacles, which gives the game a very Smash Bros. feel.

We played through the game's opening training mode, which as you'd probably expect introduces you to the mechanics of battle. And while we'll need more time to fully evaluate the controls (which, for any fighter, is the key to its success), we can tell you that they're easy to pick up, if a little motion-sensitive happy. Basic attacks and movement are mapped to the control sticks and face buttons of the PS3 controller, but advanced moves are all somehow tied to movement. Performing a powerful dash punch, for example, requires you to press the attack button while simultaneously jerking the controller left or right. Using your chi to recover health, on the other hand, requires you to flip the controller upside down for a few seconds, while a ground stomp is performed by pressing the block button and moving your controller downwards.