Parent's Guide: Code of Princess - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Code of Princess is a hack and slash game, in which your sole objective is to clear each stage of enemies. The story follows the Princess Solange, who's fled from her monster-infested kingdom to protect the sacred sword, the DeLuxCalibur - and then takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of the monster outbreak that's ravaging her world. Joining forces with a tomboy thief, a pink-pigtailed Necromancer whose body is assembled out of corpse parts and a guitar-wielding bard/sage-in-training elf in a jester's outfit, they set off to save the world.

Attacking monsters and soldiers with a mix of strong attacks with the A button, and speedier, weaker bashes with the B button means the combat is largely pretty easy to get the hang of, so less experienced players shouldn't struggle too much here. If nothing else, they can probably make their way through by mashing buttons! The more battles you fight, the more experience points you earn, which lets you upgrade your characters' attacks, bolster them with more health or make them move faster, among others - careful allocation of these points will make future battles easier too, as does equipping your people with better equipment won from battles or bought from Marco Neko's Empurrium.

Code of Princess is fully voiced so reading isn't a necessity (although would be an advantage for navigating the shop and understanding other parts of the game) and the dialogue is particularly entertaining, with a whole load of memorable, funny characters joining you on your journey. These dialogue sequences take place between each of the missions, and help set the scene and give some more insight into the characters you're travelling with - but may prove boring for those eager to get into the action, while some of the jokes may also go over the head of younger ones, so it's worth bearing that in mind before you buy.

For a game that revolves around swinging a sword at people, Code of Princess has no blood, guts or gore at all - defeated enemies simply lie on the floor and fade away. The swipes of your sword do knock them around a bit, sometimes flinging them up in the air or for miles across the screen, but the only limbs that fall off are those which Necromancer Zozo has stolen from corpses over the years, and is now made out of. About the only other issue parents may have with the game is how provocatively the lead character Solange is dressed, the size of her chest and the occasional innuendos thrown in about the two - her chest is said to sway in "perfect docile synchronisation", whilst one soldier mistakes her for a (presumably prostitute) they spotted on a street corner earlier.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS