Review: Scarlett And The Spark Of Life: Episode 1 - My Kingdom For A Horse!
by Allan Curtis
December 18, 2010
Overview
Scarlett And The Spark Of Life: Episode 1 tells the story of a kidnapped princess. Unlike most princesses, this one is resourceful and manages to escape her pursuers. It's your job to help her procure a horse and escape from the area before her would-be kidnappers catch up!Features
Scarlet features classic adventure gaming, hilarious dialogue, an imaginative story, and a great, whimsical visual style.The Good
SoL harks back to classic adventure games of yore. To help Scarlet escape, you talk to lots of people, interact with the environment, and use your brain to solve puzzles.
What makes Scarlet so great is its offbeat sense of humor. It features tons of puns, odd descriptions and laugh out loud insults and it is a barrel of laughs to play; Scarlett herself is about the least princess like princess you'll ever see. The story also has promise and is very creative.
You encounter a number of odd characters too and the most fun part of the game is simply interacting with the world and trying everything; even if it doesn't work, you'll usually get some amusing comment.
SoL's gameplay is based around using objects to solve puzzles, such as using a fruit to lure away an angry beast, so you can get past, without being headbutted. The puzzles are logical and, unlike some adventure games of yore, you'll never be left scratching your head for days wondering how to get past a certain point. before discovering a convoluted solution.
Indeed, SoL's simplicity makes it perfect for the format. A large, clear interface makes it very easy to use your items and you simply tap where you want Scarlett to walk. There is also a star button that places stars over all the things you can interact with, in case you get stuck. This eliminates the annoying pixel hunting that old adventure games were notorious for.
SoL looks great. It has a great hand drawn cartoon look, that mixes a distinctly retro feel with great artwork. Animation is smooth, there's lots of funny mini cutscenes and everything in the game is bright and eye catching.
Soundwise, the game is quite well done The game lacks voice acting, but this isn't really a problem, as the writing is so good. I'd rather have well executed text than possibly bad voice acting. There is little music, but whats there sounds perfect for the game, featuring bright, sparkly tunes. You'll mostly hear environmental sounds, such as wind and birds, making for a relaxing atmosphere.
