Where would game developers be without fairy tales? I mean, where would they look for theming ideas if Red Riding Hood and Snow White packed and headed south, never to be seen again?
Would television be their remaining source for storylines? Would we be treated to hidden object adventure games based on Bass Masters or Sister Wives? Of course, Hoarding: Buried Alive would offer a nasty twist on hidden object areas with the list of items to find including the three-month-old Chinese takeout carton and assorted rat droppings.
Luckily for today’s game developers, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm provided them with copyright-free fodder for the next decade or two.
Which brings us to Fairly Twisted Tales: The Price of a Rose, a perverse retelling of Beauty and the Beast complete with a malevolent beast and an accommodating beauty.
In this version, “Bella’s” father, Raphael, finds himself lost in a snowstorm. (Why he is on foot in a frock coat is anybody’s guess.) Somehow he makes his way to the beast’s castle garden and — wait for it — plucks a rose.
When I’m lost in a blizzard, the first thing I think about isn’t food or shelter, it’s horticulture. As you might expect, the beast is enraged at the loss of the rose and demands the man’s life. When the beast permits Raphael a final farewell with his daughters, Raphael’s youngest agrees to remain with the beast in exchange for her father’s life.
Here’s where you come in. Your services are requested in locating a scroll, which may contain the secret for freeing Bella from the beast’s grasp.
Having never played an entry from Big Top Games, I was interested to see their particular approach. The graphics, especially in the beginning when you search a jewel-toned island for the scroll, are big, beautiful and vibrant. OF course, after that, you are off to an unnamed Euro kingdom where the colors are dampened quite a bit. In fact, a hidden object area where you are asked to find various bits of metal against a gray, cliff face backdrop is just this side of sadism.
The characters are well drawn and more three-dimensional (behaviorally, not visually) than you normally encounter in this type of game. I am a bit mystified about Bella of the dewy eyes and heaving bosom. Knowing that the demographic for hidden object adventure games is, well, me — females over 35, married with kids — I’m wondering why the developers thought we’d be captivated by this nubile young thing.
There’s quite a bit of character interaction, which typically annoys me, but strangely works well here. The diverse cast of characters introduced sort of gives the feeling of the folks you encounter in an Agatha Christie novel in that everyone seems to have something to hide and maybe, just maybe, this isn’t a straightforward fairy tale after all.
The audio is interesting in that it’s not your run-of-the-mill Phantom of the Opera organ music. The ambient sounds are those you’d really encounter in the various scenes such as opening doors and burning fires.
The hidden object areas are pretty easy, but I don’t mind that. I play for fun and relaxation and don’t relish breaking out the magnifying glass to find a minuscule acorn in a scene full of brown leaves.
The mini games are a bit too arbitrary for my taste. I want some sort of logic behind a game vs. clicking some random pattern. In fact, I totally overthought one game in which you position buttons. The pictures to the side of the knobs included flames, waves, and mountains. I stared at those pictures for 10 minutes trying to decide what might be a logical order. Guess what. Logic was not necessary. Just wing it.
Consider downloading Fairly Twisted Tales: The Price of a Rose for its well written characters and twisted take on this "tale as old as time." Remember, that while true love and seeing past outward appearances are an integral part of tales as old as time, so are murder and mayhem… just read the bible if you don’t believe me.