Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood

Developer: Devespresso Games | Publisher: Headup, WhisperGames | Release Date: 2021 | Genre: Adventure / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Take one part Little Red Riding Hood, one part The Wizard of Oz, add a dash of Groundhog day with a pinch of Alice in Wonderland and you end up with Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood. The protagonist of this story-driven adventure, Scarlet, dreams of making it big with her band Foxtrot Bop, but a twist of fate in the form of a literal twister deposits her in the realm of Glome. Here Scarlet takes up the mantle of the Red Witch and becomes embroiled with a troupe of Munchkins who require her to lead them safely through the Wicked Wood. Unfortunately for Scarlet, the Black Witch LeFaba doesn’t take kindly to this intrusion in her domain and along with her minions makes life very difficult for the strayed songstress. Players must help Scarlet to master the powers of her Womping Stick, outwit her enemies or befriend the right allies to prevent her fairy tale from turning into a tragedy.

Scarlet Hood is an interesting mix of genres as it plays like a point & click adventure, but everything is viewed from a side-scrolling perspective. Most of your time in the game is spent exploring the surroundings and solving puzzles, but there is also an element of danger. Scarlet’s main foes are Dodobo who can slash at her with their halberds and Monkeyta who love popping up to take shots at her. Scarlet is not defenseless, though, as she can dispose of enemies with her Womping Stick, provided it has enough magic in it. A non-violent solution is also available in the form of a dodge move that depletes Scarlet’s energy but allows her to sidestep enemies unscathed. You’ll want to keep an eye on her energy, though, as a big bad wolf also makes an occasional appearance. Not only is it ferocious and fast, but the only way to escape its clutches is to run away and hide. If you run out of stamina while trying to evade this beast or get seen trying to use a hiding spot it will quickly dispose of Scarlet. She only has five hit points and if these are all lost it is back to reloading a savegame.

These action scenes add some variety to the game, but the focus is very much on the puzzles. They start easy enough, but there are also a couple that had us scratching our heads. Most of the puzzles require a keen eye as the solutions are often tucked away in the vibrant backgrounds of the levels. Occasionally Scarlet will be required to find an inventory object for solving a puzzle, but nothing on the level of a full-fledged point & click adventure. The unique thing about the puzzles is that it is impossible to see all of them in a single playthrough. Instead, each chapter in the game can be tackled in different ways, but committing to a certain route locks you out from the rest. For example, to avoid death by a gun-totting monkey Scarlet can either sabotage its weapon, upgrade her Womping Stick to counter his bullets, or befriend a robotic hero who will then come to her aid later. The choices you make also determines which one of the different endings you’ll get, so the game has a surprising amount of replay value.

One of the most eye-catching elements of Scarlet Hood is the visuals as everything in the game was hand illustrated. The great character designs, combined with the vibrant colors also contribute towards the fairy tale book look and feel of the game. Scarlet isn’t just confined to the spooky woods either as each chapter features an entirely different theme. Although the game is a side scroller there is still some exploration involved as players can move left and right as well as take paths in and out of the screen. Fortunately, there’s a map to help you keep track of where the various points of interest are. It’s worth carefully exploring your surroundings not just to soak up the great visuals, but also to find the hidden notes that are scattered everywhere. These tell you more about the hero character lurking on each level as well as provide clues to the hidden shrines needed to upgrade your Womping Stick. You’ll also unlock images for the bonus gallery in the process, which is a welcome feature.

The audio in Scarlet Hood is very easy on the ears and some of the tunes are downright catchy. The game also features a decent amount of sound effects, but the voice acting is unfortunately reserved for the cut scenes only. It takes a while to get used to the controls as you need to use both the keyboard and mouse if you opt not to play with a controller. The keyboard is required to move Scarlet around and to interact with objects of interest, while the mouse only comes into play during the puzzles.

To sum it up, we really enjoyed our time with Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood and it exceeded our expectations in many areas. The way in which the developers have put their unique stamp on a very familiar story and the setting is particularly cool. We also really liked their take on the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, characters and how these heroes serve as the counterparts of Scarlet’s band members back in Kentucky. The myriad of different ways in which chapters can be completed is something that we would love to see in more adventure games as it boosts the replay value considerably. The “combat” in the game feels like an afterthought, though, and the few instances where the wolf caught Scarlet immediately after she transitioned to a new area were annoying. Fortunately, this didn’t happen very often and while the game can only be saved at specific shrines these are scattered about generously. If you are a fan of great 2D visuals, love puzzles, and don’t mind an adventure that does things a little differently, then Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood come highly recommended.