Review: Scarlett and the Spark of Life

The first part in an episodic series simply titled Scarlett Adventures, Spark of Life introduces us to the beautiful and saucy Scarlett, a princess who finds herself kidnapped at the very beginning of the first episode. Our heroine is not content to simply rest on her laurels and wait to be rescued, and you are immediately tasked with figuring out a way for her to escape. It isn’t long before Scarlett is free of her captors and well on her journey to hopefully save her sister from the same fate.

The game plays like many point-and-clicks, although the style and tone are definitely more Monkey Island than Myst. You will find yourself interacting with various people, solving puzzles, and the like as you work to help Scarlett escape the little town in which she finds herself early in the game. This means the game is definitely filled with humor, tongue-in-cheek remarks, and plenty of sarcasm. For example, the main puzzle you must work toward solving in this episode is finding all the pieces to finish assembling a snarky and demonic mechanical horse, whom Scarlett accidentally awakened while hiding in a dark workshop. Part of the reason she has to deal with said horse is because she finds herself in a town that worships an evil and crazy goat-like creature that will head butt and kill any horse it encounters, leaving her with little options to make her escape.

In the process of obtaining parts, she will encounter several inhabitants of the village, many of whom will require her to complete tasks for them in order for her to get the required piece she wants, such as finding a cherished heirloom, retrieving a bucket of paint, and making one of those dreaded animals move. In general, the dialogue is smartly written and enjoyable, with the options given often each eliciting a chuckle. The horse in particular is a great character, as he definitely has delusions of grandeur of which Scarlett is always happy to egg on with heavy doses of sarcasm.

None of the puzzles are particularly challenging, and for the most part the various characters have stacked dialogue that will enable you to get more help if you need it, but you can also avoid them spoiling the solutions to puzzles if you don’t need or want the help. Like the Tales of Monkey Island games, for example, this one gives you a variety of puzzles, including some that are dialogue-based: you have to pick the right things to say in order to get something to happen, for example. While none of these puzzles will blow your mind, they definitely work well in the context of the story, and make for a nice, light gaming experience that many expect from an iPhone game.

As far as the interface goes, everything is definitely optimized for the iPhone and works well for the most part. You tap on the screen to direct Scarlett to move there, and if she reaches the end of the screen, it will transition to the next area. You tap on individuals to engage in conversation with them, and the dialogue choices are featured in fairly large boxes, so it’s easy to choose the correct option with your finger. Inventory is accessed by tapping on the backpack icon in the bottom left of the screen; tap on an item for a description or drag it onto a person or place in the environment to use it. Overall the inventory system worked well, but I did find a few times where I would drag it and not manage to get it in the sweet spot for the game to recognize it. Still, this was a very minor issue. The game also utilizes a star system that you can use to show you what is interactive in the world, eliminating the annoying pixel hunting that can often plague games in this genre. Especially considering how small the iPhone screen is (as compared to a PC monitor, for example), this was a very nice feature, especially when using inventory items.

The graphic style is cute and looks great even on my iPhone 3G; I believe it supports retina display if you have a iPhone 4, where I’m sure it would look even better. What really blew me away was the excellent sound throughout the game. While none of the game is voiced (not that I would expect it to be, and not that I think that hinders the game at all), the background sounds really stood out. Each crisp footprint or the hiss of the wind; the birds chirping or the creak, creak of a sign blowing back and forth – all of these really added to the immersiveness of the game, and definitely make playing with headphones recommended, although certainly not required. My only gripes about sound are it would have been nice to offer the ability to adjust the in-game volume (or turn off sound completely), and it also would have been nice to give the option to rotate the device in order to get the headphone jack out of the way. Again, though, these were all minor gripes and definitely nothing to keep you from playing the game.

The game is short: you could probably finish it in a few hours, and like most games in this genre, the replayability is low. However, the game was cute and chuckle-inducing enough (not to mention brief enough) that I could see myself playing through it again at some point, and I definitely would like to play it again before the next installment arrives.

If you find yourself hungering for a Monkey Island-style point-and-click and you own an iOS device, you should definitely give Scarlett and the Spark of Life a try. Right now it’s available through iTunes for $2.99, and if you ever find it on sale for $0.99, you will have zero excuse not to download this humorous little game.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life:

Scarlett Adventures, Episode I

iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Publisher: Launching Pad Games
Developer: Launching Pad Games
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: December 2, 2010
MSRP: $2.99
ESRB Rating: 9+

Doin’ It RIGHT:

- Great artwork, fantastic sound

- Humorous story, writing

- Interesting blend of puzzles

-Great interface

Doin’ It RONG:

- Fairly easy

- Not much replay value

- No way to adjust sound or flip so headphone jack is out of the way