Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is a Graphic Adventure released in 2021 on PC and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. In this game, players take the role of the titular Scarlet, a rock group’s singer who finds herself getting into an argument with her band, only to subsequently be pulled into a tornado that whisks her away to a magical land where she finds herself unwittingly becoming the Red Witch , and must contend with the threats that face her and her new munchkin allies as they try to safely pass through a dangerous woods, with Scarlet aided by mysterious new powers, a “womping stick”, and a Groundhog Day-style time loop that enables her to learn from past deaths.

The story in this game takes strong cues from the Wizard of Oz stories, but there are a few other fairytales mixed in here for good measure, as well as the aforementioned Groundhog Day. This mix of elements, along with the characters’ Southern speaking mannerisms, lend this game and its characters a fair amount of personality, though this can occasionally tip over into groan-inducing. On the whole, it works fairly well.

This is helped greatly by this game’s excellent colorful hand-drawn art, which further helps to flesh out this game’s characters and world. I just wish I could say the same for this game’s jazzy soundtrack, which is often a bit too repetitive and can start to get on my nerves.

The gameplay here is decent Graphic Adventure fare, though the puzzles aren’t always self-evident and there’s no hint function. In addition, the game mixes in the need to dodge and run from enemies you encounter, which seems to detract from the generally more puzzle-focused gameplay than add to it.

Overall, I thought Scarlet Hood has a mix of good and bad qualities, but overall I liked it more than I disliked it. The world and characters are interesting, if at times a bit over-the-top, and the puzzles are interesting enough, though the game’s lack of a help feature and interspersed dodging and stealth bits detract from the enjoyment of solving those puzzles. If you’re looking for a Graphic Adventure to add to your library, you could do worse than this one.

tl;dr – Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is a Graphic Adventure where players take the role of a young singer whisked away to a magical land who finds herself unwittingly becoming a witch and forced to use magical powers a Groundhog Day-style time loops to find ways to survive attacks by enemies. It’s an interesting story with a compelling world and characters, though these characters can be a bit tiresome at times, and the lack of a help feature and the need to evade enemies can be tiresome. Overall, this is a decent Graphic Adventure game with more good qualities than bad.

Grade: C+

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