As a device, the iPhone’s touch screen lends itself well to many games that would normally use mouse clicks for interaction. It is sort of a no-brainer that many adventure games are being brought over to the device. Largely, these are ports of older, “classic” games in the genre.

While it’s nice to be able to whip out The Secret of Monkey Island whenever you want, I was curious when we were finally going to see some new games in the genre show up on the iDevices.

Launching Pad Games thought the same thing, which leads us to a completely original iPhone Adventure Game, specifically designed for iPhone, Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Episode 1.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life tells the story of a kidnapped princess that must be rescued. Unlike most games that use this trope, you play as the princess in question. As Scarlett, the quick-witted and sometimes Tomboyish heroin of the story, you must escape your kidnappers, find a horse, and move on to rescuing your younger, more traditional “damsel-in-distress” sister.

As you would expect in a point-and-click game, you must find and use items to solve various puzzles. In many adventure games, you inevitably get to a point where you end up having to click on everything in every room you currently have access to just to makes sure you haven’t missed any useful items. In Scarlett, there is a very helpful button built in that will highlight everything currently on screen that can be interacted with.

This is sort of a double edged sword. Since it shows you everything that can be clicked on to pick up (or to get a funny comment from Scarlett), it’s easy to fall into the habit of relying heavily on the feature. This can make some of the puzzles a little too easy to solve. On the plus side, nothing kills the fun of an adventure game more than getting stuck on a puzzle for hours. Because I like being thorough, I found myself using this highlight system often to make sure I grabbed everything, found all the exits in a room, and had a chance to read all the games dialog. I enjoyed Scarlett’s sense of humor and wanted to make sure I fully explored the game.

Since this is the first episode in a series, you aren’t getting the full story here. This episode sets up the character of Scarlett and her quest to rescue her sister. In Episode 1, your goal is to find a horse and get out of town before your kidnappers can track you down. The episode ends once you’ve done so.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Episode 1 is a fun game. The writing is funny and the hand drawn look really appeals to me. However, seasoned adventure gamers will likely find it too easy. It is also fairly short. I didn’t keep track of my exact playtime, but I it took me roughly an hour and a half to complete. At the $2.99 price point, that still isn’t a bad deal. It’s still cheaper than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

If you are a fan of playing adventure games on your iPhone, you should definitely pick it up. If you’ve never played an adventure game before, the relatively easy puzzles in Scarlett and the Spark of Life are great way to ease into the genre.

Tags: adventure games, iPhone, iPhone Games, Launching Pad Games, Point and Click, Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Episode 1

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Indie Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.