Grade: B+
Red Riding Hood Inspired Puzzle Game
A Day in the Woods was created in 2011 by a South African indie game studio, Retro Epic Games. The goal for “A Day in the Woods” is pretty straightforward. Make it safely to your Grandmothers house in the fewest moves possible. You are led there by a cute pixie character. This fairy, which you control, can switch around hexagons and shift the map. Moving the hexagons allows you to help Little Red Riding Hood make her way around the puzzle.
Complexities
There are several puzzle challenges to tackle:
- Riding Hood can’t go near the bears or spiders.
- The bears can’t go near the campfires.
- You can pacify the bears with honeypots.
- You can appease the spiders with rabbits.
- Collect the flowers on your way.
- There are berries to pick up for bonuses.
- If you exceed the movement “par”, you lose a star bonus.
I made an infographic to help explain better than words would allow.
Difficulty ramp takes off
For a while, there was a perfect slope of complexity and difficulty in this puzzle game. The developers slowly introduced each new obstacle throughout the first 19 levels. Then, in level 20, I got stuck on a puzzle. I tried 100 different things and started to feel dumb and incompetent. I fought through the mental pain for what felt like an eternity (it was probably 5 minutes). Finally, at the end of this knock-down-drag-out fisticuffs battle with my attention span, I gave up and blamed the game for being annoying.
That’s not fair, though. The game is neat, and I figured out the level shortly after I came back the next day and solved it quickly. Turns out, you have to move the bears in a circular motion around the honeypot, so they stay in contact with it while Red Riding Hood slips past. Tricky!
I didn’t get through level 60 and put this one down around level 25. I’ve had enough of Little Red Riding Hood’s quest to get to her MeeMaw’s. Time to try something new.
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