Remember Robin Hood? Not like this you don't. Difference Games continues their series of oddball reimaginings of children's classics in Twisted Fairytales: Robin Hood. Use your mouse to click on differences between the two images in each scene; find at least five out of ten and you can proceed to the next page in the story. From time to time, you're also presented with choices that impact the direction of the story. Will you hunt down that strange object you just saw fall from the sky? Or will you risk another pummeling and try your luck robbing that caravan... again? You decide! There are four endings to uncover in this tale.
Unlike Goldilocks, Robin Hood's twist isn't gruesome. It's weird and wonderfully silly. The artwork is almost unbearably cute, making it a joy to play, and the inclusion of multiple-choice scenarios adds a nice bit of replay value to this short little game. The downside is that when a choice you make brings the story to a premature end, you have to start all over; there's no way to save your game. The decision to let you proceed with only five differences, some more subtle than others, means you can usually sprint right back to where you were, but some sort of Chapter Select screen that unlocks as you go would make a huge difference. Both of the final endings are also a bit weird; one of them seems pretty darned inappropriate if you haven't seen the other for a bit of perdspective, and neither of them is overwhelmingly positive. I suppose you could make an Aesop-ish argument and say the moral of the story is that greedy people get what's coming to them, but I would further suppose you would be also justified in wanting your happy ending.
Even with these shortcomings, however, it's hard to stay mad at the latest in the Twisted Fairytales series. It's absolutely beautiful, and probably won't take you more than fifteen minutes to play all the way through several times. While still not meaty enough to provide substantial entertainment, it's an interesting step in the right direction in an effort to make such a simple genre more widely enjoyed. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go buy some teal hair dye...
I was really weirded about by the endings. Both of the 'true' endings were just... wrong.
I <3 difference games so much. I love these fairy tale ones the best.
OMG!! 4th
... The art style is cute. :3
I don't know why my comment didn't show.
I *heart* difference games. Especially these fairy tale ones.
Bah! All the endings are lame! Why couldn't we end up WITH the cute pirate cyborg chick, instead of enslaved! Well, I guess if you're that incompetent as a robber hero, you get what you deserve.
I got the "correct" ending my first time through, but like Dora said, it seemed, well, I don't know if it was inappropriate, but it did seem to come out of nowhere. But the whole damsel in distress thing seemed a bit too convenient, which is why I made the choices that I did.
This was pretty disappointing, though the wonderfully sugary artwork along the way was nice it didn't make up for the dis-satisfying ends.
I want an appropriately fluffy ending!
Wow. I played this three times for different endings.
I enslaved the girl at the end, and I felt bad, so I chose to fight the king, and the girl became a robot that made me work for her?
Possible endings and how to get them...
First, you can choose to assault the caravan again or go look for the UFO.
If you choose to attack the caravan again you get your butt whooped (Ending 1).
If you choose to find the UFO you are offered another choice:
Do you take the lazer gun?
Either way, you go out looking for the maiden calling for help.
If you took the gun, you zap all 3 ninjas and rescue the girl. If you chose not to, you get beaten to a pulp by the ninjas (Ending 2, see a pattern here?).
Your new friend suggests attacking the castle and redistributing the wealth to the poor! Great idea! You attack the castle. But wait! Just as you are ready to take over, the King suggests teaming up instead.
If you choose to team up with the king, you share his wealth and the girl becomes a slave. (Ending 3)
If you choose to fight the king, the maiden (who, by the way, is actually an alien robot thing) overpowers you and captures the king, taking everyone back to her ship. Now you're the slave of the crazy robot girl! (Ending 4).
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