The Hunt for Red Panda (iOS) Review

By Luna Eriksson 23.09.2016

Review for The Hunt for Red Panda  on iOS

The Hunt for Red Panda attempts to combine classic art with a pure gaming experience in the same package. This is cleverly attempted by using the Hidden Object genre which gives a great excuse for a plot, sabotage of famous art, and some thematic gameplay, fixing the tainted paintings. Will this be as entertaining as it sounds?

Ever wanted to play a video game while going to the museum? Now that wish can become reality with The Hunt for Red Panda, which is a hidden object game in which the stages are famous pieces of art, and the "hidden objects" is the damage done on the paintings by the infamous Red Panda. To pass the stages these damages do not only have to be found, but also fixed by the use of various tools. This twist to the genre could have been handled far better than this, though.

There was a great opportunity to make each kind of obstacle feel unique and creating some fun gameplay, however most of the tools feels exactly the same save for the one used to identify the damages and the fly swatter. What this title does differently though is having several game modes and mini-games which are used to earn more clues to help find some of the smaller objects faster. These are fun side-tracks in what would otherwise run a huge risk of getting extremely monotonous. While the mini-games are working, though, the same can't be said about all game modes.

Screenshot for The Hunt for Red Panda  on iOS

The biggest issue here are those stages which involve swatting flies as part of the victory condition. The problem is that these aren't saved as part of the progress when the stage is finished, which leads to that some stages become unwinnable and ultimately have to be redone if enough errors are fixed before the time runs out, as players are simply given too little time to fix some stages and swatting the flies after some point making this a feature that feels like a bad punishment.

This could easily have been solved if the developer just reset those stages fully if the player failed to complete the stage in time. It is such a shame as, beside this pretty severe problem, The Hunt for Red Panda is a fun title. There are only so many time players can stand having to finish a stage without progressing before they will quit the game though, and that limit will sadly be reached pretty soon.

Screenshot for The Hunt for Red Panda  on iOS

Cubed3 Rating

4/10
Rated 4 out of 10

Subpar

The Hunt for Red Panda makes a good attempt at mixing art history with a great gaming experience, and the mini games and different modes add a fun variation to the hidden object sub-genre. The problem is that some things don't work as intended, or are poorly designed, which sadly holds this back a lot. The main issue isn't the fact that a stage has to be beaten at once, but the fact that the game punishes the player by forcing them to finish it even though there is no way to gain a reward for it. There is only so much players can take before getting sick and tired of it, and this title can easily fill that quota pretty fast.

Developer

Zagrava

Publisher

Zagrava Games

Genre

Puzzle

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  4/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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