Parents' Guide to Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries takes the classic Grimm fairy tale and brings it along a darker path, with Red, not the woodsman, being the vengeful righter of wrongs. She's cast as an angry young woman (older than the traditional Red Riding Hood by about 10 years) and is brave, athletic, and trained to defend herself. The adventure has very expressive lighting that supports the narrative, along with environments that are as lush and detailed as some of the best fairy tale illustrations. The sound is equally distinct, with moody music that adds emotion to Red's grown-up yet girlish voice as it relates poignant memories from her past. The game also has strong platforming mechanics with lots of interesting areas to jump, climb, and run through, making it fun to explore this updated take on the adventure.

Although it's a good start to what should be a compelling story, the heroine is done an injustice thanks to odd design choices. Unless you use a console controller, the control scheme is confusing because it places attacks on traditional movement keys. Boss fights are just as strange, with false clues on defeating enemies provided to players and no visual feedback on damage to enemies. Also, Red's giant head is disproportionate to her tiny body, and, without lip syncing, she and other characters stare blankly like department store mannequins during cut scenes while their voices come floating out of nowhere. But these presentation issues aren't as problematic as Red Hood Diaries' lack of content -- from start to finish, the game can be completed in roughly 90 minutes, which is incredibly short. But, although Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries appears to be somewhat limited by design choices, it's a potentially promising start to a complex fairy tale series.