Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow

I have to say that I think I would class Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow as a bit of a hidden gem! I know people hate that term these days, but this is a game that I thought was going to be average at best, but I ended up having a whole lot of fun with it. I love the story of Sleepy Hollow and there are not actually many games based on this legend. This is a hidden object style of game and I found myself quite addicted to it. Not just for the gameplay, but the mystery style story that it was telling too.

Who Is The Next Victim?

The game is based around the legend of Sleepy Hollow. In Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman is stalking the quiet town of Sleepy Hollow, and you are tasked with finding out who the next victim is going to be before it happens. If you know this story, you will get a real kick out of this and even if you are not too familiar with it, it is a well told and fun gothic horror story that will keep you interested until you reach the final chapter.

Finding The Right Clues To Save Lives

There are many different chapters in Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow and the idea is that you need to find all of the hidden objects in a given scene. It is your typical hidden object game, but it can be tricky as the game is very authentic to the time period it is set. I had no clue what some of the items it wanted me to find were! You can miss a couple of items, but you are usually looking at 10 to 15 per stage. There is a hint system if you get stuck, but it is not going to do the whole puzzle for you!

Mini-Game Headless Madness

One really cool aspect of the gameplay in Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow and something that helps keep you on your toes is that there are mini-games you will have to play before you can pick up a certain object. These range from having to put back together the pieces of a stained-glass window or put pins in a voodoo doll in the right order. I found this to be pretty neat and each mini-game felt like it fit within the story that was being told here.

Directed By Tim Burton

I am a huge fan of the late 90s Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow movie and I think that Mystery Legends: Sleepy Hollow manages to capture the style of that movie (and the Sleepy Hollow story) in general very well. The game has some amazing gothic horror artwork going on and each scene feels very authentic and spooky. There is even some well-done narration here and the Headless Horseman is not too shy about taunting you from time to time either!

Pros:

• I loved the version of the Sleepy Hollow legend that was told here
• The gothic horror art is fantastic
• I thought that the voice acting fitted the game very, very well
• The hidden object gameplay and the various mini-games are a lot of fun

Cons:

• I do feel that this is a one and done kind of game
• As they use “old timey” objects and names, it can be hard to know what object you are looking for sometimes

From The Team that brought you the excellent Loonyland II: Winter Woods (See 'Top 5 Indie RPGs') comes this frenetic cartoon-style action/ adventure in which you play gormless slaphead Bouapha, a man trapped in the eerie, enemy infested town of Sleepless Hollow.

Just like its stablemate, Sleepless Hollow focuses on action over sedate exploration, with each new location teeming with bad things intent on making you dead. You can fend off the endless waves of foes with hammers that are scattered throughout the game, and more often than not you'll have to defend yourself while solving some tricky puzzles. This makes for copious amounts of squealing as you're chased by hordes of zany enemies, and lashings of fist hammering as said hordes of enemies surround you and give you a drubbing (especially if you opt for the tragically fiddly mouse control option).

However, the excellent snippets of irreverent humour soon win you round, and have you succumbing to the temptation of just one more go 'til your fingers are nowt but worn, bloody stumps.