Customer Reviews

Princess Isabella: A Witch's Curse [Download]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The game itself is awesome! Interesting storyline, fun puzzles that can be tricky but not overly difficult, and absolutely gorgeous graphics! The transformation when a room is de-cursed is incredible. The game has a little bit of everything in it. Hidden objects, collecting pieces to various puzzles, unlocking locks, visual puzzles where you rearrange the pieces to form a picture, playing simple music to unlock a hidden item, etc. If you get stuck, you can ask your cute little fairy friend for a hint. Up until the end of the game, you can play at your leisure (no timers). You do have to hurry at the end of the game, though, but it's not impossibly hard. My only "complaint" is that the game is short. It took me about 3 hours to beat it. Granted, I did play non-stop. It was THAT fun and interesting! :-) More, please!

But, I'm a little ticked about being misled by Amazon's "Product Features." Under there, Amazon lists that this games has 135 scenes...it's really more like 35, obviously someone got the facts wrong. Something like that wouldn't normally bother me, except that it was part of the reason I purchased the game after the 30 minute free trial. Like a genuine idiot, I didn't read the customer reviews where other people have complained about how short the game is, I just saw 135 scenes and thought: "well that ought to keep me entertained for awhile." I was then completely flabbergasted when I beat the game an hour and a half later.

That being said, the game itself is entertaining enough. The scenery and graphics make it a very pleasant playing experience. My main quibbles are that 1. As already mentioned it is incredibly short and 2. There is really no replay value. I replayed the game a few times and have noted that nothing changes, and I mean NOTHING. You would think with all the different objects that they could at least alter slightly what you have to find each time. I mean, I know that some objects are necessary for the other puzzles, but not all of them serve that purpose.

I would honestly have to say that if I had realized how quickly I would have beaten the game and been aware of the lack of replay value, I definitely would not have bought this. And I have a hard time believing it is the top downloaded game on Amazon, I mean it's okay, but it's not like it's the greatest game ever.

"Princess Isabella" is a stunning hidden objects-adventure game, a great way to escape to fantasy land. You, as the princess herself, have to undo a witch's curse. The witch has turned the residents of your palace into shattered mirrors and you have to find all the broken shards and reassemble them to set your people free, as well as ridding each room in the palace of a curse

The palace rooms are dark and sinister until you work your magic and free the demons, and you'll see each area suddenly burst into glorious color when you succeed. If you ever felt like smashing a vase like Scarlett O'Hara, you'll have ample opportunities to shatter various urns with a rock to reveal a vital object needed to solve a puzzle. You'll have other abilities, too, such as the wind and fire abilities, which allow you to do other fun stuff.

The game is not linear and you can proceed leisurely from one room to another in the enormous palace until the very end when you're pitted against the wicked witch in a timed hidden object contest. You have to beat her, or back to the beginning you go. The game is composed of a wide variety of puzzles but perhaps the gorgeous artwork is what grabs you most. My only complaint is that the chirpy twitterings of the companion fairy are very annoying but it's a minor irritation. This game is classy.

I loved the graphics and music in this game. The puzzles were not very difficult, so it's really a game for casual play. If you're playing to relax, then this is a good game. If you're looking for a challenge....not so much here. I enjoyed the beautiful rooms and the transitions from dark shadows to light.

My only complaint is the fairy....she got on my nerves. If the voice would have been different I would not have minded her appearance during the game. She sounded like one of the many college girls I've heard trying to cover up their native accents with high pitches and strange vowel sounds. But overall, I really loved the game.

Like another reviewer, the fairy drove me nuts. I'm pretty good at ignoring such things, though, so I just tuned her out. As a result, the rest of the game was truly enjoyable. This is a visually gorgeous hidden object game in which the designers clearly spent a lot of time working their graphics in with the storyline itself. That was quite a nice treat, considering how often HOGs have little to no story line involved. That said, the game seemed incredibly short; I finished it in an afternoon but really expected to play it at least twice as long as that.

One thing: I thought I had a problem with the Amazon download of this game because the game took FOREVER to load every time I started it. So, if you download the game from Amazon and think the installation is messed up I suggest just walking away from your computer for a couple of minutes to see if it finally loads. Worked for me.

I've bought a great many of the game downloads here on Amazon. This was probably the most fun because it was a mixture of puzzles and hidden objects. Some of the puzzles were quite easy, but the 2 requiring a red key and a blue key were so difficult I had to click on the "solve it" button. Most puzzles were medium difficulty, which means if you work at it for a bit and try different approaches, you can solve it. The artwork is so beautiful, it's a visual reward to solve a puzzle, break the curse, and see the room transformed from dark and spooky to beautifully colored and furnished. (I could have done without the little fairy saying "You broke the curse. Yay!")These rooms and gardens were so beautiful it made me wish I visit this castle! Guess I'm not quite as fast as some of these game reviewers, it took me at least 9 hours to complete the game. Hope there are more games by this developer.

I loved this game. All the other reviews have pretty much covered all the details. Just wanted to add to the great reviews. I wish there were more like this one.

This game is really fun and pretty addicting, but it is pretty short. My biggest pet peeve with this game is that when you're doing a puzzle and you as the fairy for a hint all she does is repeat whatever it is she said at the beginning of the puzzle (i.e., "it looks like something's hidden in there!"). I mean, what help is that at all? It got really annoying. Also, the game seemed to get lazier as it progressed. In the first few areas you have to do these fun and interesting puzzles to clear the rooms of evil. In the later puzzles it's like all you have to do is look at something and touch one thing and BAM!, it's done. Lastly, and this is something that bothers me about a lot of these seek and find games, is the rather stunning amount of grammatical errors. There's a puzzle where you have to read a page out of a book and it was like reading something written by a 5 year old. Example: "He built castle for he and his dogs, for he love them." Really? Are these games not beta tested or edited at all?

All in all a fun game, but not worth paying for since it's over so quick and there's no replay value as NOTHING CHANGES. The placement of all the objects in the "hidden object" portion of the game remains the same EVERY SINGLE TIME.

This game is great. If you just love mixed quizzes, find-its and suspense, then this is the game for you. In fact, I think this is the game for everybody. I loved it. A whole story and it's not like a common game. It's not find-it, find-it, find-it. There are other things with find-its. I would not suggest this for a young kid. The graphics are great, and when a cursed room changes it is amazing. I would strongly suggest getting this game. Just not for little kids. It can be scary.

Hidden-object games aren't my favorite; for instance I've played the highly rated Ravenhearst and didn't understand why people liked it so much. This game makes the challenge more interesting with (simple) puzzles sprinkled throughout instead of just a mind-numbing trek through one seek and find picture to the next. The ending is actually rather difficult with a Zuma type shoot-the-marbles game into a battle against a computer opponent. While I swore all the way through it, it did make the finale much more satisfying once it was completed.

The premise is simple, you're a princess (named Isabella, strangely enough) who has returned to her castle to find it taken over by a (wait for it...) witches curse. You travel from room to room finding objects with the help of a fairy similar to Tinkerbell who helps you along the way. She almost helps too much by explaining what needs to be done to each puzzle in order to solve it. Once puzzles are solved you search for mirror pieces to put together jigsaw puzzle style. Once a mirror is completed, a castle member is "released" and gives you an additional item to help you in your journey.

I think the game would have been much more challenging if we were left to figure things out on our own as Tinkerbell's help makes the game is rather easy. The seek and find puzzles aren't extremely challenging as many of the items you are looking for are in plain sight. Still, there were enough puzzles to take a couple days to solve all the way through. I estimate about 10-15 hours of play for a reasonably sharp-eyed individual. There are around 30 different rooms you have to search through; two floors of a castle, a garden, a stable, and a tower. Some of the rooms have multiple puzzles. If hidden-object games are your game of choice, you will find a lot to like in here and it's recommended.

Finally, if you do like this game and are looking for a similar challenge, I also recommend The Scruffs.