Game Review: Restore paintings in The Hunt for Red Panda!

Who doesn’t enjoy looking at paintings and admiring their beauty? Especially when it comes to painting of other times that make us feel like we’re inside a fairy tale. The colors, the clothes and the beauty standards of each age all create a painting that is hard to avoid staring at and wondering what the artist had in mind when creating and the limits of their talent. So when famous works of art become a unique game by Zagrava Games, there is nothing holding me back from getting on to playing it.

Plot

On the Hunt for Red Panda the player takes on the role of an art detective who is on a mission to restore and bring back to their former glory famous paintings that have been altered by the mischievous vandal known as Red Panda. This vandal has added many anachronisms and weird additions to the paintings thus marking them unrecognizable and it is up to you to find the items and carefully fix all these errors and at the same time collect clues that will bring the police one step closer to catching the notorious Red Panda before he strikes again.

Gameplay

The game takes the player on a trip to some of the most famous art museums in the world and on each location you will have to go on restoration process in all the paintings that have been vandalized by Red Panda. In order to do that you are given a tool box consisting of 5 tools (some will appear as you progress) and namely are: a reagent which is a chemical that prepares the imperfection for removal, a knife, a sewing needle, a paintbrush, and an eraser all necessary to correct every kind of blemish imaginable. All tools appear at the right side of your screen. You always begin the process by taping on the reagent and then tapping on the spot that that needs to be cleaned. To know which tool to use next, the game offers a helping hand by making the tool in question shake. Another way to know which tool is needed is by checking the color that appears after using the reagent, e.g. if the color that appears is pink it means you’ll need to use the eraser and if the color is grey you will need to use the brush.

At the left side appears a timer that starts moving faster with each wrong move you make so pay close attention and use the zoom function to have the best results. If the time runs out before finding all the items that are asked of you then you’ll need to start over. However, when you restart you’ll only have to look for the remaining number of mistakes and not for the total, but please keep in mind that when you restart the mistakes change so memorizing is futile and also the timer moves faster as you have less errors to spot.

As a result of these rules, the game is rather difficult but also fair and certainly challenging enough. To add to the fun, it also has a variety of mini-games for you to choose from such as the puzzles where you need to swap pieces to compose the correct image, or the paint game where you need to move the bucket from left to right to catch all the paint drops.  Games reward you with extra hints thus giving you more reasons to try them out.

Except the number of errors you need to find and fix on each painting, there are also some other tasks you’ll need to complete such as finding x number of errors in a row without making any mistakes, or finding the smallest objects on a canvas, or to swat x number of flies that fly around before time ends and many more. All the tasks serve as the spice and make things much more interesting but they sometimes require many repeats before you manage to finish successfully due to the timer which is the main enemy of the player (after Red Panda of course!). If you complete a level successfully you are rewarded 3 stars and move on to the next painting. Also at the end of every level you are given information regarding the painting you just restored, which is very educating and useful. As you progress you will also uncover hints about Red Panda and come closer to revealing his identity. But to find these hints you’ll need to get better and faster every time.

What I especially enjoy in Red Panda is how funny most errors are and the anachronistic items used. I can’t help but laugh when a new painting appears and notice the faults in it. The developers have really used all their imagination into this aspect and it is highly appreciated as it makes even a loss seem funny.

Pricing & Availability

The Hunt For Red Panda is available on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 mobile devices. The game retails for $2.99. There are no IAPs in-game, you only pay once to purchase it and no further costs are present.

Graphics & Sounds

The paintings are all real-life works of art and the added items are all designed and placed very realistically inside them. The menus, tools and mini-games’ designs are all very detailed, with crystal-clear color and the whole appearance is smooth and vibrant. The BG music is fun and uplifting.

Conclusion

There is nothing to not like in Red Panda. Everything is done with care and it is amazing how easily the player gets attracted to it. Using the tools and restoring the paintings is very satisfying and finding the wrong items is a very fun task. Discovering paintings you haven’t seen before and learning more about them is also something that makes this game worth having. If you like art and want something fun and different, then you should consider trying out Red Panda. Let us know your thoughts and impressions in the comments below.

Download The Hunt for Red Panda for iOS devices here.

Download The Hunt for Red Panda for Android devices here.

To find out more about the team behind Red Panda visit the official site: http://www.zagravagames.com.

Red Panda screenshots (above) and trailer (below)