Fairy Godmother Stories 1: Cinderella

Fairy Godmother Stories: Cinderella
by Domini Games - November, 2019

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition /
Steam as Collector's Edition



Domini Games proudly presents a new spell-binding series in Fairy Godmother Stories: Cinderella!

As her fairy Godmother, it’s up to you to guide and help Cinderella in times of need. But your whole world is turned upside down when you’re arrested under suspicion of committing a string of robberies! Someone’s definitely trying to frame you, but who and why? With nothing left behind at the crime scenes but strange glass slippers, can you crack the case and clear your name before it’s too late? Find out in this enchanting Hidden-Object Puzzle adventure!

• Rescue Red Riding Hood’s Grandmother in the bonus game!
  
• Inspect hidden cabinets, concoct potions, and more by replaying HOPs and mini-games and earn achievements!
  
• Tons of magic shoes, moonstones, and morphing objects to find!
  
• Enjoy exclusive wallpapers, music, videos, and more!
  
• Never get lost with the strategy guide!
  

Fairy Godmother Stories 1: Cinderella (IHOG or Match-3 Adventure)

Options include four sliders for sounds, Stretch, Full-screen, Custom Cursor and Special Effects.  Choice of three pre-set difficulties, or you can go with Custom Mode (can be changed at any time).

Story:

You are Cinderella's fairy Godmother, and just when she needs your help, the Peacekeepers burst in and arrest you for committing a string of robberies!  Now you must prove your innocence and find the real culprit... All without your magic!

The story takes place in Taleville, which has modern conveniences such as cars and computers, but somehow retains the old-timey feel of the original setting.


We don't have a Journal, but the story is easy enough to keep track of.  We DO have a book with tabs for Tasks and Notes that we find.

Gameplay:

The MAP can be interactive, and you can choose right on the popup whether you want places with unfound collectibles to be marked.  Directional HINTS are available.

Speaking of Collectibles, there are three types:  Moonstones (which you use to buy items in your Potion Shop), Household Items (morphing objects) and Shoes.  There is a triple-indicator area on your toolbar to help you keep track of where you have/haven't found these items yet.

Hidden Object Scenes vary, ranging from your standard find-by-list to riddles, placing items back in the scene and more.  There is a Match-3 game that you can do instead of finding objects, and it's satisfying enough to play... My only gripe is that you can't make moves while pieces are falling.


Most of the Mini-games have a difficulty option (Easy or Hard), and yes, the solutions are different!

We are unable to use magic for most of the game because our wand was taken away, so we have to do things the hard way (you know, as people without magic usually do. lol~)

The logic was both inventive and totally ridiculous, a strange mashup to be sure.  I appreciated that we found alternate (but believable) ways to accomplish our goals, but some of the tasks we needed to do were absolutely asinine.  I don't want to give any spoilers, so I will only say being expected to use explosives in unsafe ways is going to rub me the wrong way every time.

Sights and Sounds:

There are some gorgeous visuals around the way, and the meshing of modern technology with a magical environment was handled very nicely.


The sound work -- including the voiceovers -- was unremarkable... In other words, it seemed appropriate for the environment, and nothing was jarringly out-of-place.

CE Content:

• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• In-game Achievements
  
• 3 types of Collectibles (can access found items in Extras area)
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• 10 Wallpapers
  
• 10 Concept Art
  
• 5 downloadable Music Tracks
  
• 27 Cutscenes
  
• 17 Mini-games
  
• 17 Hidden Object Scenes
  

Bonus Chapter:

Totally unrelated to the main story, in the bonus you will be helping Red Riding Hood, whose grandmother has been kidnapped!  Although we're still a fairy godmother, we use magic only once during the bonus, and even then we had to find the parts we needed first.  Why we weren't carrying around our wand with us, I have no idea.

Verdict:

This is a well-made game that suffers from story inconsistencies and some logic that set my teeth on edge -- A personal pet peeve that may not affect your enjoyment of the game at all!  Recommended to IHOG fans and those who like having a match-3 alternative.