The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley (iOS) Review

It’s only a Cursed Valley if you suck at finding things.

Man is constantly searching for the answers to things. Whether it’s the meaning of life, the real reason “why she won’t call him back”, or an actual homemade recipe for an Outback Steak House Bloomin’ that works worth a damn — it’s always so hard to get the breading to stay on the onion strips!

But I digress…

Sometimes, man’s search for answers is much, much simpler: like a hidden picture game on an iOS device. If this is one of your destinies, then do I have a game for you to take a look at.

While The Magician’s Handbook might look like your typical hidden picture game, it actually offers a couple of interesting differences from traditional Big Fish-style games from years past.

Let me begin the review by saying that I really don’t understand why developers try to put a story into a game that really doesn’t need it. The Magician’s Handbook is one of those games. Fortunately, they’re also wise enough to know that some people are in it for the pictures and really don’t care about the story, and have made this tale of mystical wonder completely skippable.

The core gameplay is finding hidden items amongst some very busy backdrops. You are presented with a list of words on the left side of the screen that you must find before time runs out. Some words are easy enough to figure out what your looking for while others aren’t so. For example, a word like “horn” could mean a brass instrument or it could mean a pair of antlers (or a unicorn horn), which can add to the challenge (or frustration) or the game.

To prevent you from “cheating” by tapping the screen randomly, you will be penalized by losing precious time if you constantly tap incorrect objects in a short amount of time.

Once you find enough items, you can cast a spell or play a potion minigame to proceed to the next chapter. Casting a spell is also a skippable mini-game, but I thought it was unique and enjoyable enough that I played them. Casting a spell involves combining words together to form the words of the spell. Much like the hidden items, the screen is filled with a variety of different segments of words, in different shapes, sizes, and fonts. Your goal is to find those hidden words and word fragments before the time runs out.

The optional spell-casting mini-game has you finding words instead of items.

I had mentioned earlier that the Magician’s Handbook had some other interesting features that separated it from older hidden picture games. During the search you can cast spells, which will recharge over time. One will repel distractions, and another will help you find an item on your list.

I quite enjoyed The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley. It was challenging enough without being overly difficult. I never had to worry about running out of time, and with the assistance of the assisting spells finding those impossible-to-see items was a little easier.

The biggest critique I had was that it was played on an iPhone, and the real estate of the small screen meant that I was constantly scrolling a zoomed-in view of the search screen around. I’m assuming that this game is probably a little more enjoyable on the bigger screen of an iPad.

Because the items are so finely drawn, and not easy to find, I highly recommend playing this on a device with a Retina screen, as well, like the 4th generation iPod Touch or the latest iPhone models. Anything with a lower resolution might not be as clear (although I don’t have an “inferior” model iOS device to this theory on).

Final Thoughts:

The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley is your typical hidden picture puzzle game, but is unique enough to stand out on its own, by offering assistance in the form of rechargeable spells, and making it feel more like gameplay and less like “cheating.”

If you like games with stories, even puzzle games, the developers have included a story mode. For those who want to get right into the action, they can skip right over it and go right to the findin’!

The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley is available for $2.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch version, and $4.99 for the iPad version.

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Troy is the Features Editor at Brutal Gamer. When he's not writing about or playing video games, he's enjoying life with his wife and children. He also loves coffee. And lots of it.

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