While it’s nice when games give you original stories and characters, like The Last of Us, Alan Wake, Death Stranding, and Cyberpunk 2077, it’s also cool to see games that are inspired by the classic fairy tales we all loved to read as children. While there are Disney animated movie adaptations or other live-action films, playing through fairy tale worlds is an entirely different experience.
The tales told by brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, along with stories from other cultures, have put game developers into creative gear to try and turn them into something often darker and more horrifying. Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White were never quite as unique as they are in these games.
Little Red Riding Hood is the fairy tale used as the premise for Tale of Tales' The Path, but with a unique spin. Instead of just one Little Red, there are six sisters on their way to grandma’s house through the woods, where they must stick to the path. The forest starts out beautiful and wondrous, and the title card transition is also brilliantly executed, but things only get darker from there.
When you reach your grandmother’s house, that’s when this becomes an eerie psychological horror game, as the character designs, lighting, tone, and mood shiftto something Silent Hill-esque. The Path plays more like a third-person narrative walking simulator with no combat and only item collection mechanics. You get to play the story from the perspective of each sister, and the atmospheric soundtrack is from ex-Swans member Jarboe.
10Hansel And Gretel
Hansel And Gretel is a free-to-play 2D pixel art adventure puzzle game based on the Brothers Grimm tale of the same name. There have been many iterations of this tale in film, including the darker arthouse take from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins in 2020 and the gory R-rated Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. This game sticks closer to the classic iteration, with the witch’s house made of scrumptious chocolate bars and cake and a trail of lollipops leading to the entrance.
This is quite a short little adventure, but one filled with item collection, puzzles, and exploration, with atmospheric woods and an eerie witch looking to eat this young brother and sister. There’s also the option for local co-op, as you and your friend can take control of both Hansel and Gretel in this game.
9American McGee’s Grimm
A more well-known developer taking on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm is none other than American McGee, best known for the dark Alice in Wonderland games. Grimm is actually an episodic video game, totalling 23 episodes in all and almost 12 hours of gameplay for the main story alone. Every episode will cover a specific fairy tale from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Hansel and Gretel are most certainly here, along with Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, but there’s a darker twist. You’re not playing through these fairy tales as the characters themselves, but rather an evil troll protagonist named Grimm, who is entering these worlds to corrupt them by making them nastier by wreaking havoc and filling up the ‘Dark-O-Meter.’
As the title suggests, Cinders is a play on the tale of Cinderella, but less so the happy Disney version of the character, and also not as horrifying as The Ugly Stepsister version.In this visual novel-style game, depending on your choices, you may make Cinderella (affectionately called ‘Cinders’ for her red hair) an evil protagonist in the story.
The goal of this game is actually to break the classic fairy tale everyone knows and loves by taking charge of the story yourself along any number of paths, almost like what American McGee did with Grimm, but in a more elegant and narrative-driven way. There’s an original take on the character designs, with a very unique fantasy aesthetic, and the environment art used for the settings is all gorgeous.
Puss in Boots is a 16th-century Italian-originated fairy tale by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, who’s been the fan-favorite character in the Shrek movies, voiced by Antonio Banderas, and received spin-off films like 2022’s The Last Wish (often regarded as the best iteration). The 2011 game, Puss in Boots, is an adaptation of the original standalone spin-off movie of the same name.
Believe it or not,the swordfighting combat mechanicsare actually quite fun and capture the vibe of the character, with Puss even getting to crawl on his enemies and claw and scratch away at them (the perks of playing an anthropomorphic cat). There are also stealth sections incorporated. Since it follows the story of the 2011 film, you’ll encounter Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill while seeking out the magic beans from Jack and the Beanstalk.
Another Red Riding Hood-themed game is Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries, which was surprisingly published by the developer ofthe Sniper Elite seriesand Alien versus Predator games, Rebellion. This is an action platforming game where Little Red is a vigilante-type protagonist, essentially her own fairy tale version of DC’s Red Hood, and gets to meet various fairy tale characters, including The Pied Piper and the Big Bad Wolf (stylized B.B. Woolfe).
The game combines traditional hack-and-slash combat with 2.5D side-scrolling platforming, almost akin to The Last Case of Benedict Fox, American McGee’s Alice, and Little Nightmares, but with a vibrant fantasy-inspired setting. This version of Red Riding Hood comes equipped with an axe to hack away at enemies with flurries of attacks, all on a quest to find the truth behind her father’s death, deviating from the original tale.
Bramble: The Mountain King is another dark, horror-inspired fairy tale game. It’s based on Scandinavian folklore and is described as a “grim adventure.” Set in the land of Bramble, this title follows a little boy named Olle on a quest to rescue his sister, who is kidnapped by a troll. On his journey, Olle encounters nightmarish landscapes with hideous creatures from Nordic myth.
It’s an ominous adventure game akin to Little Nightmares, where you solve puzzles and must avoid enemies who are much larger than you, but where you can also die in gruesome ways. There are antagonistic figures like Näcken, a water spirit you’ll have to sprint past along the lily pads, or later the Skogsrå, a shapeshifter who lures men to their deaths. The titular antagonist, The Mountain King, also comes from the fables.
The story of Alice in Wonderland has both a whimsical and an eerie Gothic feel to it, and the Tim Burton movies captured that spirit well. American McGee’s Alice, however, is a 3D action platforming game with a much darker and more mature take on the character Alice from the fairy tale. The original title launchedas early as 2000 for PC, followed by the sequel, Madness Returns, in 2011, both creating a bold new vision.
American McGee’s Alice games take on a psychological horror theme, where young Alice Liddell is psychologically scarred andcommitted to a mental hospitalafter losing her parents in a house fire, escaping to Wonderland via her headspace at the behest of her toys coming to life. Everything gets twisted in this version of Wonderland, like eventhe Vorpal Blade weaponnow being a kitchen knife and having to fight intense bosses.
Ravenswatch isan indie roguelike gamethat feels highly reminiscent of Hades 2 from the same developer behind Curse of the Dead Gods. But instead of Greek mythology, you have characters from all sorts of legends and fairy tales. These include Little Red Riding Hood (who can transform into a werewolf), The Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen, Beowulf, Sun Wukong, Geppetto, Aladdin, The Pied Piper, and more.
The story is that all these characters must join forces to help the fabled land of Reverie from being overrun by the creatures brought on by The Nightmare. You’ll encounter other famous fabled NPCs in this realm, like Sinbad, The Three Little Pigs, and even The Sandman (yes, the Dream Dealer himself). You can also go on runs with up to four players in co-op.
Lies of P is an intriguing Soulslike adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. And the game is brilliant at keeping a dreary horror vibe tied to a rogue puppet apocalypse and Petrification Disease set against a Gothic Belle Époque-inspired environment, while keeping inmany details and Easter egg references to the original fairy tale of Pinocchio.
It’s as original and unique of a take asGuillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, while being more like Pan’s Labyrinth in terms of the fantasy horror atmosphere and grotesque creature designs. There’s Jiminy Cricket (Gemini here), Geppetto, and the Blue Fairy (Sophia) as your allies, as well as NPCs and bosses tied to characters from the fairy tale.The parry system is also one of the best in the Soulslike genre.
