Forgotten Tales: Day of the Dead

I'll be honest: I sat down with this one expecting to tab away after ten minutes, and instead I found myself chaining combos at midnight while marigold-lit scenery drifted past. Forgotten Tales: Day of the Dead is a tri-peaks solitaire adventure from small outfit Green Sauce Games, built around a simple premise - Manuel's bride Maria has been snatched by a dark spirit on the Day of the Dead, and you clear card layouts to push him closer to her. The hook is modest by modern standards, but the setting does quiet, steady work. Dia de los Muertos is a genuinely underused backdrop in PC gaming, and Green Sauce leans into it with colorful cartoon art, candles-and-skulls level dressing, and a soundtrack that players across multiple platforms have specifically called out for keeping them engaged when they normally mute game audio. That is no small thing. The core loop is classic ascending-or-descending sequence removal: match the card on your draw pile one value up or down from the top card on the field, chain as many removals as you can, and watch your combo multiplier climb. What lifts this above a plain solitaire reskin is a set of special card modifiers layered into the layouts. Some cards are locked behind hidden keys you have to uncover before you can clear them. Others are wreathed in fire and need a water card to extinguish first. Bombs and Rockets interact with each other in satisfying chain-reaction ways. Gold you earn from combos and coin cards funds a small shop of power-up boosters - extra draws, card destroyers - that give you a genuine decision to make before each level. None of it is deep strategy, but the texture is enough to keep the rhythm from going flat. The structure is story-chapter based: Manuel moves between locations, meets quirky spirits who have lost things and need help, and occasionally one of those encounters unlocks a new route or item. It is a light narrative, told mostly through brief dialogue exchanges, but the characters are funny in a dry, unhurried way that fits the mood. The pacing is gentle - almost meditative - and that is by design. Players who came to this from the mobile version (it has been available on Android and iOS for some time before the Steam release) have described it as anxiety-relief material, and I understand that framing. The music specifically, calm and vaguely folkloric, earns its keep. Where the game earns its "Mixed" Steam standing is in the value proposition. The Steam version sits alongside a crowded field of solitaire titles, and at its length it will not challenge anyone already fluent in games like Fairway Solitaire or Regency Solitaire. The level count is substantial in number but the difficulty curve is shallow, meaning experienced players may feel the resistance drain away faster than they want. There is a high-score layer and Gold Skull bonus targets for combo chasers, which adds modest replay incentive, but not enough to call this a long-term commitment. The art style is also clearly mobile-native - functional, cute, not technically impressive on a desktop monitor. If you are here for pixel craft or intricate hand-drawn detail, temper expectations. For what it is - a calm, atmosphere-first solitaire with a genuine sense of place and a warm little ghost-story at its centre - it succeeds without apology. Casual players, people who want something to run on a secondary monitor, or anyone who just likes the aesthetic of sugar skulls and candlelight will find it easy to like. Card-game purists looking for layout complexity or meaningful strategic depth should look at the later Solitaire Collection entry from the same developer first.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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