Play Brave Online

Brave came out on the Nintendo DS in 2012, developed by Behaviour Interactive. It was a time when the handheld was still getting a fair number of movie tie-ins, and this one was based on the Pixar film. You play as Merida, the headstrong Scottish princess, and the game follows the movie's story pretty closely, sending you across the highlands to undo a curse.

You control Merida through a series of side-scrolling levels, using her bow to hit targets, solve environmental puzzles, and fight off enemies like wolves and bears. The touch screen is used for aiming your shots, which adds a tactile layer to the combat. You explore screen by screen, often backtracking after gaining new abilities, like special arrow types that interact with the world in different ways. The pacing is straightforward, and the difficulty is manageable, never becoming too punishing. It feels like a competent, if unspectacular, adventure that gets the job done.