Myst

This was my favorite computer game when I was a kid. As an 8 year-old child, these puzzles were extremely difficult but I was caught up in the amazing idea created by the game - someone can "write" worlds into existence and explore them, I wouldn't be surprised if this game was my original spark to write fantasy.

If you've never played the original Myst or any of it's sequels, it's basically a puzzle game in which your goal becomes more noticable to you as you go along. You start off on a strange island with no apparent goal or any idea what is going on. As you move through the game, you find yourself on different worlds written by a character, Atrus (that is of course if you can even progress far enough of the starting island to get yourself to another world - these puzzles require quite a bit of thinking).

Obviously, when converting the game to the iPhone they couldn't change the graphics much without changing the game entirely. Therefore, Myst is still the constant succession of image after image with certain parts that are interactive. Movement is based on where you touch the screen, turning controlled by swiping your finger across the screen. Interactions with objections can vary from simply pressing them, dragging across, or even turning (as in grabbing a handle and dragging in a circular motion to spin a wheel). I found myself having no problem getting used to the controls, at times I forgot I was on the iPhone and felt like I was playing the game on my computer so many years ago.

A common aid in playing the game for many people is to keep a notebook in order to write down notes and draw pictures - I would still suggest that for the game for the iPhone considering it's the same game. I have a Moleskine notebook I carry around with me everywhere anyway, so I've reserved a few pages in it to keep my notes for Myst. Another possible way to keep notes for the game would be to take screenshots of anything you'd like to remember and check them in your Photos whenever you want to bring them up - though this is inconvenient considering you would have to close the app and then reopen it after viewing the picture.

The game has added an info screen, something I don't remember from the computer game, that allows you to create four bookmarks that you can move between. You simply drag the bookmark to the "current screen" to move back to that point in the game. This screen also gives you the ability to change the transition speed between frames, sound volume, toggle the options icon, drop the pages (you'll understand that once you start playing), as well as a help and hints website links.

Since the game is exactly as it was on a computer, if you liked the game then you'll like it now - buy it. If you've never played a Myst game I would still suggest buying it, it requires no previous experience with the series to play it on the iPhone.