I have tried the newest version of this wonderful classic and the DS cannot do the game justice. The game was designed to be played on a PC system in darkened room with a decent pair of external speakers to experience the sensation of being in a totally new world. The DS system cannot even begin to replicate this environment even in the smallest manner.

The DS' screens are too small and the sound, even with earphones, is not nearly what it should be. Plus, the game's interface has to try and overcome the small visual size and it just cannot manage it.

If you want to see the official website for this version, here it is: www.myst-ds.com (it may not be a hot link so just type it in if desired). Just replay the game on your PC to experience the wonderful work done by the Miller brothers and their early gang of PC game-changing cohorts. Don't dampen your memory of it by playing the DS version. Buy some other game written explicitly for the DS to appreciate this hand-held system.

Hi Bruce --

Thanks for the mini-review. Did you play very far into this version?

The link you provided works fine, btw.

I would have been surprised if Myst on the DS could even begin to replicate the PC experience. I love my DS but I agree with you--best to stick to games written for the DS

I can not imagine myself playing an adventure game on a console... It would be very odd... But that's just me... I just love my mouse and keyboard

Volkana, the DS is a hand held portable system--a little smaller than a paper back book.

I first saw Syberia on the Xbox--but it was much prettier on the PC.

Hard to believe they even tried to move it to that platform. Even though I have not used a DS I have to agree with your comment,



That was exactly the way I first experienced MYST and it should be recommended right on the box!

Becky,
I didn't play too far using the DS for two reasons: the gaming experience was disappointing and the game actually froze up on me when I activated the rotating tower map in the library. It may have just been a glitch in my DS game cartridge but I never could get it past that point.

Just for the record, I have played Myst and Syberia I on the PS2 platform. While they did well and the controls were OK for moving around in the games, the PS2 didn't or couldn't convey the intimate experience of playing them on a PC in the proper setting.

Well if it's hand portable it will be even more odd for me although a used to have in 1996...

I've played Myst on both Pocket PC and PSP.
The biggest drawbacks on the PSP were that (1) you don't have a stylus and have to use the thumbstick to move the cursor, which takes extra time and (2) you have to wait for the UMD disc to spin up before the game will react (similar to waiting for a CD to spin up on a PC). The advantages were that the game is interesting in widescreen and the sound quality is better on the PSP than on the PocketPC. The PocketPC version had a stylus, which helped a lot. It also plays off your memory card so you get an instant response when you tap something. Unfortunately the PocketPC version tended to crash right after you finish the subway puzzle and are linking back to Myst, which means you have to redo the whole tedious subway puzzle. The crash may have been corrected by now, since PocketPC games do get updated. The PSP version included the Rime Age, while the PocketPC version did not. But Rime was a disappointment on PSP. You lose the weather effects, and Rime is the only Age where they left out puzzles compared with the original PC version.

Both PocketPC and PSP have better resolution than the DS. I collect Myst versions, but I don't know if I want to pay $30 for the DS version.

I like to play the different versions too Jenny which is why I did try the DS game. I didn't know it came out for the PocketPC too.

Myst and Riven have both been out for PocketPC for some time now.
Unfortunately Riven wasn't stable so I decided to wait until they updated it to play it. It's been over a year since I tried it though, so the problems may be fixed by now.

There are several adventure game ports out for PocketPC, including Syberia, Syberia 2, Return to Mysterious Island, Atlantis III, The Egyptian Prophecy, Gilbert Goodmate, and Echo among others. I haven't played all of these, but Return to Mysterious Island and Atlantis III left out puzzles. Myst was complete though. It included all the puzzles that were in the original Myst game.