But what was behind the frenzy? Empire Interactive wants DS owners to find out later this month (PSP owners will have to wait a few more months for their port). The entire game is controlled through the touch screen, an obvious design decision considering the hardware's capabilities. Point and click now becomes point and touch -- however, expect to have a bit more difficulty with the handheld version. When using the mouse on the PC, players knew what they can click on by the shape of their cursor. There is no on-screen representation of your stylus, so players will have to simply use their intuition to click on the appropriate items.
There are a few new tools for players to use, however. There's a clever magnifying glass, which allows players to zoom in on objects in the game world. You can even take snapshots of your screen and save them, recalling them for use during a particularly tricky puzzle. There's a map as well, but it won't indicate where you are. Finally, you can save notes, typed via virtual keyboard (no handwriting recognition, sorry). These additional tools should make navigating the game's tricky puzzles a bit less daunting.
The DS handles the game quite smoothly, with nary a load screen to be found. Moving from one locale to another is instantaneous, almost jarringly so. With the exception of a new level (the Rime Age), the DS port is pretty much a carbon copy of the original game. All the puzzles and FMV sequences are on the cartridge, intact from the original PC adventure.
Obviously, that's a good thing for the dedicated Myst fan base, who wouldn't want to see this classic changed in one way. However, the genre has advanced quite a bit over the fifteen years since the game's original release. Some may find the game rather primitive and antiquated by today's standards. Players that already know how they feel about Myst won't change their minds about the DS version -- for better or worse, this is pretty much the same Myst we've known for all these years.
