Having just finished playing Myst on the DS, I felt the need to vent about it, and as M. is currently snoring, this will have to do. (Queue angry blog rant)

When the original Myst came out on for the PC in 1993, I was immediately hooked. It was fun, intelligent, exciting, addictive, and beautiful (for its time and age). I was a fan from the beginning, and played Riven and Myst III no questions asked. I even revisited Myst from time to time, since it was such a fun game. After finding out that they had remade Myst for the DS a week ago, I was thrilled. Ecstatic, even. And, to make it better, they had included a semi-new island. I had to have it. I read a bunch of reviews online about it, but even their semi-negativity couldn’t bring me down. I was optimistic that the PC game love of my childhood life would deliver.

Well, I just finished playing it, and…well, it didn’t quite live up to what I was hoping for. It wasn’t a problem with the game itself, it was definitely in the format. Myst just isn’t suited for the DS. What were once beautiful scenes and puzzles are now very cramped and pixelated, and seeing anything small and detailed is nearly impossible. Thank god they gave me a magnifying glass in my toolbar. The stylus was awkward for the format of the game, where you click to move, change direction, pick something up, and what have you. The notetaking device was meh at best, and obnoxious at worst; I didn’t use it the entire game. I’ll take sticky notes and a pen over that any day. Also, the ending was very anticlimactic with this new island. It was pretty unempressive. One easy puzzle to solve, and no indication that the game was really over. Just…nothing. That was a little dissappointing.

So, all in all, I still love Myst. But its the PC Myst, not the DS incarnation. The DS incarnation is more akin to the family member everyone is ashamed of, and is kept hidden in the attic when guests are over. Or, the plastic silverware as opposed to the fine silver flatware, if you prefer a less controversial human rights example.. Its OK in a pinch, but I’ll take the PC version any day.

Also, I just realized I never played the fourth and fifth games in the series. I MUST GO BUY THESE RIGHT AWAY.