Nintendo 3DS: MYST Release Delayed...

At the beginning of April, Mini Gamers discovered that online retail giants Play.com and Amazon.co.uk were both advertising a MYST 3DS game for preorder. The game was given a late April release date. Very little had been discussed about the game up until that point, and we were very confused as to why a popular franchise such as Myst should not receive a lot of publicity before its supposed release date.

Today however, just three weeks after it was first available for preorder, the game has since been taken off the preorders list on both sites and is now stated as: "Date to be confirmed" or "Out Of Stock - Unavailable"  What's worse, is that there is now no way of knowing when this product will be available for preorder again.

This particular 3DS title has ironically been shrouded in MYST-ery ever since it first surfaced online, and it looks like that mystery is set to deepen for the time being. Remember to check in with the Mini Gamers blogsite for more news on this subject as it happens.

Nintendo 3DS: Is MYST Coming To The 3DS?

The  Nintendo 3DS has proven to be a very popular console since its launch just over a week ago. The 3DS launch games for March/April have been highly publicised throughout the Media, and even some of the games scheduled for later in the year have already appeared on online retail sites such as Game and Amazon etc.

Imagine Mini Gamers surprise therefore when we discovered that a 3DS version of the best-selling MYST game was also scheduled for release at the end of this month. Why had we heard nothing about about this version until now?

In fact, Mini Gamers only found out that the game was being released for the Nintendo 3DS after searching on the Play.com website for new 3DS releases. There is no boxshot at the moment, but the the overall  preorder information on the website clearly states that the 3DS version of this game is scheduled for release on April 22nd 2011.

If you are a gamer, it is likely that you have already heard something about the MYST franchise, which has been re-released countless times in several different formats since its debut on the PC over eighteen years ago. Its more recent incarnations have also included the iPhone and the Nintendo DS.

For those of you to whom MYST is a complete mystery, however, the game puts players in the role of someone called the Stranger, who uses a special book to travel to the island of Myst.

Once in the game, players can then use other special books (which are all written by an explorer named Atrus) to travel to several worlds known only as 'Ages'. Players must help people trapped in the dimensional fissure of MYST's tropical island by finding clues in different locations and solving puzzles.

MYST is probably best described as a completely open-ended point-and-click puzzle adventure, and therefore the game has several endings, depending on the course of action that each player takes.

The original PC game was very popular and was commonly thought by many videogame critics and publications to be "The best-selling PC game of all time" until 2002, when it was finally overtaken by The Sims franchise.

Nevertheless, the Nintendo DS version, which was released in 2007 proved to be a lot less popular. The game was criticised for its lack of a clearly defined plot, which could be one of the reasons why the 3DS version of MYST has so far not been highlighted as an April 3DS release game, however, there is just no way of really knowing why this intriguing and innovative game has been virtually kept secret until now, all we can say at this stage is: its a MYST-ery!

Remember to keep checking in with the Mini Gamers blogsite for more news on this game as it develops.






Sources:

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/simslivinlarge/news_2857556.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myst/id311941991?mt=8

http://nds.gamezone.com/products/item/myst_nds/

http://www.play.com/Games/DS/4-/18658497/Myst/Product.html?searchtype=DS&searchsource=0&searchstring=Myst+3DS&urlrefer=search&strefer=DS&searchfilters=s%7bMyst+3DS%7d%2bc%7b362%7d%2bc%7b10047%7d%2b

NB: All images displayed in this blog post are taken from the iPhone and PC versions of Myst

What Ever Happened To... Last King of Africa?

As gamers, we should be used to changing release dates and game delays by now, but occasionally one stumbles across a game which never actually makes it onto the shelves at all. This is the case with the imaginative Action-Adventure RPG title called Last King of Africa.

The game, which was adapted from the PC title Paradise by a company called White Bird Productions and then developed by Focus Home Interactive, was first announced in June 2008.

Last King of Africa tells the story of a mysterious young woman who has lost her memory after a plane crash and who had been sent to the palace of a fictional African dictator known as King Rodon to recover and eventually join his harem of wives. The young woman must explore the palace and discover clues about the King and his servants - Only then will she find out the truth about her own true identity.

The DS version of the game was originally hailed as a graphics masterpiece, with beautiful 3D characters and fully-animated cutscenes designed by Belgian comic artist and writer, Benoît Sokal. However, dispite heavy marketing and the promises of an October/November 2008 release date, the game failed to reach official release in the UK or America.

Two years on, the game has managed to find its way into certain online retail spots such as Amazon MarketPlace, despite the fact that most mainstream retailers either claim that the game is still a pre-order item, or simply refuse to acknowledge the game's existence in their product lists.

Now, a new version of  Last King of Africa has been adapted for the Apple iPod, iPhone and iPad by a company called BulkyPix, but no further word has been given about the Nintendo DS version.  

It is a mystery why a game with so much promise was seemingly abandoned. Perhaps the truth of what happened lies in this statement from the White Birds Productions website:

"The company always has four to six projects in progress, of which certain see the light of day while others are abandoned..." [White Birds Productions] 

However, the idea of Last King of Africa being an abandoned project just doesn't hold true when you consider that the game is actually available in small quantities online. Maybe what really happened to this game will always be a mystery.

Nevertheless, for those DS owners who are interested in knowing what could have been, the Last King Of Africa trailer provides clear evidence of the type of breath-taking visuals and innovative storyline that the game's producers had originally planned, and may give iPod, iPhone and iPad users an idea of the type of game that they can expect:

LAST KING OF AFRICA DEBUT DS TRAILER 2008

The mobile version of this game was announced last month. Apple iPod, iPhone and iPad users can download the Last King Of Africa App from the iTunes store. Click here to go to the store now.