Myst Lands on iPhone; 1.5 GB Large

Useful apps aside, the iPhone is quickly becoming a major contender in the portable gaming market, especially with titles like Metal Gear Solid and Myst.

Useful apps aside, the iPhone is quickly becoming a major contender in the portable gaming market. With Sega, Konami, Majesco, and other gaming companies jumping on board, Sony's PlayStation Portable will eventually begin to feel the heat if a new version doesn't appear soon. The Nintendo DS and DSi, on the other hand, sitting upon its throne of cash and dominating the current hand-held market, has nothing to worry about... yet. However, if Myst for the iPhone and iPod Touch 2G is any kind of example, the gap between Apple's device(s) and Sony and Nintendo is quickly growing smaller.

Cyan Worlds recently released a revamped version of its classic point-n-click adventure game Myst on Saturday, bringing the complete game to Apple's devices for $5.99. For a game of this stature, the price isn't too shabby: Sega's Super Monkey Ball features the same pricetag, and Konami's Metal Gear Solid and Dance Dance Revolution S costs $7.99 and $6.99 respectively. However, the big concern here is not the size in price, but the size in download: 727 MB in fact. According to the company, consumers will need at least 1.5 GB of space just to install the game; the extra is returned to the user once the installation process completes. For owners of the 8 GB version(s), that's a large chunk of space.

But for fans of the Myst franchise, the size may very well be worth it. "Remember how the surrealistic island became your world?," the info page reads. "The note, the garden, the books, the pages, the brothers, the choices? Now Myst can become your world no matter where in the world you are."

Cyan Worlds said that the visuals and audio of Myst have been meticulously "re-assembled," sporting high-quality images (better than the original according to the features list), the original movies, animations, and all the music and sound effects from the original game. Naturally the mouse is no longer required; fans simply touch or swipe their way through the world, and can even auto-zoom in certain close-up areas. Additionally, Myst also provides quick access to a hint guide, a "bookmark" system to save and restore progress, and an auto-save feature when quitting or placing phone calls.

However, getting the game onto the device(s) may prove to be a challenge. "Myst for iPhone and iPod Touch is a very large application--more like a movie than a song or album," the company said. "Download times and syncing times can be longer--depending on your connection speed." It may be ideal to download the game via iTunes on the PC and then transfer the application to the iPhone and iPod Touch via a USB connection.

Although Myst is an all-time classic, 727 MB seems a bit much for an iPhone game download. Still, this may be a sign of things to come as developers and publishers bring older titles over to Apple's portable devices. Still, with the hefty download and storage requirements just to install the game, fans may switch over to another classic: id Software's revamped Wolfenstein 3D Classic, weighing in only at a mere 9.7 MB.

Source: Tom's Guide