MCF MillionHeir Review

I’ve become a big fan of the “Hidden Object Games.” Lately my game pal Laurie and I have been working our way through the Mystery Case Files series. These games are mostly for the PC, but there have been two titles released for mobile devices.

Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir is for the Nintendo DS, and it generally succeeds in bringing the popular HOG to the GameBoy.

The thin plot of the game involves the player searching for the heir to a recently-vanished mogul. Gameplay consists of meeting a parade of typically colorful characters and engaging in a series of hidden object puzzles to move the story forward.

You might think that a HOG wouldn’t work well on the small screens of the Nintendo DS, but the designers make it work pretty well. The searching all takes place on the lower screen using the stylus. Since you don’t have the benefit of a large PC screen to see the entire area, you use the movable “camera” to scan the image.

In addition to simply moving around the screen and hunting for objects with the naked eye, as the game progresses you acquire extra tools to help you in your search. There’s an infrared scanner, a flashlight and even a pair of special goggles that help you spy objects that are in liquid.

There are bonus puzzles at the end of each level, and these are generally of the jigsaw or slider variety.

The graphics are fine, but nothing to write home about.

In fact, I’d rank the entire enterprise this way: It gets the job done. It provides your HOG fix on a hand-held system. And while I commend Big Fish for designing a puzzle adventure directly for the DS (as opposed to simply porting a PC game to the smaller platform), I have to say that the Mystery Case Files experience is somehow . . . reduced on the small screens. Compared to the lush screens, smooth animations and high-quality musical scores of the PC versions, MillionHeir feels more repetitive, and the gameplay simply wears out its welcome more quickly. While I did enjoy the experience, it wasn’t the breezy fun of playing a MCF game on the PC.

I do hope Big Fish tries again. As their popularity proves, the HOG is a solid formula. It deserves a second try on the DS.

System Requirements:

Nintendo DS

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.