Originally posted here: https://cultclassiccornervideogames.wordpress.com/2022/06/13/a-look-back-at-the-various-ports-of-myst/
NOTE: This has been slightly edited from the original but the contents are 99% the same.
You would think out of all the consoles that would be perfect for a port of the original Myst, the Nintendo DS would in the top 5. It has touch controls, which would be perfect to walk through Myst and solve it's puzzles, and it's portable, which is a nice way to play the game, especially since the game is low stress and you can save anywhere, and it's not like the console didn't have it's fair share of point-and-click adventure games along with adjacent genres like Visual Novels and Hidden Object games. And it's top screen would be great for things like a map for whatever Age you were in, optional hints, and easily showing which page you've picked up without being intrusive on the bottom screen.
But somehow this version of the game ends up being absolutely awful and the problems begin right off the bat.
Both the audio and video have been compressed to the point that the game now looks and sounds awful. I'm fine with each screen being compressed since it was made for something as small as the DS screen, but the compressed sound really ruins the experience. The sound chip in the DS was never the best, but there have been games that have sounded fine, so I don't know how this ended up sounding this bad. And it only gets more grating as the game goes on.
And it’s not like this is a minor nitpick since having the sound be this bad actually affects the gameplay. The puzzles in the Selenitic Age are all based around sound, which means that there is no excuse as to why the game sounds this bad.
Just like the PSP version of Myst, the DS version is missing the flyby videos for each Age. While the PSP had about 1.8 gigabytes to work with, the DS was limited to 512 megabytes at the absolute biggest, so there did have to be some compromise. But considering what the development team did with that with the PSP version of Myst, that compromise didn't have to be there, but more on that later.
But for an actual nitpick, the intro movie for this version of Myst has Comic Sans for the credits. I know that Comic Sans has received a lot of hate over the years, mostly due to people misusing it, but did the developers really have to use Comic Sans of all things? Not something like New Times Roman? It doesn’t even fit with the games tone of aesthetic, which is extra bad since Myst is centered around books of all things. I know it’s kinda pointless, and it was probably chosen because it pops out on the screen, but it still irks me.
And that’s not even the last of it, as the gameplay of Myst, what little it had, also gets a downgrade. Literally the only interactivity that Myst has was clicking on a still image to interact with something, clicking on a still image to move around, or clicking on a still image to pick something up.
In the DS version it took me a couple of taps on the screen to figure out what what exact pixel that I was supposed to click on the be able to do anything. Imagine trying to now only solve the sound puzzles of the Selenitic Age with audio that makes it hard to do so, but having to try and get through the maze twice with these controls is unbearable, even just by thinking about it. The Selenitic Age is borderline unplayable.
But it’s not like this version of Myst is completely without merit. This version does come with a Map that you can easily bring up by tapping the map icon that displays on the top screen showing off whatever location that you’re currently in. I don’t know why it’s not there permanently, but whatever. Whatever page you’ve picked up and are now holding onto are shown in a square instead of just changing the cursor to a hand holding a colored piece of paper, which would have been awful on the DS screen.
The game even come with a camera feature that lets you takes a picture of whatever screen that you’re currently on and displays it on the top screen. It’s limited to one shot at a time, but it’s still nice that it’s in here and can be helpful for puzzles. It comes with the ‘Zip Mode’ that lets you get through areas that you’ve already explored more quickly, and it even comes with a notepad that you can write notes in. You have to type thing out on an onscreen typewriter, which fits aesthetically, but so would have being able to use the stylus to write in a diary or journal. It’s still a good feature.
But just as I was able to say something good about this port of the game, the problems show up again and are even worse.
Just like the PSP port, this also comes with Rime, which was introduced in the original realMyst from the year 2000. It looks just as out of place in this version too, since it's from a game with a completely different engine and aesthetic. And just like the PSP port, it's not only introduced in the same way, with the game just plopping you into the new content without the context that realMyst gave it, but it's done way worse. Not only is it just as awkward to make your way through the Age due to it not being designed to be played as still images like the original was, but now it has the awful controls of the DS version.
Plus the DS version looks much worse that the PSP, since I can barely see anything with just how dark and grey the new area is. And if I wasn't sure if the puzzle introduced in the PSP version was broken, I didn't even try in this version. This whole section could have easily been cut, and should have. I would much rather have the fly-by videos from the original and maybe some better sounds.
It also doesn't help that the homebrew community has ScummVM, which not only would allow you to play Myst: Masterpiece Edition on the DS with some handywork, but is significantly better in every single way.
But the port of Myst to the DS wasn’t the worst port of Myst. In fact, it wasn’t even the worst version of Myst on the DS. The 3DS port holds the distinction of being the single worst port of Myst in existence.
NOTE: This has been slightly edited from the original but the contents are 99% the same.
You would think out of all the consoles that would be perfect for a port of the original Myst, the Nintendo DS would in the top 5. It has touch controls, which would be perfect to walk through Myst and solve it's puzzles, and it's portable, which is a nice way to play the game, especially since the game is low stress and you can save anywhere, and it's not like the console didn't have it's fair share of point-and-click adventure games along with adjacent genres like Visual Novels and Hidden Object games. And it's top screen would be great for things like a map for whatever Age you were in, optional hints, and easily showing which page you've picked up without being intrusive on the bottom screen.
But somehow this version of the game ends up being absolutely awful and the problems begin right off the bat.
Both the audio and video have been compressed to the point that the game now looks and sounds awful. I'm fine with each screen being compressed since it was made for something as small as the DS screen, but the compressed sound really ruins the experience. The sound chip in the DS was never the best, but there have been games that have sounded fine, so I don't know how this ended up sounding this bad. And it only gets more grating as the game goes on.
And it’s not like this is a minor nitpick since having the sound be this bad actually affects the gameplay. The puzzles in the Selenitic Age are all based around sound, which means that there is no excuse as to why the game sounds this bad.
Just like the PSP version of Myst, the DS version is missing the flyby videos for each Age. While the PSP had about 1.8 gigabytes to work with, the DS was limited to 512 megabytes at the absolute biggest, so there did have to be some compromise. But considering what the development team did with that with the PSP version of Myst, that compromise didn't have to be there, but more on that later.
But for an actual nitpick, the intro movie for this version of Myst has Comic Sans for the credits. I know that Comic Sans has received a lot of hate over the years, mostly due to people misusing it, but did the developers really have to use Comic Sans of all things? Not something like New Times Roman? It doesn’t even fit with the games tone of aesthetic, which is extra bad since Myst is centered around books of all things. I know it’s kinda pointless, and it was probably chosen because it pops out on the screen, but it still irks me.
And that’s not even the last of it, as the gameplay of Myst, what little it had, also gets a downgrade. Literally the only interactivity that Myst has was clicking on a still image to interact with something, clicking on a still image to move around, or clicking on a still image to pick something up.
In the DS version it took me a couple of taps on the screen to figure out what what exact pixel that I was supposed to click on the be able to do anything. Imagine trying to now only solve the sound puzzles of the Selenitic Age with audio that makes it hard to do so, but having to try and get through the maze twice with these controls is unbearable, even just by thinking about it. The Selenitic Age is borderline unplayable.
But it’s not like this version of Myst is completely without merit. This version does come with a Map that you can easily bring up by tapping the map icon that displays on the top screen showing off whatever location that you’re currently in. I don’t know why it’s not there permanently, but whatever. Whatever page you’ve picked up and are now holding onto are shown in a square instead of just changing the cursor to a hand holding a colored piece of paper, which would have been awful on the DS screen.
The game even come with a camera feature that lets you takes a picture of whatever screen that you’re currently on and displays it on the top screen. It’s limited to one shot at a time, but it’s still nice that it’s in here and can be helpful for puzzles. It comes with the ‘Zip Mode’ that lets you get through areas that you’ve already explored more quickly, and it even comes with a notepad that you can write notes in. You have to type thing out on an onscreen typewriter, which fits aesthetically, but so would have being able to use the stylus to write in a diary or journal. It’s still a good feature.
But just as I was able to say something good about this port of the game, the problems show up again and are even worse.
Just like the PSP port, this also comes with Rime, which was introduced in the original realMyst from the year 2000. It looks just as out of place in this version too, since it's from a game with a completely different engine and aesthetic. And just like the PSP port, it's not only introduced in the same way, with the game just plopping you into the new content without the context that realMyst gave it, but it's done way worse. Not only is it just as awkward to make your way through the Age due to it not being designed to be played as still images like the original was, but now it has the awful controls of the DS version.
Plus the DS version looks much worse that the PSP, since I can barely see anything with just how dark and grey the new area is. And if I wasn't sure if the puzzle introduced in the PSP version was broken, I didn't even try in this version. This whole section could have easily been cut, and should have. I would much rather have the fly-by videos from the original and maybe some better sounds.
It also doesn't help that the homebrew community has ScummVM, which not only would allow you to play Myst: Masterpiece Edition on the DS with some handywork, but is significantly better in every single way.
But the port of Myst to the DS wasn’t the worst port of Myst. In fact, it wasn’t even the worst version of Myst on the DS. The 3DS port holds the distinction of being the single worst port of Myst in existence.