Mobile Adventure Series – House of Tales

The Paper Menace is easily my favourite game of the four. An offbeat comedy with a hilarious premise, the game stars a lowly clerk named Miller, who works for the Ministry of Administrative Administration (an essential department in any bureaucracy). Poor Miller is predictably bored with his job, but little does he know that his incoming pneumatic mail message is about to launch him into a crazy caper. It seems deranged scientist Dr. Patchsmith has invented a nano-raygun capable of reproducing paper on a massive scale, and is threatening to use his device to cripple the U.S. economy if the government doesn’t cough up some major coin. As the recipient of Patchsmith’s blackmail note, our unlikely hero begins a wild adventure to save the day. And what a day!

I didn’t see this game coming at all. Although humour is evident in most House of Tales offerings, usually it’s a dry, subtle wit, but Paper Menace is straight out of left field, and it’s very effective. Never before (or ever again, no doubt) have I played a game filled with exploding origami keys, prison breaks, Presidential Christmas lists, insatiable pyromaniacs, wisecracking fortune cookies, and giant (floating) paper speedboats. And where situational comedy isn’t enough, there are lots of funny, tongue-in-cheek pop culture references to such things as Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. I cringed at the Chinese advertisement declaring its “Totarry New” product, but then chuckled when the Oriental merchant with perfect English offered to butcher an accent to make Miller feel more at home. Genuine humour is such a rare commodity in games that I appreciated every snicker and smile that Paper Menace provided, all wrapped in a wacky plot that gets full marks for creativity.

The zany storyline adds to the fun of the puzzles, as well. While still completely logical in context (unlike lots of comic adventures), many solutions are unorthodox, which provides a refreshing change from traditional item usage. When the display went completely blurry at one point, I momentarily thought I’d hit a funky graphics glitch, until I read the text and realized that Miller had lost his glasses. Although a small touch, the game is filled with moments like this that further help make Paper Menace so unique.

Unless you insist that your adventures be stone-cold sober affairs, The Paper Menace is sure to tickle your funny bone. Sure it’s goofy, but that’s the idea. Fortunately, the silliness works to great advantage here, both in the writing and the gameplay, ensuring a good time for all.

The X-Files: The Deserter is the most recognizable game in this series, for obvious reasons. Using a popular licence in games is often a mixed blessing, however, and The Deserter is no exception. While the X-Files brand makes the game instantly comfortable and familiar, it also raises expectations that aren’t always fulfilled in the game. Production values are certainly a strength here, as the graphics are nicely detailed and frequently animated, giving the game a more polished look than the others in the series. The story is also vintage X-Files, which means I can’t share much of it without giving away key details. Suffice to say that when Mulder sets out to investigate the brutal killing of a government official in Las Vegas, he discovers that nothing is what it seems, and each discovery creates more questions than answers.

A nice feature of the game is that Scully becomes a playable character along the way. Stuck back at FBI headquarters, her job is the research and lab work for evidence that Mulder sends her way. While this makes for a nice change of pace, and suits Scully’s clinical prowess, it also means that the two agents are never together. This is understandable from a game standpoint, but the interaction between the two is sorely missed. Other television mainstays make a brief appearance, as well, as Skinner and the Lone Gunmen play (unseen) roles in the game. Again, all this works to create the proper environment, but the game never really feels like a true X-Files experience. The characters are flat and uninteresting, and none of the dynamics between them seem authentic, and that is my main disappointment with the game. The licence use ends up feeling like a shallow selling point. This is very much a conditional complaint, however, because if the game was called “Y-Cases”, starring Smith and Jones, it wouldn’t suffer from unfulfilled promise.

Setting the X-Files licence aside, The Deserter does a fine job of creating an atmosphere of suspense as you travel through locations like an old abandoned church and a darkened warehouse, never quite knowing what you’ll find, or when the hunter may become the hunted. The puzzles are fairly intricate and nicely conceived except for a single instance of trial-and-error. By game’s end, I was thoroughly engrossed… only to find myself rather let down by the anti-climactic finale, which came a little too abruptly and a lot too simplistically to do the story justice. It isn’t a deal breaker by any means, but it does feel awfully contrived.

There’s no question that fans of the X-Files will want to give this game a try. Despite the characterization weakness, it’s still fun to climb into the shoes of your favourite Special Agents for a while to dabble in conspiracy theory. Anyone not familiar with the show shouldn’t be put off, however, as the licence is mostly a backdrop for a solid mystery adventure on its own terms.

Four games. Eight hours. Quality storytelling. Mobile gaming.

Obviously I’m not expecting people to rush out and buy a cell phone for the sole purpose of playing mobile games in general, let alone these four in particular. Nor am I trying to talk people with no interest in mobile gaming into forsaking their stubborn ways and seeing the 1.5″ x 2″ cellular light. It’s a limited market, to be sure. However, I suspect there are many that simply don’t know there are games like these out there, or realize that their phones are a viable gaming device. To THOSE people, I can say that these titles will come as a very pleasant surprise. If you’re one of them, consider how much more fun you could be having the next time you’re riding home on the bus, waiting for an appointment, or otherwise have a few minutes to kill with your cell phone at hand.

I can easily recommend all of these games to any fan of story-driven adventure games. The technology may be new(ish), but the content is all old-school — just a whole lot smaller than you’ve ever seen before. Really the only caveat is the game length, which is admittedly short. Whether or not the cost is fair value for your gaming dollar is for you to decide, but the price is not unreasonable. If you want to try just one, I’d recommend The Black Hole or The Paper Menace, but I can virtually guarantee you that if you like one, you’ll like them all, as they’re so similar in both gameplay and quality.

While the industry clamours to discover “the next big thing”, it’s amusing to seek it in such a little package. But for myself, I’m happy to have discovered the world of mobile gaming, and this four-game adventure series by House of Tales ensured that my first foray was a memorable one. Who knew the entertainment potential of a cell phone? Now, if I could only get this thing to stop ringing…