Mystery of Whiterock Castle (WiiWare) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Nintendo's WiiWare service has allowed a lot of independent developers to provide smaller games at an affordable price that can be played with ease on and off depending on your time constraints. Having already had goes at developing retail releases on the Wii, developer Keen Games has decided to make their next title a download only on the console and their first foray into the digital distribution is none other than The Mystery of Whiterock Castle, a puzzle game where you have to find hidden objects in the hope of catching up to your royal friend. Does this do enough different to stand out from the bunch or is it simply best left hidden?

Gameplay

The Mystery of Whiterock Castle tells the story of a young and nameless squire who is looking for his royal playmate, the Princess, who has in some way disappeared. With there being a strong connection between the characters, you'll take control of the squire as he searches the castle grounds and beyond in the hope of finally finding his friend. This is in itself the mystery of the castle which the game's title alludes to but the story doesn't provide much in the way of mystery as it seems more along the lines of simply catching up to the Princess rather than having to investigate where she has gone for clues.

Through the game's 10 single player levels, you'll go from room to room within the interior of the castle while also going to exterior locations as well in the hope of locating the Princess. At the beginning of each individual stage of gameplay, the story and the whereabouts of the Princess will come into question, where the squire will bump into another servant working at the castle or just simply a visitor. These people will give progressive clues to where the Princess has gone or where you should go next but in order to get this information, you'll have to do something for these people. While the context for what you are doing varies across the 10 stages, the actual gameplay sticks to itself. You'll have to collect and find 10 of a specific item within the confines of the area you are in within a time limit, with a cumulative score being carried to the end before taking its place on a leader board of scores. It is only after completing these within the stringent time limits that you can progress in your search for the Princess. Fail to find all of the items in the time limit, and its game over with you being offer the option of continuing back to the main menu or playing again, which takes you all the way back to the very first stage and has you start from there.

For the most part, completing these tasks is pretty straight with there being plenty of places for the items to be hidden, some of which are in drawers and cupboards, but the time limit, at least on Easy, allots enough time to find each of them with ease, although a magnifying glass is allocated to the B button to help you see deeper into the pictures to find the items. On the aforementioned difficulty, though, the game will be over rather quickly, with the 10 levels being capably completed within or around the 30 minute mark. This shortness crosses over to Hard difficulty as well, which has a shorter time limit on the puzzles anyway. While that certainly isn't of any great length, some of the WiiWare service's best titles have been ones that can be picked up and played in short bursts and this is exactly one of those titles. The gameplay allows you to jump in for a short period of time, or for longer if you have the time, and get an enjoyable if simplistic experience. And although each time you turn it off you'll have to start over again, the game has been designed so that subtle changes to the placement of items make things seem like a new experience every time you load the game up. To further extend the replayability of the title, multiplayer options have been included for two people so that they can either progress through the game's 10 stages cooperatively or go against one another, head to head, to see who can collect the most items in the stages. It is a simple inclusion but does and will lead to some competitive and cooperative play that will really help the game along and stay for a while longer than it otherwise would. Yet, even with these inclusions, the game is still short lived and it is the kind of game that once you've experienced it a couple of times over, you'll perhaps opt for something else but as a game directed at kids, it is that demographic who'll get the most out of it.

Controls

The control setup is kept incredibly streamlined, using only the Wii-mote and its pointer capabilities to complete and interact with everything. The use of the A button selects what you are aiming at and although items can at times be very small, the game is rather lenient in regards to selecting them but miss and points will be deducted from your total. The only other button use comes in the form of the B button which has been allocated the use of a magnifying glass. While it's a very helpfully item and something which you'll definitely need to make use of to find some of the more difficulty place items hidden deep into the pictures, there is no mention of it, or the controls for that matter, when playing. Some younger players may ultimately play their way through with difficulty without knowing about the magnifying glass unless the accidentally press and hold the B button. Some mention at least of this feature during the early stages of the game would have been helpful for younger gamers.

Graphics

The game's stages are presented in a series of hand drawn, static images which use a wide variety of colour to look the part and give the feel of a dark and dingy castle with a small number of warm and inviting areas to search. They look great for most of the game although there are instances where the design doesn't quite look right and items or objects look rather strange. The main issue that occurs is that while the colour palette for these locations is good enough, providing some good artwork to look at and search through, the items tend to blend in with some of the colours and so spotting some of the items can be more difficult than it otherwise should be. The cutscenes which bookend the gameplay are presented with a single image of the person the squire is talking to and a text bubble telling you what you'll have to do. It doesn't do much to make the story seem interesting but as these are merely a stop gap between the gameplay, then it is forgivable.

Sound

While the soundtrack may not be of the highest calibre or the most eclectic in a WiiWare game, what you get is certainly enjoyable. It is typified by the artwork to provide an ambience to ease you into the game's locations and is always pleasant but it's not something you'll find yourself humming along to the more you play.

Final comments

With the WiiWare service growing each week, titles need to provide something different to get noticed and The Mystery of Whiterock Castle provides just enough. While the concept and gameplay are considerably simple it matches with the ethos of the service and provides a well presented game that is enjoyable for the run time and then some. The inclusion of the multiplayer modes will further extend playtime but ultimately, its simplicity is also its downfall and older gamers may opt for something else quickly. Younger gamers, however, will get the most out of the game and continue to come back time and again.

Pro: Easy, accessible and enjoyable gameplay, controls work well, presentation is good
Con: Can be difficult to spot items due to colour blending, game doesn't have huge amounts of replayability, may be too basic for some
Final score: 6.7

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