Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident for Wii Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Big Fish Games knows its audience pretty well. This is a studio that's all about the casual games market, whether those titles are played on browsers, on your favorite social networking site, and now, for the very first time, on the Nintendo Wii. Mystery Case Files is the studio's most established franchise, and its debut on Wii in the form of The Malgrave Incident is the series' tenth entry. Unfortunately, this is a game that won't appeal to anyone outside of a casual sect of gamers, as its gameplay relies too much on monotonous repetition. But in the realm of home consoles, the Wii is the most logical home for this game's target niche, and there's definitely a Wii-owning audience that will appreciate it.



Having never played the previous games, I can tell you with confidence that you don't have to be familiar with the Mystery Case Files catalog to play The Malgrave Incident. Like the other Mystery Case Files titles, The Malgrave Incident's bread and butter is combining classic adventure game mechanics with a heavy emphasis on what are called "hidden object puzzles," where players must pick out specific items from a cluttered picture in order to proceed. The entire experience revolves around these two dueling approaches to gameplay.





If this doesn't sound exciting, that's because it really isn't, at least for long stretches of time. The Malgrave Incident is a decent game, but far too formulaic and repetitive for its own good. Use of the Wii-mote makes perfect sense as you play, and it works extremely well, getting you from one location to another or allowing you to pick out various items from a busy picture. But it's so by-the-numbers and predictable that seeing it through to the end will require you to be really invested in the game's loose story, which is an unlikely outcome for a title that places more importance on its core gameplay than its narrative.



The Malgrave Incident's plot revolves around the aptly-named Winston Malgrave, who is described as a "wealthy but sickly industrialist" that locked himself away on his island. Except now, Mr. Malgrave has reached out to the outside world for help with a problem of an unknown nature, sending you -- a detective of some sort -- to investigate. That's all you need to know to get involved in the adventure, and it's all explained to you in a short sequence at the beginning of the game. The story is a bit loose on details from the start, but then again, part of the game's allure is unfolding the mystery of Malgrave and his island as you play.



Gameplay takes place in the first-person perspective. In the adventure game-like aspects of The Malgrave Incident, you'll use your Wii-mote to investigate clues, find scattered collectibles and move around from area to area while occasionally coming across the hidden picture-centric areas of the game. These puzzles force you to find a seemingly-ridiculous group of items from a scene using your Wii-mote to point at the objects in question (like a bowling pin, a wrench and a lizard) in order to, more often than not, reveal a lone useful item that you'll need to continue (such as a wooden plank or some bolt cutters). You'll do this ad nauseum, which might be fun for players who like this particular niche genre, but will prove to be a great bore for just about everyone else.



Thankfully, The Malgrave Incident is saved from total monotony with its multiplayer. It can be played with up to four players, and its modes revolve around the hidden picture aspects of the game. For instance, gamers can earn points by finding hidden items before other players, and there's even a mode where a bomb is affixed to your icon, forcing you to find items before the timer runs out. The further you get through the main campaign on your own, the more options will become available to you to use in multiplayer. This will no doubt be an interesting and fun romp -- albeit a limited one -- for a parent and a child, or some youngsters whose parents want them to play something a little more wholesome. But for everyone else, Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident will likely swing mightily and miss completely.

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