The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - the mobile game
Maybe I’m a nostalgic, but I’m sure a lot of good games - especially those developed for mobile phones - didn’t get their time under the spotlight because of random reasons. The mobile game for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of them - I didn’t hear about this game until recently when it “landed” on my phone by hazard :P.
We can’t talk about about this game without mentioning it is based on the uber-famous Douglas Adams book. If you don’t know who Douglas Adams is or what book I’m talking about, if the words Babel fish, Don’t Panic or 42 don’t ring any bell, then… man are you a Sci-Fi noob. Run out to Amazon and buy yourself The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Let’s get back to the game, finally : “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Adventure Game” was developed in 2005 by TKO Software and published by Starware Mobile, follows closely the script of the Hollywood flick made after the book(a movie which neither has the satire nor the magic of the book, only lots of special effects). Unlike the film, though, the mobile game got an award - IGN’s Editor’s Choice Award, back in May 2005.
I am a SF fan and I greatly enjoyed the novel. As I mentioned, the game follows pretty closely the plot: the destruction of Earth, the Vogon ship, improbability drive, and so on. Being an adventure game, it brings the the feeling of the good old PC quest games, with lots of actions, puzzles, dialogues. The implementation is very well adapted for the mobile, you can do a lot of actions using only very few keys.
You have score points which you can use to get hints if you get stuck, so the chance of frustration is diminished, although not entirely - and I speak here from my experience, the game is pretty challenging - not necessarily a bad thing if you think of other games in the genre. Not to despair - you’ll end up using trial and error, and you’ll get to finish the game eventually.
At last, the most important thing to say about the game is that it simply gave me the feeling of “living” there, taking a part in the story, getting the feeling that anything is possible in this strange universe, just like the novel did. I was captivated and felt a quite sorry once reaching the end. I confess, I miss it.
You might expect a rating, but I won’t give you one - this game is about quests and a small surprise for any fan of the novel and even non-fans, as long as they like SF…
[tags]review, game, Hitchhiker Guide, Douglas Adams[/tags]
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Comments
Oh, to get Ford back from a sofa into a person you gotta Use the Improbability thing. And if you can’t because Marvin won’t let you, go back to the corridor and use the switch on that room to close the doors. Walk back up to Marvin, then press the Improbability thing.
I’M stuck on the part with Deep Thought and the POV gun. HOW DO I GET IT????! It’s impossible! Help please!!!
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Hey,
This is the only review of the version i have on my phone. Since you finished the game once, id like a hint from you. Im stuck where Arthur is taken onto the Vogon ship and Ford changes into a sofa. Arthur goes into the ship and has to find the bag - thats how far i came. I found the bag but not sure what i do next.. any small hint, please? Ive been stuck here for quite a long time and I think ive checked everything there is to check. Guess I do have to take some extra help now, so will be really glad if you can give me a pointer.. nothing too revealing, but a teeny tiny one so i can go a step ahead!
Sailaja