Mystery Case Files: Huntsville

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville
Developer(s)	Big Fish Studios
Publisher(s)	Big Fish Games
Series	Mystery Case Files
Engine	Director
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	NA November 14, 2005
Genre(s)	Adventure, puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)
Media/distribution	Download
System requirements Windows OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista CPU: 600 Mhz RAM: 128 MB DirectX: 6.0 Hard Drive: 41 MB Mac OS X OS: 10.4, 10.5 (Recommended) CPU: 1.83GHz RAM: 512 MB

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the first installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website. The Mystery Case Files franchise has sold more than 2.5 million units to date. ^[1]

Story

After many Crime events has passed down to a small town in Huntsville in Alabama, you, the Detective assumes a role of a future 'Master Detective' in order to solve a series of crimes and discover the Big Boss behind the Criminal Organization "S.T.A.I.N.". Every Level, the Player must find all the clues in the list and discover the S.T.A.I.N. villains behind the crimes. At the last part of the Game, you will discover the S.T.A.I.N.'s Big Boss Gertrude Goodlittle, an old lady who manages the S.T.A.I.N. Once you've captured Gertrude, you will be ranked as a 'Master Detective' and continue your investigating career at the next game, Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects.

S.T.A.I.N.

S.T.A.I.N. is a Criminal Organization who is responsible all the Crimes in Huntsville. Every Member of the Organization has a trademark, all the member's has a tattoo of a Skeletal Head tattooed at any part of their body or placed in items. All of them have different styles of Crime such as Smuggle, Dangerous Experiments, Robbery and more. One of them is an 'ex-S.T.A.I.N.' agent mentioned in the second game Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects. Among its members are:

Members

• Gertrude Goodlittle - S.T.A.I.N.'s Big Boss.
• Harold Funkmeyer - The culprit of the fourteenth case and S.T.A.I.N.'s second-in-command.
• "Slick" Rick - The culprit of the thirteenth case.
• Violet Burgundy - The culprit of the twelfth case.
• "Hoodwink" Harry - The culprit of the eleventh case.
• Lou - The culprit of the tenth case.
• Doris Blevins - The culprit of the ninth case.
• Ty - The culprit of the eighth case.
• Eugene Needlemeyer - The culprit of the seventh case.
• Gil T. Azell - The culprit of the sixth case.
• Bill Larson - The culprit of the fifth case.
• Professor Luna H. Tick - The culprit of the fourth case
• Elmer - The culprit of the third case.
• Rudy the Barber - The culprit of the second case.
• Darla Rudder - The culprit of the first case.
• Vincent Gavone - He was mentioned to be ex-S.T.A.I.N. agent in the games sequel Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects.

Gameplay

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville marked the introduction of the hidden object game - a genre of casual game development in which a player must locate a list of objects which are hidden among many other objects on the computer screen. Once a player has located all the listed hidden objects, they progress on to the next area of game play. In case a player is unable to find a required object, many hidden object games offer a finite number of hints.

Like all Mystery Case Files titles, Huntsville relies heavily on hidden object game play. Upon completing each hidden object puzzle, players return to their 'Crime Computer' where they solve subsequent puzzles in order to gather evidence and help pinpoint the thief. A player is given a limited amount of time to complete each puzzle. If the player fails to successfully complete a puzzle in this time, they must begin again with an entirely new scenario.

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville features over 15 crimes in over 20 locations. Moreover, each time the player solves a crime, they can restart and play a new scenario with new clues and a new thief.

Reception

Following its release on November 18, 2005, Mystery Case Files: Huntsville broke all previous casual game sales records by over 100%, selling over $1 million worth of digitally distributed (downloaded) copies in under three months.^[2] As a result, it moved into the top 10 sales positions on all major casual game distribution websites.^[3]

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville was initially released in as an online game download for the PC and soon after for the Mac OS. In July, 2006, Big Fish Games signed an agreement with Activision Value to distribute the game beginning in September, 2006 at retail locations throughout the United States.^[4]

References

1. ^ http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/726/mystery-case-files-huntsville/index.html
2. ^ "Big Fish Games' New Title Mystery Case Files: Huntsville Hits Record Sales". PRNewswire. 2006-03-07. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/03-07-2006/0004314754&EDATE=. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 
3. ^ "MCF: Huntsville Sales Data". GameSalesCharts.com. 2007-12-13. http://www.game-sales-charts.com/cms/index.php?option=com_dbquery&Itemid=33&task=ExecuteQuery&qid=20&cqo_game=Mystery%20Case%20Files%3A%20Huntsville. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 
4. ^ "Activision Value Publishing, Inc. to Distribute Big Fish Games; Three Successful Online Titles Selected for Retail". Activision, Inc.. 2006-07-31. http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=205812. Retrieved 2008-01-03. 

External links

• Official Mystery Case Files website
• MCF: Huntsville at Big Fish Games

References

1. ^ http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/726/mystery-case-files-huntsville/index.html
2. ^ "Big Fish Games' New Title Mystery Case Files: Huntsville Hits Record Sales". PRNewswire. 2006-03-07. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/03-07-2006/0004314754&EDATE=. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 
3. ^ "MCF: Huntsville Sales Data". GameSalesCharts.com. 2007-12-13. http://www.game-sales-charts.com/cms/index.php?option=com_dbquery&Itemid=33&task=ExecuteQuery&qid=20&cqo_game=Mystery%20Case%20Files%3A%20Huntsville. Retrieved 2007-12-13. 
4. ^ "Activision Value Publishing, Inc. to Distribute Big Fish Games; Three Successful Online Titles Selected for Retail". Activision, Inc.. 2006-07-31. http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=205812. Retrieved 2008-01-03.