Top 5 mystery adventure games for mobile

When it comes to niche sub-genres – which is what this ongoing series is all about – there are few more niche-y than the mystery adventure.

You might know it better as the point and click adventure series, but the lack of a mouse on your typical mobile phone renders that term a little redundant in this case.

What we’re talking about here is story-led, logic-based games that sacrifice instant gratification for something a little more involving.

They don’t make many mobile games like this these days. We can imagine suggesting a mobile game containing no combat and no coloured gems must be a pretty tricky sell.

But the mystery adventure title makes perfect sense on mobile.

Let’s face it, your average keypad – in fact, even your above-average keypad – struggles to keep up with a high octane action game unless the game has been programmed to perfection.

Thus games that don’t require you to break your D-pad to succeed should be welcomed with open thumbs. And there are some crackers to choose from too.

The first of two Crime Files games on this list is an excellent introduction to the mystery adventure genre.

Glu’s Gallic whodunit places you in control of Detective Luc Lumbroso and reporter Manon Joliette as you attempt to crack the central conundrum.

While the story is the focus here – and fortunately, it’s a cracker – you won’t be allowed to sit back and admire. There’s plenty of snooping and interrogating to be done, all of which requires a healthy degree of lateral thinking.

Glu would go on to improve on the formula set down in The Cursed Hotel, but its stand-alone story ensures that it should be viewed as an accompaniment, rather than an alternative, to the sequel.

What’s this? A simple board game conversion in a list of intelligent mystery adventures? Take a closer look and all will be revealed…

Cluedo is no straight conversion.

While all of the core elements from the board game are in play – the larger than life characters, distinct locations and suspiciously located objects – the way in which you approach the case differs considerably.

Playing the part of a journalist on the trail of a killer, you have a limited amount of time in which to assemble your case. Each object and answer you receive acts as a pointer to a possible solution, resulting in an elaborate breadcrumb trail of clues that must be followed.

With a stunning art style to match the innovative gameplay, EA was certainly on to something when it made this beauty.

What could be more unlikely than a board game conversion making this list? A TV show license making this list, that’s what.

And yet here we are with Gemini Division: Code Cracker, a mobile tie-in for the US sci-fi show.

Unusually for such a licensed product though, Code Cracker doesn’t go down the predictable action platformer route. Rather, it’s a gripping take on the classic text adventure.

As such your actions are dictated by a series of multiple choice questions woven into a Blade Runneresque tale of replicants gone AWOL. It's expertly written to make you stop and think about the best course to take.

Code Cracker is no interactive story either, throwing in a number of addictive mini-games when the plot dictates that a lock must be picked or a safe cracked. Excellent stuff.

Glu’s second slice of French mystery adventure is even better than its first.

While ostensibly similar – that same comic book style and the same cafe bar on the Place du Midi – there are a number of subtle improvements that take things up a notch.

It’s not all familiar, with a brand new story and a brand new pair of protagonists to get to know.

The main improvements though, relate to simple quantity – there are more people to interact with, more objects to collect and more locations to visit. In a game that’s all about the story and sifting through a large body of information for the truth, this simple escalation boosts both the challenge and the fun.

Crime Files 2: The Templar Knight is a classy, polished mystery adventure that you won’t want to put down until le fin.

Mystery Mania has appeared on a number of lists over the past year or so, not least of which would be as our mobile game of the year 2009. It’s pretty much a no-brainer that it would work its way to the top of this mystery adventure list.

That’s the last mention of the term no-brainer we’ll make here, as the game’s positively bursting with grey matter. Perhaps not in the challenge department – your tour of a creepily stylised mansion as the amnesiac robot F8 rarely stumps you for longer than a few minutes at a time.

But it’s the intelligence of the design that will really sweep you away. There’s an intoxicating physicality to each of the puzzles, thanks to the ingenious incorporation of a snazzy vector engine. Objects swing and crash and explode splendidly as you solve each self-contained room’s dastardly contraption.

At the heart of it all is a simple but beautifully told tale of a robot that can’t remember.

In the small but hotly contested field of mobile mystery adventure titles, Mystery Mania is undoubtedly king.