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.
The game had a sequel called Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects.
Story
Mystery Case Files: Huntsville - Mystery Case Files: Huntsville for PC: http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/726/mystery-case-files-huntsville/index.html Mystery Case Files: Huntsville for Mac: http://www.bigfishgames.com...
After many Crime events have passed down to the small town of Huntsville in Texas, you, the Detective, assume a role of a future 'Master Detective' in order to solve a series of crimes and discover the Big Boss behind the Special Organization "S.T.A.I.N." (the acronym's meaning is unknown). In each level, the player must find all the clues in the list and crack the clues on the crime computer to capture various criminals. Once all fourteen S.T.A.I.N.'s members are caught, the player locates their hideout and discovers that the Big Boss of S.T.A.I.N. is Gertrude Goodlittle, the town librarian. The ending shows the player reading a newspaper of S.T.A.I.N.'s capture.
S.T.A.I.N.
S.T.A.I.N. is a Special Organization housing many sinister criminals. Every member of the organization has a trademark, all the members have a tattoo of a Skeleted Head tattooed at any part of their body or placed in items. All of them have different styles of Smulge such as Handwork Building, Scratch Folk, Thievery and more. One of them is an 'aspiring S.T.A.I.N.' agent mentioned in the second game Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects. Among its members are:
Members
- Gertrude Goodlittle - An elderly librarian who is S.T.A.I.N.'s Big Boss and the game's main antagonist.
- Harold Funkmeyer - The culprit of the fourteenth case and S.T.A.I.N.'s second-in-command.
- Darla Rudder - A Hollywood starlet who is the culprit of the first case. She was in Huntsville filming the latest infomercial for canned meat.
- Rudy - The town barber who is the culprit of the second case.
- Elmer - A body shop worker who is the culprit of the third case. He committed the third case so that he can slide down the fire pole in a beaver costumer.
- Professor Luna H. Tick - A mad scientist who is the culprit of the fourth case. He hid out in Huntsville's science museum where he was conducting unorthodox experiments.
- Bill Larson - The wife of Huntsville Art Museum curator Mrs. Larson and culprit of the fifth case. He was discovered to have an eating problem.
- Gil T. Azell - An art enthusiast who is the culprit of the sixth case. He was replacing the art with fake art so that he can sell the real art online. The S.T.A.I.N. emblem on his smock gives the player the first hint of S.T.A.I.N.
- Eugene Needlemeyer - The culprit of the seventh case. He was infiltrating people's E-Mail inboxes to find out who's been placing white tape on his glasses and stealing his pocket protectors.
- Ty - A worker at the Clock Shoppe who is the culprit of the eighth case. He was stuffing stolen cats and selling them as clocks.
- Doris Blevins - The culprit of the ninth case.
- Lou - The assistant of Pawnshop Pete who is the culprit of the tenth case. He has been selling the unearthed valuables from Huntsville's graveyard at Pawnshop Pete's pawnshop.
- "Hoodwink" Harry - The culprit of the eleventh case. The emblem on his jacket gives the player the second hint of S.T.A.I.N.
- Violet Burgundy - The cleaning lady at the law offices of Hunt and Peck who is the culprit of the twelfth case. When apprehended, Violet claims that she is just a pawn in a "larger game."
- "Slick" Rick - A grease monkey at Huntsville's auto body shop who is the culprit of the thirteenth case. The emblem on his jacket reveals that he works for S.T.A.I.N.
- Vincent "Vinny the Chin" Gavone - He is mentioned to be an aspiring S.T.A.I.N. agent as a Prime Suspect in the game's sequel Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects.
Cases
- Case #1 - Various store owners have been noticing missing inventory.
- Case #2 - A counterfeiting scheme is occurring in Huntsville where someone is spending counterfeit money.
- Case #3 - Someone has been committing false fire alarms all over Huntsville.
- Case #4 - Professor Luna H. Tick has escaped from Huntsville's "funny farm" and Huntsville's townsfolk are in a panic.
- Case #5 - Huntsville Art Museum's curator Mrs. Larson suspects that her husband Bill is committing marital infidelity.
- Case #6 - The art historians have discovered that some of the museum masterpieces housed in the Huntsville Art Museum are fake.
- Case #7 - Someone has been surreptitiously entering the E-Mail accounts of Huntsville's citizens and pawning through their private correspondents.
- Case #8 - A cat burglar is loose in Huntsville where the pet stores and local residents are the cat burglar's targets of feline disappearances.
- Case #9 - UFO and alien sightings have become an alarming counterplace in Huntsville where it is causing alarm in its citizens.
- Case #10 - A grave-robber has been relieving the corpses at the Hunstville Cemetery of their most precious valuables.
- Case #11 - Huntsville citizens have been hoodwinked by a sinister and persuasive pyramid scheme.
- Case #12 - The esteemed law offices of Hunt and Peck are in the midst of a monstrous embezzlement scandal.
- Case #13 - The crystal clear bodies of water in Huntsville are becoming victims of a toxic waste-dumping plot.
- Case #14 - Now that the players are familiar with the identity of S.T.A.I.N., they must apprehend the right-hand man of the organization in order to get to the location of S.T.A.I.N.'s leader.
- Case #15 - Now that S.T.A.I.N.'s top henchman is behind bars, the player must find the mastermind behind S.T.A.I.N.
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, he or she 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. As a result, it moved into the top 10 sales positions on all major casual game distribution websites.
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.
References
External links
- Official Mystery Case Files website
- MCF: Huntsville at Big Fish Games