When Machinarium arrived on Windows Phone last week, the news was bittersweet. On the one hand, Machinarium is one of the greatest traditional adventure games I’ve ever played. It creates a totally unique world filled with living robots, tells a compelling story using absolutely no text or voiced dialogue, and looks utterly beautiful. On the other hand, the Windows Phone version suffered from a show-stopping crash quite early in the game. You couldn’t enjoy it for long.
As it turns out, the crash resulted from an earlier test version mistakenly being published as the full game. Once developer Amanita Design discovered the source of the issue, they quickly set about publishing the correct version. Machinarium has now been updated on Windows Phone and runs without crashing! What’s more, we have exclusive news of Windows 8 and RT versions as well.
Escape from prison
The fun-killing crash occurred just after the scene in which robotic hero Josef escapes from a boiler room in which he’s been trapped. He then spies two conspirators in the process of brewing an evil plan. No sooner does Josef realize their intent than the villains capture him and throw him into a prison cell. At that point pre-update, the game crashed like Rob Ford when his dealer goes out of town.
After updating the game, the story now progresses as normal through the prison sequence. Josef awakens in a cell with a partially disassembled robotic smoker and must figure out an escape plan. It’s a challenging sequence that will tempt you to utilize the in-game guide. One bit of advice I can give you is don’t forget about the light bulb in your cell; surely it will play a part in helping your cell mate.
Having escaped from the cell, Josef will eventually make his way out of the terrorists’ hideout and into the city itself. I had a tough time putting my phone down at that point and starting on this story. Machinarium’s world just teams with imagination, possibility, and intrigue. Now that the game works properly, I can dive headfirst into it and start preparing our upcoming review.
- Machinarium – Windows Phone 8 – 224 MB – $4.49 – Store Link
Coming soon to a tablet near you
Machinarium started life as a Steam game, so Windows 8 gamers already have an avenue for playing it. But the Windows 7 version is not touch enabled, nor does it benefit Windows RT users (who can’t run non-RT applications).
Luckily, Amanita Design has revealed to us that both Windows 8 and RT versions of Machinarium are already in the certification process. These will look and play just like the phone game but run at a higher resolution. If all goes well, the tablet versions should launch sometime in April. We’ll let you know as soon as they become available!
