It's a bit of a puzzle for a games developer, trying to work out how to incorporate the acid sarcasm of Hugh Laurie's Dr Gregory House into a computer game. That was the challenge that faced Legacy Interactive when it nabbed the licence to one of America's biggest hit dramas of recent times. Sadly, it's a challenge that has not been met.

Terrible script
The game offers you five medical mysteries cases to be solved, presented via a series of still cartoon images and captions. Via this method, the game tries to get across the snap and wit of House, but without the delivery of the actors - and, hampered by a terrible script, it just doesn't work. In fact, it becomes a chore to click through the mechanical conversations and one-liners.

Still, it's arguably more fun that some elements of the cases you have to solve.

Once a case has presented itself, resolving it breaks down into several stages. Firstly, there are some multiple-choice questions, to help you reach the right diagnosis. You also have to examine the patient, by doing exactly what the game tells you to do. Then you conduct a variety of tests, each matched by a mini-game that needs to be completed.

Lacking ambition
To call these minigames 'lacking in ambition' would be an understatement. Sorting things into the right dish? Pressing the right button at the right time? Examining patients? You get the picture...

The problem is that all of the game's challenges ultimately boil down to doing what the computer tells you to do, when it tells you to. There's little skill involved. Instead, House becomes a battle of perseverance, as the cases drag on and on, punctuated by a growing number of terrible one-liners.

Every now and then, your performance is graded, and you get a compliment or criticism from one of the show's characters. Yet, once more, while the cast of the show is represented visually, it's clear that none of them has come within a country mile of this game's production.

Cheap cash-in
House M.D. is, sadly, what you probably feared that it was: a cheap cash-in game, bolted around a hit TV show. At best, it bears a passing resemblance to the tone of the show - only without the laughs, the drama, or the compulsion to keep watching. It's as if someone chose a television show that was popular, and threw a load of Nintendo Wii shovelware games in the middle of it.

The only saving grace here is that it costs less than a tenner. Even then, it's still not good value.

Verdict
Even a devoted fan of the antics of Gregory House would struggle to find a tenner's worth of value here. Save your money, and spend it on DVDs of the TV series instead.

Company: Focus Multimedia

Tags: nintendo wii nintendo legacy interactive hugh laurie minigame wii video game united states