Why am I so excited about 999: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors for iOS?

When I first heard about the iOS remake of Spike Chunsoft’s 999: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors (999), I wasn’t all that interested.

999 was a interactive novel and puzzler that was well received both inside and outside Japan back in 2009. It was praised for its excellent art style, hard hitting story, and innovative puzzles. The plot revolves around nine people who are trapped on a sinking cruise liner, and who are forced to play a Saw-style game in order to save their lives. There’s a branching story with multiple endings and some pretty gruesome moments.

That is a very creepy gas mask.

Sounds interesting enough, but the remake has stripped away the puzzles, meaning it has less content than it did five years ago. At first I thought this sounded lazy, even a little dumb; then I realised a couple of things.

First, I saw who the game was being localised by; Aksys the guys who blew my mind with their iOS remake of Banshee’s Last Cry, and then I started to think about why I loved Banshee’s Last Cry so much, and why I never played 999.

I loved Banshee’s Last Cry because it told a great story, created a fantastic atmosphere, and lent some serious polish to a genre of game that I never really thought about. I never thought that the sound effects in an interactive novel could be so damned effective. And I didn’t think that the combination of creepy images, simple writing, and sound could lend to such a terrifying experience. Banshee’s Last Cry scared me more than any Resident Evil game has done for years,and on a fraction of its budget.

As to why I never played 999, it’s simple. I’m not a big fan of puzzle games. I enjoy the first few puzzles, then I get stuck. I get annoyed, I google the answer, and repeat until the game is over and I feel like I have cheated myself out of the experience. Before anyone feels the need to crucify me in the comments, I know this is my failing, and not the game’s. But it was for this reason that I never picked 999 up and never really paid much attention to it since. I was aware that 999 has a cult following and that its well-crafted story was the root of its fandom, but the puzzle genre always kept me at arms length.

So for me, an iOS version without the puzzles is just fantastic! Supporting a remake of a game with less content than the original is certainly a strange position to find oneself in, but I can’t help but be excited to see if Aksys’ localisation talents and Spike Chunsoft’s development skills manage to work a second miracle.

999 will be released for iOS on March 17, 2014. Watch out for our review.

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