I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Switch Review

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream is a 1995 point and click adventure game based on the 1967 short story by Harlan Ellison. An evil AI called AM has taken over the world and has tortured five people for 109 years. It places each of them in a simulation, and you must outwit the AI. The question isn’t should you play this. If you like point and click games, this is a classic. Its unforgiving at times, demanding you look at everything in order to get the best ending(you can fail). However, nothing is obtuse or illogical. The question is, should you play this on the Switch? That’s a much harder question.

The Switch version of I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream is played using the sticks and buttons. Each button corresponds to a particular task. To use the Use command, press A, then highlight the object, press A again, then move the cursor to what you want to use the object with, then press A a third time. The issue is, especially on handheld, the play screen is tiny and maneuvering the cursor to highlight something can be difficult. Though you can use the D-Pad to move the cursor slower. There is no touchscreen support nor is there pointing at the screen(ala the WII).

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a straight translation of the game, even the pause screen is identical, with no graphical options present. That is disappointing because I’d love to have the game take up the full screen. I also had important dialog skip for no discernible reason, but may have been due to the joycons. In the end, the game is a classic, but I really cannot recommend it on the Switch, the controls are simply too clunky. Maybe wait for the Switch 2 mouse controls? Not sure. I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream gets a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back-end score.

Overview: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a straight port of a classic. Unfortunately, the controls are too clunky to recommend this.

Verdict: Your Mileage May Vary

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