The Nineties renaissance is upon us. Don't worry, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice aren't planning a duet - instead, long forgotten genres of days gone by are making a comeback on next generation hardware. First it was the Xbox 360 and its collection of side-scrolling shooters, then it was the Wii, releasing not one, not two, but three light-gun shooters in the space of two months. Now the Wii, not happy with simply resurrecting the light-gun genre, has decided to go and do the unthinkable by bringing back the long forgotten point and click adventure! With the successful release of Zack & Wiki already in the bag, Nintendo, along with the Adventure Company have decided to bring a more traditional and dare I say grown-up slice of point and click adventuring to the table with Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Originally released back in 2005 on the PC, And Then There Were None is based on Agatha Christie's best selling novel. The story follows the tale of ten well to do characters, each with their own collection of murky secrets, who are invited under false pretences to an island off the coast of Devon. After arriving on the island, they find themselves trapped at a grandiose, if somewhat ominous, estate, as they get picked off one by one by an unknown assailant. In fairness, with a name like 'Shipwreck Island', this kind of serves them right for turning up in the first place! Unlike the book however, the original PC game and this almost identical Wii remake put you in the boots of unknowing boatman Patrick Narracott.

Being the one who takes the upper class collection of potential victims to the estate, Patrick finds himself stuck along with them as his boat - yes, you guessed it - is shipwrecked due to the somewhat unseasonably stormy weather. From here begins your snail-paced adventure to figure out who is killing this rather suspicious collection of characters before the killer finally turns his or her attention to you.

At this point, it should probably be made clear that this is an unforgiving, uncompromising and at times, painfully slow take on the point and click adventure. Forget Zack & Wiki's zany take on this staple of Nineties gaming - And Then There Were None is as traditional a take on the genre as you are likely to find. Forget blood, forget gore and settle down for reams and reams of text, followed by numerous mentally taxing puzzles. Needless to say, gamers brought up on a diet of Halo and Grand Theft Auto need not apply. In honesty though, this needn't be a bad thing, as some truly great games have come out of this exact same formula. In fact, the likes of Grim Fandango and Broken Sword, the traditional point and click adventure has brought us some of the best loved games of the past twenty years. Sadly, And Then There Were None simply does not live up to these classics in any way.

More than any other aspect, a point and click adventure will live and die by its puzzles. Sadly, although possessing all the prerequisites of the genre in abundance, And Then There Were None's collection of puzzles never strays too far from the mundane. Even with the use of the Wiimote, giving the perfect opportunity to reinvigorate a genre if ever there was one, The Adventure Company simply have not bothered to try anything new. The puzzles were never all that great on the PC original, most of which consisted of searching room after room for objects before finding out which ones fit together to allow you to progress further into the game. Well, it's exactly the same on the Wii, short of a few context-specific movements of the Wii remote, with twisting of the remote to open locks and safes being about as adventurous as The Adventure Company have decided to get for this version. In fairness, the point and click mechanics of the game are perfectly fitted to the Wiimote's point and click control sensibilities; it feels infinitely more responsive than a thumbstick and is unquestionably the only way to play if you haven't got a mouse and a keyboard in front of you. This might be the least you would expect from a point and click port to the Wii, but it does work well and is probably the only real justification for this game showing up on the Wii at all.

Beyond the puzzles, the majority of the game is made up of searching each and every room in the greatest of detail. Every nook and cranny will need to be searched in your attempt to unravel this tightly wound murder mystery. For some gamers, this slow, meticulous approach will cater to there tastes perfectly, however for the majority, even those accustomed to the unquestionable joys of Broken Sword and Grim Fandango, And Then There Were None's snail-like pace and lack of stand out moments will leave them reaching for faster paced, or at least, more immediate feeling gameplay experiences.

Luckily, where the puzzles falter, the story, as you would expect from an Agatha Christie bestseller, really does a fine job of building suspense and intrigue. Sadly, this timeless tale is held back by the humourless reams of seemingly never-ending text. The pacing of the game simply never does justice to this unquestionably superb story; And Then There Were None is simply too slow. This may sound like stating the obvious in regards to a point a click adventure, but honestly, And Then There Were None makes the majority of point and click adventures look positively electric. If you can put up with the pace then there is quite a bit of game to be found here, but the reams of text and disjointed puzzles, the poor dialogue and questionable voice acting all do their level best to drag an otherwise excellent story into the realm of complete tedium.

To make matters worse, the presentation throughout often borders on the sub-standard. From the terribly dated looking opening sequence to the poorly textured details of the estate and island, And Then There Were None is really starting to show its age, especially considering that there has been zero graphical improvement over the game's original 2005 release. The fact that you spend so much time meticulously searching every detail of the game's environments from beginning to end makes the poor graphical detail even harder to bear. Okay, so some of the static interiors do have some decently crafted details, but even then, you are dragged away from any of these potential positives by the shockingly rendered characters and their simply appalling animations, and for a game that relies so heavily on text and character development, the complete lack of facial animations is almost criminal. Even at a time when the graphical deficiencies of the console are being overlooked, And Then There Were None comes across more like a decent PSOne port rather than an ageing PC game. And although the audio does occasionally provide a saving grace with a well implemented score and some decent, if under-whelming, sound effects, the dull, poorly delivered voice acting once again reminds you that you are playing a lazy port of a sub-standard point and click adventure that should have been left back in 2005.

And really, that's what And Then There Was None comes down to; a lazy port of a rather under-whelming PC release. The Wii has been criticized, and rightly so, for porting over far too many sub-standard games with poorly implemented use of the Wiimote tacked on to justify their release - And Then There Were None will do nothing but strengthen that argument tenfold. Simply put, there is no justification whatsoever for this game to be released beyond making a quick buck. Although the story may well be a great one, do yourself a favour and just buy the book instead. Okay, so some traditionalists may find some joy in the slow, meticulous nature of the game, and the Wiimote may be perfectly fitted for the basic point and click controls, but for the majority, the slow pace, poor presentation and gimmicky use of the Wiimote will be more than enough to put them off the idea of point and click adventures for quite some time. Please though, I implore you; don't judge a genre by a single release - there are genuine classics to be found in this more humble of genres, it's just that And Then There Were None simply isn't one of them.

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).