Missy Mila: Twisted Tales Review (DSiWare)

Virtual books aren't really anything new on the DS, having seen full retail releases such as 100 Classic Books Collection containing classic literature such as Around The World In 80 Days to the DSiWare series of Flips. This time around, we have Missy Mila – Twisted Tales, a small collection of five original children's stories (Baba Yaga, The Toupouloupou, Elvis, The Cow & The Rabbit and The Hidden Princess), narrated to you by Missy Mila. Developed by Planet Nemo Production, it's not very original but kids should still find enjoyment in it.

Baba Yaga is about a girl called Natasha whose evil stepmother tries to get rid of her by sending her to a witch in the forest; in The Toupouloupou, a king called Minus feeds prisoners to a monster known as the Toupouloupou; Elvis is about a donkey call Elvis who loves music; The Cow & The Rabbit tells a tale of a Rabbit called Babin who becomes jealous when a cow called Ruby starts another highly popular shop; and The Hidden Princess, you guessed it, about a princess who gets hidden away.

The main problem with Twisted Tales is that some of these stories have elements which are obviously influenced by other works, such as Hansel and Gretel in Baba Yaga, which involves a witch who eats children and tries to cook up the little girl Natasha; The Toupouloupou, similarly, is largely influenced by Greek Mythology and the Minotaur. While these tales have undoubtedly influenced countless thousands of stories over the years, these tales feel rather unoriginal as a result. However, there's a fair amount of humour in them and kids will find them entertaining.

The layout of the game is simple. The touchscreen contains the story pages, which you turn them by pressing on arrow icons at the bottom of the screen. On the top screen, you have a picture to go alongside the story, which changes every few pages. The pictures, as you might expect, contain a colourful and basic art style, which will be quite appealing to children.

You can access the main menu by tapping on a ladybug icon. In here, you can switch to another story or even take a quiz based on the book you've currently chosen. They only have a few easy questions for each book and you can keep retrying a question until you get it right, which makes it ideal for children because of its simplistic nature.