on first starting up the game, a vinyl record is spinning. it`s possible to spin it counterclockwise to stop it and clockwise to distort it slightly. i`m getting an impression this game might be one of those fronts for an audio showcase (similar to why touhou was created, the designer wanted a game to showcase his music) the prominent display of “songs by jim guthrie” gives me that impression also.

thankfully the title screen font is high res and readable, very stylish too. the buttons and options on the title screen can be a bit vague and confusing but thankfully there’s plenty of confirmation screens so no permanent mistakes get made.

after beginning the game, the scene changes to a pinstripe room with a sprite man in a suit smoking a cigar, there are high quality reflections on the floor, high res particle effects that behave like snow and a detailed texture overlaying the pinstripe background, adding detail to the simple blocks. there`s a touch screen and audio calibration then a prediction on how long the first chapter will take to complete (a welcome addition for a mobile game)

the main character warps into a forest with a sidekick dog of sorts watching this act of teleportation seemingly unfazed. first impressions of the world, it has that feel as if sprites have been planted on a distinctly higher resolution scene and it comes off as really polished thanks to all the sharp edges. there are nicely integrated lighting effects and particle effects in nearly every scene. runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second (not witnessed a single dip)

the visuals of the game are quite unique, everything has a distinct skinny-ness and verticality to it. the artist of the game (craig adams) has a wholly unique style. he`s done visual work for a bevy of other things aside from just games (mentioned in my previous post) the game seems to be a blend of early pc adventure games and a stretched 16-bit look. the colour palette is quite saturated, almost realistic in it`s normal-ness. this combined with the moody soundtrack gives the game a really sombre feel.

thankfully the in-game text is higher res also. there`s a decent level of control given it`s just a ios game. tapping makes your character move, dragging will move the camera around and pinching performs zooms. the ability to look anywhere is a helpful addition, as this is a puzzle/adventure type game and surveying the environment is essential. it also works to showcase parts of the level the player might not see from just normal play.

nearly every object is interactive, even the copy paste bushes have a fun little `rustle` when you tap them. monuments and landmarks all have a description to them, every area feels jam-packed with detail. speaking of the descriptions, the dialogue has a very laid back feel. it will frequently use teenager terminology like `dude, chillax, bummer` and the like. it`s nice to see a forest adventure game take another route from the predictable `world rests on your shoulders, save the princess etc etc` style of text. sometimes when the character observes scenery they will make rather offbeat comments like “that building looks like it has a face” I couldn’t unsee it afterwards.

I didn’t know a whole lot about the character at this point, but judging by the dialogue. she appears to be really cheeky and laid back. I figured it was a woman by the various grunts she made during combat, and her long black her swishing during sword swipes.

in this first area, there’s small ponds at the base of the footpath. going along them causes your character to reflect on the lake, and touching causes splashes of water. fantastic stuff. continuing on, you are accompanied by an old man who shows you the way. and you keep spying a three eyed wolf in the distance, the music suddenly becomes very foreboding and ominous. have I mentioned how amazing the sound design is yet? all the songs are of a supremely high quality and even the sound effects sound incredibly realistic. simple things like the previously mentioned footsteps in the water, or the ambience of birds in the forests, bushes rattling or wind blowing all seem real. it never feels like a contradiction in style that the art style is`nt attempting to be realistic. this is a case where the engaging plot and gameplay helps suspend disbelief.

once you catch up to that creepy werewolf the game has a prompt telling you to put the ipod sideways to engage in combat. thankfully the fighting doesn’t start untill you do which is a welcome touch. during combat, the characters reside near the top of the screen and a shield and sword button are at the bottom. this is a smart alignment as sometimes during exploration gameplay fingers can obscure the game, but that part of the gameplay is less intense so it`s forgivable.

you can only block in this first fight, repelling the wolf three times will cause it to lose interest and run away (i presume the stars in the heads up display indicate health) blocking is made intuitive thanks to the smooth animation, tells are easy to spot in fights, audio cues are also a big help. the combat is quick but not stressful. there’s a really fancy high res spark when you successfully block an attack which feels nice and rewarding. whenever you get hit, the screen zooms in to watch your character get mauled by the wolf. the pixels all blend together here and it kind of looks a mess but maybe thats`s the intended effect.

the wolf battle in action

after the fight finishes I continue to walk uphill through the forestry path. interacting with some objects will cause the game to use the term `we` in the dialogue. the more I noticed it recurring I couldn’t help but think they were using the deadly premonition method of narrative. where in the game includes the player as an active participant of the journey. think of it as a classier way of breaking the fourth wall.

“any excuse to talk about deadly premonition, right Zack?”

even slowly traversing the environment is fun thanks to the abundance of details and catchy music which plays when you make progress. one thing I noticed around this point after continuing a save was that the game displays a percentage before loading a save, assuming it shows how far I am through the game. perhaps a bit spoiler-ish, would have been nice to have the option to have it on or off. i like to not know how far i am through a game sometimes, just a personal preference.

after making it all the way to the top of the mountain, you`re treated to a visual delight in the form of a giant cave in the shape of a mans face. zooming out to witness the scale of the entire thing is a sight to behold. the art style looks particularly nice when zoomed to a distance. there`s a bottomless pit separating the player to the cave however so it`s time for a puzzle. the old man escorting you sits to the side with the dog almost as if to say “we`ll just wait here while you figure it out” interacting with the rainbow in the background (very bloom lighting-ish, highlights the blocky cave face nicely) reveals that the character has a severe dislike of rainbows. does that explain why the game is so grey? going up to it and raising your sword (done by holding the attack button, good expansion of control) makes the cave face open it`s mouth and extend it`s tounge creating a bridge. makes sense in the games depicted logic. if the dialogue was`nt explanatory enough there was a tablet with a symbol depicting a raised sword underneath colours. a good introductory puzzle.

the cave face

aside from the visual payoff and new area to explore. you are also rewarded with some exposition about the characters quest. your learn that you are on a journey to collect a `super awesome` book called the megatome.

inside the face cave, the first tunnel is hugely eerie. the foreground layer is black rock obscuring much of the play field and it adds to the claustrophobia and builds the atmosphere for whats to come.

the next area has some lovely high res snow effects and lots of background layers as you are high up on a rocky mountaintop. making your way towards the main altar in this complex dungeon. a really ominous tune starts to kick in. it has a beat similar to the theme tune to `the thing` and it creeped me the hell out. there’s a few optional areas to the sides which gave me the impression that this area was a zelda-ish `open` dungeon area to explore.

it`s those opening notes

I reach the apex of the area and discover the megatome but it`s locked in place. slashing at it releases it from whatever was binding it.as soon as it`s added to my inventory the area rumbles and dust crumbles all around as a black shadow emerges from the altar. it gives chase and I fumble desperately with the touch screen to make my way out the dungeon. I think this part wouldn’t have been as effective if it used buttons, I would just have held down the entire time, but on the ipod I had tap and drag to make my way out and it raised the tension considerably, even more so when you factor in the reduced visibility and blaring horror music. the monster itself has some great visuals, it`s a high res black mist which leaves remnants of itself behind when it hovers eerily and effortlessly over terrain unlike my fumbling avatar. after legging it (tapping it?) back to the dark tunnel, I pass a statue which seemed inconspicuous to me on the first time through, but then the monster possesses it and I am forced to fight it. this fight throws all it`s visual panache at me. the background is some weird trippy dimension with lots of reflections and stroke effects for the characters. particle effects are flying everywhere as weapons and shields clash and the opponent reads just as well as the dogs animations.

once it`s downed I meet up with the old man, the background has turned to a red dusk illuminating the scene nicely. the cave face closes it`s move which niggled me somewhat as there were paths I didn’t gain access to in my time there. perhaps there`s metroidvania at play. I spy the three eyed wolf on top of the head and it howls at me and walks away, once it does, smoke bellows out of the caves eyes and nose. I`m then presented with some dialogue to take the megatome home. thankfully it`s a linear path so, it should be a nice unwinding task after the hectic encounter. however that`s not the case. while backtracking left a very heavy piano song comes on as does a thunderstorm. I don’t feel accomplished, it`s as if i`ve commited some sin and set some evil motion in action. this reminds me of whenever downing a collusi in shadow of the colossus. it`s a victory filled with “was that the right thing to do?”

laden with guilt. still as unusual as ever to encounter it in a videogame.

the thunderstorm just increases in intensity (the high res lightning bolts look fantastic, and being how they flash so quickly their resolution doesn’t upset the pixelly aesthetic) after backtracking down the hill some more, the old man locks the gate, making me wonder about going back to the cave even more. the wolf appears once more on the other side of the gate.

we get inside the house and the interior is light with a heavenly glow from the fireplace and the weather outside is muffled. the character presents the megatome to a circle above the fireplace, and it zooms out from the wall and zooms into view filling up the ipod screen. it`s the vinyl from the intro screen.  it display the intro logo and the trademark theme plays. it then fades to a scene with the character in the suit in the pinstripe area.

so all of that was just an opening scene. it was brilliantly paced and full of variety, I hope the rest of the game keeps up to this level!

the game now transitions to that pinstripe room so the man in the suits can dish out some more meta-narrative. “so you found the book and the villagers are freaking out about the storm. bummer” he continues to amuse. whats not amusing is that the game actually kicks you out to the title screen after he suggests you take a break. doesn’t seem like much of a `suggestion` to me. i`ve seen this kind of thing before in the `Wii` brand titles, but at least the it`s only a suggestion.

the archtype reminds me massively of the illusive man. play and you will see.

if you play onwards from this point he gives you a brief recap of events. but this is flawed, I don’t want to have to take a break when the game dictates. a recap would be nice from any starting point, not just these predetermined breaks.

once in the game world again, the thunder and lightning continues to impress. the colour palette of the entire scene changes with every thunderous roar. and my god that roar. the sound design amazes once again, I felt as if it was real it was so powerful sounding.

I started exploring once again and a new song kicked in seemingly randomly. I noticed that every time I touched the water it caused little pixellated splashes. needlessly to say, this amused me far longer then it should have. I stumble into the hut and the girl mentions something about finding 3 fairy sprites to calm the storm. deducing that information was a task unto itself thanks to her eclectic choice of words.

i spy a fairy at the pond (made easier by the fact the sprites have high res effects to them) and the game teaches me a new mechanic. by holding my finger over my character it starts `song mode` where I can tap and drag on objects to make notes and interact with them in spiritual ways. once I lure the fairy out of the pond i`m bombarded with a visual display of sparks, glows and particles for my efforts.

I encounter the suit man shortly thereafter and he teaches me how to use the megatome. it`s an encyclopedia which you unlock by twisting the ipod vertically to point a beam of light and open it (fun) and inside, you can read everything that`s been spoken. and even the npc`s thoughts. not only do these come in handy, but some are downright hilarious.

I`m not at the field full of sheep and I can hear a sprite. to solve this puzzle, what I need to do is go into song mode and select every single sheep. but due to my lack of tactile finesse or the size of the screen, I couldn’t quite manage this right away. whenever I tried to tap multiple sheep in succession it would always deselect (turns out I wasnt precise enough) and so i thought that it would only let me select so many, or in a specific order. so bit of a low point this puzzle, more so a hardware problem then the games. of course this part wouldn’t have been problematic if played on a ipad.

for the third sprite, I simply had to `song` over three birds. easier than the sheep thankfully, since they weren’t so crowded together. after that the dog started behaving as a guide, it would bark to beckon me over to it and then move along a path back to the hub hut. turns out he managed to lose the key to the gate in his dreams, so naturally I have to fall asleep and enter dreamland to go find it. to do this, i made my character sit down next to the fireplace in the hut, some high rez `z`s` floated from her and then the vinyl on the wall zoomed out to fill the screen (as it did when the title of the game was shown off) and it flips onto it`s other side to show `side b` this is clever, side b of the record is obviously the sleep world.

the vinyl flipping seems to be a 3D poly because of the way it moves. (or it might just be a sprite moving in 3D space) either way, I didn’t expect to see any 3D animation in this game. and if I had been casually playing I probably wouldn’t have noticed, it doesn’t ruin the aesthetic by any means.

in this dream land, I keep spying this bear is the distance who I`m positive is humming the `party boy` theme song. I find the key and so, the next natural step to waking up is, well, falling asleep again! doing so makes the vinyl flip to side A and the logfella (old man) tells me to keep the key, after my character seemingly bores him with the details about a quest from god (this was funny to read over in the megatome) going through the gate, I get into another fight with that three eyed wolf. of course i just parry with it a bit and it walks off again.

I find my way back to near the inaccessible cave face and I got stuck for a good long while here. the puzzle here, involves me rubbing to create a new rainbow parallel to the faded one I slashed at earlier. it was`nt untill I consulted the megatome and ate a whole bunch of mushrooms (they make puzzle solutions glow) that I figured it out. I was rewarded with yet another fairy sprite ascending towards heaven for my efforts. it was a fairly frustrating puzzle and only barely fit in the games sense of logic.

I made my way back to hut and I`m treated to some exposition about the sheep going `mental` and fleeing the field. I remember this field for the fact it had a peculiar gate i couldn’t operate. this next puzzle was fairly obtuse also, but the physical and visual payoff softened the frustration.

first I had to tap and drag some fairy dust into a decorative pillar at the top of the mountain in the close background to activate it (in song mode of course) then the camera focuses on two bird statues at the left and right. I try touching them and they begin to glow, but I can’t get both to glow at the same time as soon as I let go of one, it faded. then genius struck! I touched both at the same time, and then the gate opened. good to see the ipods multi-touch functionality get a workout.

the holy trigon makes an appearance now. it`s suspiciously smooth. perfectly angled and not pixellated in the slightest. tapping it starts a boss fight?!  it`s a really epic fight for a triangle. there`s a really thunderous buildup with tribal drums and lightning before it starts to attack. this really had me on edge because I thought I was doing something wrong since (I thought) the battle wasnt starting.

once the action starts however, it shoots a ball of light at me and I have to play tennis with my sword to pass it back and forth untill it finally takes a hit. after a bit of back and forth it starts to attack me with lightning bolts. there’s a warning sound to sidestep the attack a split second before it hits. touching the shield button at this point makes the character sidestep in this context sensitive moment. it`s easily noticeable thanks to the icon having a high res icon emanate from it. I actually died here and spent a little time figuring out the health system. it`s possible to regain health in a battle by holding down the shield button (it takes about 30 seconds) the game is getting so much variety out of having so few buttons. and turns out, eating mushrooms also restores health to full (with the added bonus of tripping the character out) when the girl is on one health there`s a very interesting visual effect. the sharp pixel look is gone, replaced with a flicker and blurry edges and undefined colours. best way to describe it is, if the original sprite had been compressed to a tenth of it`s original file size. daresay it may be the first time i`ve ever seen decompressing as a visual indicator.

anyways back to the fight, after repeating the pattern twice more, I obtain the trigon as a treasure for myself and it takes me back to the title screen for another forced break. game spews more meta-narrative in the pinstripe room and then I can finally open this early gate. this next path piqued my curiosity a bit, there’s a giant vinyl in the corner of the area and annoyingly I can’t observe or interact with it. so I have no choice but to simply move onto the next area. the games becoming really metroidvania now, first that early gate finally got opened once I had the abilities to do so and now there’s this giant red herring which i`ll interact with later surely (hopefully, or it`ll drive me insane)

in this next area, there`s three trigon groves and i put my recently collected trigon into one of the groves and then a ghost gives me some oblique information about the importance of the lunar cycles and dreams. text can be so hard to decipher with this `stoner` talk pervading everything. I took his advice and went into the dream world (I assume that`s what he meant) I did a fair bit of exploring and discovered the dreamworld has these looping, infinite paths. nice little bit of surrealism there. also saw a guy playing a  guitar but I couldn’t interact with him (yet) I stumbled across a waterfall which caught my attention because it looked so pretty, it was a bit of a shock seeing such a bright blue in a usually muted world. it had some lush splashes and glow effects coming from it too. I moved on and I encountered that party bear inside a big tree that looked as if it had a face (similar to one of the huts from earlier, and obviously the zelda deku tree) I engage in combat with the bear and it`s got an interesting tell. it bangs it`s shield a number of times to dictate how many times it`ll attack.  and it mixes it up with a charge attack I need to sidestep also. i`m contiunally impressed by the combat because every single encounter has been unique so far, and rich in animations,sounds and special effects.

I swear, he`s humming this. i`m not mad.

once I defeated party bear, the game gives me a choice to finish the bear off or let him flee. being the kind soul I am, I let him go. I obtained a key for my troubles and some ghosts told me once more about the importance of lunar cycles. back in the real world I made my way up to cave face and got into a fight with the black fog monster. in combat, it takes the form of the statue monster from near the start of the game. after striking him down I spoke to some gravestones and more ghosts told me (again) that the lunar cycles are important, jeez I get it already!

I eventually figured out where the use the key, there was a path to the side obscured by greenery that I haphazardly stumbled upon. unlocking the door bottlenecks me through a dark tunnel, and then out into this surreal space, surrounded by stars and a reflection cast on water on the ground. along with a moon in the sky. by choosing to sit here I could change the lunar cycle of the moon, I KNEW it was going to come in handy! I had a feeling!

I actually thought at first the `lunar cycle` would have been a real-time element i.e the moon changes on where your ipods calender is, but this is more convenient. after realising how important a part the moon plays I noticed that, in nearly every scene of the game world (barring caves and indoors) you can see the moon somewhere in the sky.

later on,I had to figure out an environmental puzzle to get a fairy sprite. there were three waterfalls in this scene, they were simple blue vertical lines. extremely straight and thin due to the art style. by zooming out and going into the etherial `music interaction` mode. I could `strum` the waterfalls by dragging over them. playing all three in succession cleared the puzzle. thought that was really cool. but one thing about the puzzle which isn’t so cool, is trying to notice when there is/or is`nt one. the game has an abundance of audio cues and some can be quite off-putting. it`s often just sound effects from mushrooms in the scene or animals noticing the protagonist but it often made me misbelieve there was a puzzle to solve when there actually wasnt therefore I ended up eating way more mushrooms than I should have. thankfully I had the high res `bubbles` from the fairy sprites to further help. the moon is also high res thankfully since it`s a crucial puzzle element.

speaking to the female npc, she says she wanders in her dreams the hour before dawn (assuming 5am) when the dark moon is in the sky. so what I did first, was change the ipod time to 5am (editing the time this way gets rid of the ability to 100% the game, but I wasnt fussed) and waited in the lunar room for the moon to become fully dark. explored the dream world. nothing.

so I exhausted all of the conversations in the megatome and noticed something inside it. it has a countdown to whatever moon is incoming.

it`ll usually say something like “3 days untill dark moon”

so I had to change the date to get the dark moon to activate, boy did I feel stupid. it was plainly laid out for me, everyone I opened the megatome. the hallmark of a good puzzle, making the player feel stupid for not `getting` it right away.

getting into the dreamworld while the dark moon is up (finally) reveals it`s a very different place. the music is creepy and the place is raining heavily alongside the inevitable darkness. solved some variations on older puzzles to save some sprites and encountered the ghost knight inside the big tree. he tells me I need to save them all to attract the dark trigon, although nowhere near as clearly as how I put it. one thing I`ve noticed throughout the game, the further i progress the more the mingi taw (the black shadow mist monster) keeps harassing me, nearly every screen he shows up and it`s becoming quite frustrating. the fights used to be unique one time encounters but this guys being a pain.

once I acquired all the sprites I attempt to solve the puzzle at the large tree. I try singing to it, but then a prompt says `shake` so I do just that and it causes lightning to strike the tree. it`s fun to use another aspect of the devices functionality, but it felt like a cop-out. just having it so clearly say `shake`. the tree`s `eyes` lit up, and I use both fingers to pull it apart, revealing the dark trigon. same tennis style attack pattern as before, we struck  a light ball back and forth a few times and an all new rainbow move which downed me more than a few times.

a rainbow forms in front of me, and as soon as it starts blinking white, i need to destroy every colour before it creeps towards me and does damage. these fights remind me weirdly of dark souls. in the fact they aren’t meant to be won first time round. there some extremely strict timing and movement patterns to memorize. pretty deep for two buttons and no movement.

cannot be beat on first attempts

after defeating and subsequently obtaining the dark trigon, I went to the trigon grove to activate it. changed the internal calendar so it was time for the bright moon. then slept, this version of the dreamworld had some crazy techno music going on. I met the guy playing the lute again and he told me his name was jim guthrie (the audio composer of the actual game,nice touch) he asked me to `jam` with him so I took a seat, started music mode and randomly tapped on two lit up bushes to drum along to his melody. all I had to do was simply wait untill the end of this song to `complete` this section, but I kept getting confused and thinking I wasnt doing something right because it goes so slowly. it`s not a very game-like sequence but this title is meant to be more slow-paced then the norm so it fits.

he told me he had a gig in a fortnight so I forwarded the date then continued my search for the bright trigon.

solved a pretty lax puzzle involving tapping ducks. then there was a puzzle involving the reflection in the water, showing what parts of the environment aren’t really there. had to tap all the spots to solve this puzzle and obtain the next fairy. this was a better one, reminded me of all those `spot the diffference` childresn books I used to read. next puzzle was okay, had to tap a sequence of trees starting from smallest to largest. next puzzle I had to tap owls. as straightforward as the duck one.

once I had obtained all of the sprites in this world, I walked across the water as I normally did to get from place to place, only this time during the fade transition I ended up on a small mysterious island. went into sorcery mode and dragged the moon underwater to swap places with it`s own reflection. pretty cool. doing this lowers the water level and shows a cave entrance with the light trigon inside. I go inside and start the fight with it. this area has some particularly badass lighting in it. being the light trigon, it illuminates the rocks in the surrounding area very nicely. the fight itself was just a simple, faster version of the previous battle. managed it a lot easier this time now I had the attacks memorised.

afterwards I wander around and encounter the bear, he lures me to where the very first door in the real world is located, that area with the sheep. I had always wondered what was behind here in the dreamworld. turns out, it was jim guthries concert. when the bear opened the door the silhouette on the other side looked like an alien backlight with a mysterious red light so I had no idea what to expect.

the concert area is visual highlight, it had dozens of npcs all bobbing to the music, giant speakers, various lights all over the place. even the bad guys make an appearance along with the archtype. (the meta plot suit guy) after that musical delight, I watch the trigon form (rotating, 3D sprites again. very flashy) and the game goes into break time.

the archtype informs me that my characters sacrifice is soon, and that I have to “forcibly drag my reluctant scythian to the swirling infinite void” heavy stuff indeed. back in the game, I activate all trigons at the grove and I cant help notice something. I only have one unit of health now, turns out it had been dropping from the original 5 I had at the start of the game.  apparently “the quest between the real world and dreamworld had taken it`s toll on the scythian” I thought that was quite a novel way to add difficulty later in the game, and a nice change from the norm. where you usually acquire more health capacity.

the trigon alter forms a rainbow, I attack it and it warps me back to the very first dungeon where I found the megatome. that stupid black mist monsters here again only it kills me straight away now. perusing the megatome, it only now informs me that I can slow it down by singing to it. thankfully at this stage in the game, the monster moves at a slower pace so I actually have time to ready song mode. in this section, the mirage of the female npc is guiding me where to go and during this is have to manage the monster chasing me, the occasional vomiting and coughing of the avatar and a fight with the wolf again at the peak of the mountain. it`s all very demanding for the touch screen controls and this section can be quite stressful.

once at the top, i activate the final altars. a bright light descend from the heavens, obliterating the mingi taw and killing me in the process. my carcass floats down the river where the villagers (and the bear) place the body on a stone altar and burn it. obviously there’s a very melancholy tune accompanying the whole slow sequence so it left me a little sad, but also accomplished that the journey was finally over.

another sequence during the ending, a giant vinyl comes from the sky (most likely that huge one that was just inconspicuously sitting in the bushes that I couldnt interact with)and a creepy robotic voice reads out a series of numbers, turns out it`s a phone number fo residents in america. calling it up gives people an array of ominous messages about the fate of the next sacrifice. could be hints towards a sequel or implying that us (the players) and the next sacrifice. who knows.

and that was superbrothers: sword and sorcery! now, what have i learned of relevance from this epic journey.

• the plentiful use of high res visuals for all kinds of elements. puzzles, plot points, menus and user interface.
• the balanced use of high res visuals. they only occur when useful and don’t detract from the games fundamental style
• mastery of the platform. nearly every use of the ios device is realised. the accelerometer, in-built clock, dual touch, and  even social media surprisingly. and it never clashes with the aesthetic
• the focus on relaxed play. the time elements force you to wait for weeks at a time and some puzzles also have a laid back pace to them. a good fit for mobile gaming and longevity instead of rushing towards completion.
• the eclectic style to storytelling. meta-plot, surf/skate lingo and 4th wall breaking jokes aplenty. a unique approach for a unique look.
• simple mechanics for intuitive hardware. like many 16 bit games, there aren’t an overwhelming abundance of items or abilities (because obviously back in the day, there were fewer buttons) and this fits perfectly with the touch screens limited controls.