I've never watched any of the CSI shows, so I can't say how well this game captures the feel of CSI: Miami. You won't hear The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and I don't think the cast came in to do the voices, but the plotline is intriguing. Law & Order established the "case of the week, but with each time a twist" paradigm, and I assume the CSI shows follow a similar pattern. Gameloft's take on this is well-executed, from a story perspective.

On the downside, the voice acting is hokey, and most of the dialogue is forgettable. Law & Order also introduced the idea of detectives making snarky comments as they investigate a crime scene. This game makes a similar attempt, but it falls short.

An example of the cheesy dialogue

However, if we want great drama, we'll watch the show, right? CSI: Miami's value lies in its crime-solving aspect, and that's where it's hit-and-miss. Aside from improved production values and different ways of navigating the action, the iPhone version is the same as the clickwheel iPod edition: same story, same evidence, and same locations and characters.

Tapping the screen is preferable to spinning the clickwheel to make selections, although sometimes items are so close that it's too easy to tap the wrong one. For example, there's a game where you must decide if a fingerprint matches one pulled from a database; the "yes" and "no" responses are each contained on small strips, one on top of the other, making it easy to choose the wrong one with your finger. You may want to opt for a stylus that's made to work with the iPhone.

On the flipside, the clickwheel version of the game had you spin the wheel to move between different points of interest when you were at a location. In this version, you must tap around the screen to find things you should be looking at, although sometimes you'll see a sparkle that tips you off to something important.

When you find a piece of evidence, you must select the proper tool to collect it; new tools become available as the game progresses. It's not hard to figure out what you should use. Sometimes the evidence collection triggers a mini-game, none of which are that hard, at least on the easy difficulty setting. There are 10 mini-games, some of which use the iPhone's accelerometer -- that's another difference from the clickwheel version. After completing a mini-game once, you unlock it so you can choose it from the main menu, although none of them are so compelling that you'll want to fire up CSI: Miami just to play one.

This mini-game has a familiar paradigm: try to match three or more like-colored balls to eliminate them

In the end, it's all about the crime-solving. The interrogations are fun, simply because you can try different tactics with the suspects, who all react differently, depending on their personalities. Of course, once you figure out what they don't like, it's not hard to determine what approach will work best next time; I didn't get the sense of any variability in suspects' responses. But it's fun to pretend you're a hotshot detective, trying to shut the door on a murder case.

The bottom line

If you've played the clickwheel version of this game, you're really not missing anything here. If you've played any of the CSI or Law & Order computer games, then you know what's in store for you. And if you've never played a game like this, then for a mere six bucks, you can check out this genre on your iPhone and decide if it's for you. It's a good value for the money.