Touch Detective

UPC: 730865400058

Platform: Nintendo DS

Publisher: Atlus U.S.A., Inc.

Developer: BeeWorks Co., Ltd.

Category: Adventure

Style(s): Third-Person Adventure

Synopsis: As a Touch Detective, solving cases will require handling evidence with care and feeling out all leads for suspects and clues. Cast in the role of Mackenzie, you must solve four cases by collecting items for the touch diary and by interviewing witnesses. Mysteries such as finding a missing person or locating a lost dream await your sleuthing skills and ability to creatively use inventory items. Navigate Mackenzie through each location by using the stylus on the lower screen, and interview people you meet to collect important information about the case or Mackenzie's personal opinions and thoughts. When talking to in-game characters, an image of Mackenzie will sprout thought balloons that provide suggestions such as asking another question, noticing body language, and other personal knowledge. A mushroom-man named Funghi and a robotic servant called Cromwell can provide Mackenzie with tips and hints. ~ Gracie Leach, All Game Guide

Package Contents: Health and Safety Precautions Booklet

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

Though Mackenzie looks suspiciously like Buster Brown, the odd visual style helps draw you into the adventure. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Though few would readily admit to thinking the DS would be an unqualified hit, what with its seemingly redundant dual-screened display and gimmicky touch interface, it has been an overwhelming success for Nintendo. More importantly, it has opened the door for some truly creative titles, especially when compared to the endless stream of generic side-scrollers on Game Boy Advance. Chalk up Touch Detective as another unusual title for the DS, but this time it's not due to the control scheme. Touch Detective is a throwback to early point-and-click adventure games on PC. The world consists of six locales, each selectable from an overhead map, and a series of fixed screens depicting bedrooms, shops, and so forth. Players begin in a detective office and will visit a condominium, shopping plaza, park, planetarium, and circus. While the places may be routine, the cases and characters are anything but, with mysteries involving stolen dreams, circus fleas, a persnickety walrus, and an abducted friend. You will rub elbows with skeletons, an android butler, a fungus-like pet, and more while collecting items and questioning potential witnesses. Solving a case involves visiting each locale more than once, touching items with the stylus, talking to characters, and trying to figure out what to do next. That last part is huge, because the game's puzzles are obtuse. Progress, therefore, relies more on blind luck than common sense. In one early example, players must figure out how to repair a hole in a butterfly net. Since there is a clothing shop, one would assume there would be a needle and thread or at least a tailor. That apparently is either too obvious or too mundane, as you'll discover only by accident. It seems you have to swing the net on a cobweb to automatically fix it, and that's one of the more straightforward "puzzles." Touch Detective is not a particularly fun game for those who fancy themselves the next Sherlock Holmes or Veronica Mars. It relies heavily on its surreal storyline, quirky visuals, and offbeat humor to involve players, but with the constant need to backtrack through limited locales and static screens to find something easily overlooked, the game quickly wears out its welcome. With only four main cases, Touch Detective is not an adventure you'll be itching to play again, unless you have a strong affinity for the absurd. Genre fans have better options on the DS, starting with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a title that proves weird can still be fun. This detective, sadly, is both out of touch and without a clue. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Players can unlock four short bonus episodes and work on completing a "touch list," but once you've cracked the cases, it's basically over. Some mini-games would have helped in this area. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Each locale has its own theme music, some of which is highly grating, but the sound effects are usually quite amusing. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Those who appreciate something off the beaten path will lap this game up, but the puzzles are vague and the exploration limited. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.