DS impressions: Touch Detective

by Ludwig Kietzmann { May 13th 2006 at 5:30PM }

"This game seems a little confusing."
"Yes, it's almost as if it's in a completely different language."

As the E3 demo had not yet been translated from Japanese, it was initially difficult to come to grips with Atlus' Touch Detective. Luckily, a background in old-school adventure gaming served as a boost over the language barrier. The game is, at its heart, a completely traditional adventure (point-and-clicker, if you prefer) augmented by a very bizarre art style. Using the touch screen and stylus to move your wide-eyed character, collect objects, traverse dialogue trees and examine the environment, the gameplay is just about a perfect portable representation of a genre considered to be dead by many. Many people are wrong.

Though I couldn't make heads or tails (or any sort of appendage) of the story, the game is littered with strange characters, including a talking corpse and a sentient mushroom...phallus...thing. We'll have a better idea of where the game is headed once it enters localization, but for now, it appears to be a visually arresting throwback to the adventure games of yore.

Tags: Adventure, Atlus, E32006, Point and Click, PointAndClick, Touch Detective, TouchDetective

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DownloadingData @ May 13th 2006 8:53PM

ohhh, looks nice. I always wanted portable adventure games. I will definately have a closer look when more info is released.

dc @ May 13th 2006 10:08PM

I've always thought that the DS would be pretty much the perfect platform for point-and-click adventure games. Bravo to Touch Detective, I look forward to its English translation.

Now, let's see LucasArts port their back catalogue to the DS! Monkey Island, Full Throttle, the Dig, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max (oh God, Sam & Max...). They would make a *mint*. (Hey, a man can dream, can't he?)