Mystery Detective (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

505 Game Street appeared around a year a go on the European entertainment scene and is primarily a game publisher. What this means for you is that, like ZOO Digital, they search the globe for existing games which have yet to land a publishing deal in the UK and Europe. Mystery Detective has been out for some time in the US and Japan although there it was known as, the rather more clearly labeled, Touch Detective. The DS is getting more of this type of innovative title although it's still seriously short of the adventure genre. I'm sure I speak for many gamers who'd like both Lucasarts and Revolution to port their 'point and click' masterpieces to the format but for now will this game fill the rather large hole?

Gameplay

Mystery Detective has you playing Mackenzie: a young girl who has inherited a Detective Agency and is out to prove to the world that she's the best in the business aided, of course, by her all knowing butler, Cromwell. You'll also be able to call on Fungi, your sidekick and occasional assistant. I say occasional, as he can't always be bothered rooting out a piece of all-important evidence for you. It's then up to you to solve cases in your small town by talking to its inhabitants, solving riddles and collecting evidence. It takes place in a variety of manageable areas selected from a pictorial map. These are easily investigated and generally take up around three times the size of the screen. From this you'll be able to go into other rooms but, as with other similar games, some areas are blocked off during the game.

Your first case involves Mackenzie tracking down a thief who's been stealing a friend's dreams and this is where the game will either completely grab your attention or frustrate the life out of you. The problem is that the plots are so strange that this gives the developers the license to create a parallel universe. In other words, one where you have no idea what's going on. I'll try and give an example, without giving too many spoilers. Obviously if dreams are being stolen then this has something to do with sleep, how do we get everyone to sleep? Well, in Mystery Detective land we catch a butterfly and sprinkle the dust from its wings in people's faces. What? This is just one of many instances where it's not until you work back from the solution you've stumbled across, that you can make any sense of how the developers got there. It's this level of fuzzy logic, which will have you wandering around trying everything, rather than actually narrowing down what needs doing and how to approach it. There's also a little too much text and you'll occasionally want to ask for 'just the facts'. Questioning people is not nearly as free as you'd like either as each person will have the same stock answers to your rather shallow questions regardless of how many times you visit them.

In addition to the four main cases you'll also find a collection of bonus cases that are unlocked as soon as you complete the main cases. These are not nearly as complicated and simply require you to wander around the town seeing if anyone requires help. Even if they do you can decline their request but given that this generally involves finding a lost item of person it's usually worth considering. To round it up you even have a 'Touch List', which is added to every time you come across a new surface. It's then described and added to a journal where, incidentally, you'll also find your case notes.

Controls

Yes, you can use the traditional controls but with a touch screen and stylus available, why would you?

Graphics

Visually, Mystery Detective is just about as good as it gets and Bee Works have clearly spent some time on fine-tuning the stylized world they have created for this adventure. It's difficult to pigeonhole it too with the bold, well animated characters and 'pencil sketched' finish populating a pixel perfect, forced perspective, world. You'd assume there'd be a downside to all this but everything from the front end to the in-game interface is perfectly balanced and incredibly intuitive.

Sound

While the various musical pieces are by no means the greatest compositions you are ever likely to hear they do perfectly match the pace and mood of the game. The sound effects also do a fine job of bringing the game to life but as with any voiceover work, it seems nobody has anything to say.

Dual screen

As we've mentioned you can opt for the more traditional control system but we feel the stylus works much better. To get you started on your quest you can even dip into a short tutorial where you must 'escape' your bedroom. There's more than enough help at hand but this does introduce you to the fundamentals of the control system. For once the top screen is also well used and while the actual spoken text is displayed on the bottom screen the top screen is given over to Mackenzie's thoughts and feelings both as text and animations.

Final comments

You could be forgiven for thinking that, initially at least, Mystery Detective is just about as close to a perfect DS title as you are going to get. On the surface this is true and the sound, visuals and overall production are some of the best we've seen. The actual concept too deserves a mention and the point and click style adventure is a genre that isn't sufficiently supported on the platform. Unfortunately the problems with Mystery Detective make the whole experience so frustrating it almost cancels out the good things. The flaw is unfortunately at the core of the game's structure and in order to solve any of the puzzles you have to fully immerse yourself in Mackenzie's world. The problem is you've no idea what her world is so you constantly wander around and try just about everything rather than employing any logic. It's difficult to express just how disappointing this is but hopefully it will be rectified in the sequel.

Pro: Looks and Sounds Wonderful, Genuinely Humorous Dialogue, Good Use of Both Screens.
Con: Shallow Gameplay, Illogical Puzzles.
Final score: 6.7

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