"An amazing and affecting adventure using all the DS's features"

Another Code (Trace Memory in the USA) is a compelling point and click adventure that uses every single feature of the DS: The touch screen, the mic, the date and time feature AND the sensor that knows when you've closed the lid (in some very clever ways!) and a few that you wouldn't think of that weren't intended (like the reflective quality of the screens, hmm) which blew me away. Also, it can sense the difference between pressures and areas of pressure. It seems to know if you're using your thumb rather than the pen, and if the whole screen has pressure on it. And yes, that's right, I said that it also uses the mic, in several ways but I won't spoil it. All of which leads to some pretty unique and memorable puzzles.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, in a brushstroke pained manga style, every one of the hundereds of pictures, cutscene artworks and location artworks are worth looking through again even if you've completed the game twice (because there's more than one ending!). Most of it is animated too, when people talk, blink and hair swaying in the breeze particularly, it looks like an acomplished digital anime.

You get around by walking or running around areas in a totally 3D overhead view on the bottom screen, using the stylus, with a 2D view of areas of interest flicking up on the top screen. You can then zoom in in 2d, with an even more detailed view. It's very slick. The puzzles vary an awful lot, and most are not gimmicky and either rely on the DS technology in a clever way or don't even need it at all but are still fantastic. I must say that the very beginning of the game put me off as it was quite simple, being a sort of tutorial, but things get a lot more complicated and interesting very quickly. Some puzzles are solved by using the main character's hyped up PDA she receives for her birthday, it can take photos that you can use for reference when in other areas, or digitally combine in a sort of photoshop program.

The storyline and atmosphere is suprisingly sophisticated and compelling for a Nintendo game, the characters are quite gritty and convincing, the english translation is very well written, with your main character who is a young girl having more outright spoken and innocent dialogue than everyone else for example. The whole game has a quite sombre, gothic and adult feel to it, but often uplifting too, sort of like Silent Hill without the monsters and with hope.

So, I've recommended it, described it, I hope that a few people try it based on my review here, and spread the word, because this in my opinion is the first great DS game and doesn't deserve to be ignored, forgotten and buried, as it seems to be a game like Ico that will go under the radar and not get the recognition it deserves.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/05