"I guess I expected more......"

Another Code: Two Memories is essentially a point & click adventure game which uses the Nintendo DS's unique features to breathe new life into an stale genre.

Visuals - 9/10

This is easily Another Code's strongest selling point. Everything looks great, especially the character portraits that are used to illustrate conversations and major game events. Anyone who sees the intro to the game is definitely going to want to play it through to the end.

The only reasons I didn't give the visuals 10 are because I didn't feel the dual screens really added anything to the visual appeal of this game (although there are a couple of puzzles that cleverly use them) and because of the depressingly bad design of the game's packaging.

Sound - 7/10

The music in the game is okay. It's all fairly similar but it fit in really well with the tone of the game and contributed greatly to creation of the game's atmosphere.

Sound effects were pretty standard. Nothing flash, but hey, everything sounds right.

Story - 7/10

The player takes on the role of Ashley Mizuki Robins as she travels to Blood Edward Island in search of her father.

Upon her arrival, Ashley meets a mysterious companion by the name of 'D' and together they begin to unravel the mysteries of Blood Edward Island and the mysteries surrounding themselves as well....

The story is pretty decent. It is fairly deep considering the short length of the game, but it is also very predictable. Unravelling the two intertwining stories that surround Ashley and D also adds to the game.

Another Code also manages to exude a sense of atmosphere (which is no mean feat for a hand-held console) helping draw you into the story even more. Yay!

Gameplay - 7/10

Essentially the game is a derivative of the tried-and-true point & click adventure games we've all been playing for years on our PCs, but Another Code easily outshines it's competition through the clever use of DS functionality.

The game can be controlled entirely with the stylus, or through the use of the D-pad & buttons (or a combination of both). I found using just the stylus was the most comfortable and enjoyable. The touch-screen response was very accurate (as always).

Nintendo weren't lying, touching is good. Somehow it is much more satisfying to investigate a static screen through the use of the stylus and touch-screen than it ever was via a mouse. The player has no choice but to become more involved in the adventure because they feel that they are actively navigating the obstacles that Ashley encounters.

The puzzles you solve make use of all the DS's regular features and then some, but they're all so damn easy. Matters are not helped any by the characters almost always giving you blatantly obvious clues to solving them.

Easy puzzles also lead to short game life. It took me three and a half hours to finish this one the first time and even then I was taking it pretty easy. There is a kind of new game+ option when you finish that pretty much only changes one aspect of the game (favourably, in my opinion) and there is also more than one ending, so I guess there is some incentive to play again if you didn't get the best ending.

I have to mention one thing I absolutely hated about the game. This was that every so often you would come across an item that you knew you would need later on, but you couldn't pick it up until you had reached the situation in which it was needed. At this point you have to go back and get it. Granted it was never very far, but grrrrr...... Blatant attempt to make game seem bigger than it really is......

Overall - 7/10

Another Code is a solid and entertaining adventure game that was unfortunately made to appeal to the widest range of gamers. This has led to a rather confusing result of an adventure game with a mature theme & undercurrent, but puzzles the average 8-year old could figure out.

I enjoyed the game, but I really expected a lot more for my $69 AUD.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/05