The word "quirky" gets thrown around quite a bit with regards to adventure games these days. With good reason, too - the best recent examples of the point-and-click genre are suitably offbeat, specifically the new Sam and Max game.
With the DS's touchscreen capabilities, it would seem only natural that the style of game pioneered by Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series would make a strong showing on the handheld; and with the relative acclaim that Trace Memory garnered, it was a sign that there was room for an entry that was less than serious. Touch Detective fits the bill nicely.
Touch Detective stars Mackenzie, a young girl who starts a sleuthing agency in her sleepy little village in order to gain recognition from the prestigious Detective Society. She's accompanied by her faithful butler Cromwell, who has a penchant for sarcasm and odd inventions, and a small ambulatory mushroom named Funghi. Mackenzie's client is invariably the hapless Penelope, a dizzy girl who comes up with the most bizarre cases for her to solve.
The supporting cast is made up of some very interesting characters around town, all of whom have some interesting personality aspect or defect. The player guides Mackenzie through four cases of dubious importance and coherence, as she continues her quest for glory (as it were).
The title is certainly one of the more unique titles on the DS in terms of aesthetics. The art style is well-defined, with most characters being pre-rendered sprites on top of hand-drawn backgrounds. It's beautiful and charming, and the odd styling of the characters only adds to the absurdity of the cases.
Animations are smooth, and every once in a while the action is punctuated by full-screen cinematics. My only real complaint in terms of the visual presentation is that some of the click points could have been made a little more obvious.
The music also is very well done, but only on a technical level; there's not much there to work with, and what is done, while nice, is almost instantly forgettable. Sound effects are minimalist and sparse, but still effective. None of the audio experience could be considered annoying... it's just not exceptional.
Adventure games rely extremely heavily on the story, and it's in this department that Touch Detective really shines. While Mackenzie's motivations might be a little cliched, the cases she's asked to investigate are not just unique, but, well, "quirky".
All of them are instigated by Penelope, and Mackenzie's 'rival', Chloe, offers somewhat interesting insight throughout the whole experience. Ranging from an unconventional robbery to an almost ridiculous murder, the four primary cases are all well-written and hilarious. Players can also see Mackenzie's thoughts, which serve as an added source of amusement as she responds to the absurd situations she finds herself in.
After completing the cases, players can also experience the town in a series of bonus events accessed through a free-exploration mode. The writing shines in this game, and the care taken in the localization is evident.
However, the game suffers from the same flaw that absolutely every other game of the genre has succumbed to: there's only a handful of stories in the package, and they don't change. Once you've cleared the four cases and the bonus material-- which is really only about six to eight hours of gameplay-- you're done.
While it is a bit unfair to say that the game needs to offer some way to provide endless stories in order to be considered "good", it would have been good for BeeWorks to add a few more cases into the game. Once the main characters are introduced, it's really not that much of a stretch to add more text into the cartridge. I suppose it's a testament to why the adventure genre is more suited to an episodic approach, a la Sam and Max.
Despite the relative brevity of the experience, I can honestly say that Touch Detective is an excellent game to go through... but only once. It's disappointing that the game is so short, because the eccentric cases and endearing cast just deserve to have more than just a brief few hours in the spotlight.
The fact of the matter is, this hurts the game more than ordinarily, owing to the fact that players still expect more than eight hours for a full-priced outlay of cash. Of course, looking at it from another perspective - looking at it as an interactive book, rather than as a game - it's still worth the money. Die-hard adventure gamers have probably already jumped on Touch Detective, but for the rest of you, I would probably recommend putting off a purchase until the price drops, or a used copy comes along.
