DS Critic Reviews

A unique little adventure game with loads of style, fun characters, and plenty of charm.

I understand that the slow-paced adventure gameplay isn't for everyone, but there is so much to love here that I firmly urge each and every one of you reading this right now to open your mind and try it for yourself.

Touch Detective’s old-school, slow-paced gameplay may not be for everyone, but fans of the genre will enjoy the quirky aesthetic and witty story.

For those looking for a nostalgic adventure game experience, you'll be pleasantly surprised, at least in function. For anyone else, Touch Detective offers a quirky and off-kilter, albeit short and at times frustrating, adventure.

All but the most hardcore adventure gamers or those totally smitten by the art style and characters will easily bore of the game halfway through the second case.

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.

It's also fun, with a story is further shows the potential of the Nintendo DS as the new home for adventure gaming. That's the good part. The bad part is that the game only features four cases and a handful of forgettable side stories, with very little replay value.

Atlus did an excellent job further augmenting this with another great, humorous localization: whoever came up with the unexpected and hilarious, "Murder case! Woot!" remark should be applauded.

Touch Detective definitely stacks up in the same category as the Phoenix Wright games, by being a game that is fun for being a well written, quirky title and not for blowing stuff up endlessly.

Touch Detective is packed with such funny dialgue and stylistic quirk that it may take a few hours to realize that it isn't a very good game. [Nov. 2006, p.146]