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Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)
by Flukepiestalker
This was a really dull game. The storyline just plods along with nothing exciting happening and is full of despair and misery.
Like all modern 'point and click' adventures, this offers no excitement other than pointing and clicking on everything you can find. The dialog is laboured, the sotry line isn't very well thought out ... and it's annoying that you can return to a scene (having been there fifty times before) for it to change because you happened to have spoken to a random character several rooms away.
I stuck it out to complete it, though I really wish I hadn't bothered wasting my time - there was no sense of fulfillment at the end. As with any point-and-click adventure games designed for the console age, it is more a 'walkthrough' story - there was nothing even remotely challenging in terms of puzzles to solve - it was more about just talking to people, then talking to another person, and another and another, so in all honesty I think you'd be better off just reading a book!
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Alice in Wonderland (DS)
by doriee
Alice in wonderland is a quirky game we see kicking around on a few consoles these days, this game is what some people may call a "game of the film". Alice in wonderland follows the rough plot of Tim Burton's Alice in wonderland where Alice returns to underland to restore order and defeat the red queen. As always Alice slips ... into underland via the rabbit hole and along her way meets array of bizarre characters including tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, the mad hatter, Cheshire and more.
Starting the game to my surprise I didn't actually play the character Alice, I started playing the game by controlling the white rabbit and throughout the game I could switch to play the mad hatter, Cheshire cat and the Caterpillar. Each character has special abilities which you will need to sue as a team to help solve puzzles and help Alice to reach her destination.Alice will obediently follow the player but let her stray away and the queens red troops will kidnap her.
At the engining of the game the white rabbit(you) and Alice are in the strange garden being instructed by the tweedles on the controls, here we beat our first set of red troops and collect our first puzzle piece to add to the Oraculum map. Throughout the game there are puzzle pieces to collect, this will start to make the Oraculum map complete allowing you to explore new places and create shortcuts to old destinations if need be. Through the game we have armour to collect ready to battle against the jabberwocky, chests to open and pictures to collect.
The white rabbit has the ability to slow time down or up. Things in the game that are purple indicate when you can use this ability IE - speed time up to make a purple chandelier fall to the ground so you and Alice can step on it. Absolem has the ability to stretch out and create Bridges so Alice can walk over water spots too deep to cross. Cheshire has the ability to make things vi sable and invisible. The mad hatter, where there is a floating orange hat, the mad hatter has the ability to change perspective to create new locations.
The graphics are quite restrained keeping them a simple 2D design mad up of mostly black and white striking lines to make a bigger impact with subtle coloured background and objects making each level seem Erie and strange like underworld should be without attempting to replicate the look of the film they have managed to capture ghostly and mysterious feeling when playing this game. The music helps set the scene on Alice IN wonderland too. Complete orchestra in the usual Tim Burton style the music is slow tempered and gives off a supernatural vibe.
The game roughly follows the film plot, the music helps set the scene but uh-oh. The controls aren't the best. For anyone who loves playing with the buttons you'll Eb disappointed to find out this is completely com trolled by the touchscreen option and you have to play with the stylus on the screen. You have to place the stylus on the screen in the direction ouw ant to walk, jump and fight. To me this is annoying, all the way through the game I forgot and started trying to play with the buttons, getting frustrated and then remember why it wouldn't work. This games seems to be strictly aimed at children due to how easy the game is. The levels are not so complex and are fairly easy to follow and back track if you have gone down the wrong dead end.
Over all Alice in wonderland is a good game to waste time with. To me it wasn't very exciting and it didn't hold my attention for long I played this little and not often but I never gave up and did finish the game. The levels after a while because a little repetitive due to the same fight scenes with the red troops, Alice being annoying and not following you. I also notice that towards the end of the game having to swap characters due to their much needed abilities became more frequent and in the long run annoying.
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Professor Layton and The Curious Village (DS)
by joclark84
I received this game from my brother a few Christmas' ago. He bought it for me due to my love of puzzle games like the Monkey Island series. I've never been the biggest computer game player but every now and again a game comes along that I just can't put down.
The game is about Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke and ... their adventures to find out what secrets the village holds. The people in the village will cause you problems and hold secrets, only giving away information if you solve puzzles and answer questions.
Each game has it's own story to tell, the curious village of St Mystere being the setting for the first of what is now 4 (i think) games. When the Baron dies he leaves a cryptic will that you must help Professor Layton solve with the help of Luke in order to find the missing treasure.
I found this to be quite a unique style of game as it is not just about solving puzzles as a game like Sudoku would be but is entwined with a compelling story. You have to seek out the clues and games and it can sometimes be quite frustrating when a hidden game is difficult to find. For those of you who might be worried about the difficulty of some of the puzzles, you can collect hint coins, which you can use to help you solve puzzles. Each game has 3 hints and if a puzzle is too hard, it is not essential that you solve it in order to complete the story. Don't worry if you get a puzzle wrong you can keep trying until you get it right, the only downside being that you are collecting picarates and the amount you gain drops each time you get a puzzle wrong.
The game is only available on the Nintendo DS. You use the touch screen to guide Professor Layton around, following him on the map on the top screen. The game involves reading what characters say to you as well as sections of high quality animation which can only be enjoyed with the volume up. Some of the characters are endearing and you enjoy getting to know them, others are just irritating.
When you have completed the story, the game is not over. In completing the story you open up secret games that are of a much higher level of difficulty (some of which I claim to be impossible ;-)). Despite this, I feel this to be the big draw back of this game. Once you have completed it, that is it. It is not a game that you will want to go back and play anytime soon.
Looking at the recent prices on Amazon it can be purchased for around £12. I feel this is exceptional value for a game that I predict contains at least 20+ hours of game play. This price has continued to drop due to the releases of the other games (which I believe just get better and better). Although these games do follow a story, they can be played out of order (although this would irritate me).
To summarise if you enjoy puzzle games, this is a must have in your collection.
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