Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense Series: Deadly Intent (Hands-On) (Nintendo DS) Preview

The Nintendo DS is a hot property around the world now, and shows no signs of slowing down all thanks to Nintendo aiming the portable platform at a wider demographic than normal systems. As has been seen with the mammoth success of titles from the Touch! Generations brand, such as Brain Training, nintendogs and Sight Training, older people and the female side of the population are flocking to the format. In Japan it has gone one step further with lots of other educational games that appeal to a larger audience, with Kanji training products, language packages and even titles that give people the chance to become a wine connoisseur, tend to matters of a gardening nature, gain a greater appreciation of classical music, widen your general knowledge, become better at art and even brush up on your mathematical skills!

One other particular genre that has started to take off is that of the traditional text-based adventure game that previously was only associated with success on the PC format. Nintendo has already proven that games of this ilk work well on DS, following the success of Cing's Another Code: Two Memories and Hotel Dusk: Room 215, whilst Capcom has seen its GBA Gyakuten Saiban series translate perfectly onto the dual-screen portable, achieving far improved sales again thanks to the wider audience of the DS. The genre has become so popular now that PC games are being ported to the system, with Runaway 2: Dream of the Turtle and CSI: Dark Motives now out, whilst Undercover: Dual Motives and Nancy Drew are new versions of popular long-standing PC adventure series. Therefore, it did not come as too much of a surprise to find that back in October another company was jumping on-board the adventure train, especially given the huge success of Level 5's Professor Layton.

That company was none other than Tecmo, the developer renowned for its work on Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, as well as more recent offerings such as Pangya! Golf with Style on Wii. Clearly this was the company trying something different, and it should be applauded for attempting to branch out in a new direction. When it was first unveiled, alongside its fellow DS projects Monster Rancher and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, it was revealed that Tecmo's Masahiro Shidara (who many will know for his work on the Fatal Frame and Tokobot franchises) would be taking the helm on the game and that one of his main influences was actually his mother, who had made him think long and hard about the changes going on in the videogame Industry thanks to the Brain Training phenomenon, which has led to more than 30% of all DS users actually being placed in the older demographic.

The game comes complete with an extremely long title: 'DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto Atami Zekkai no Kotou - Satsui no Wana', which many people are roughly translating as 'DS Nishimura Kyotaro Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent'. Clearly the name of the author (and actual supervisor on the game) was put in the title in order to grab the attention of his loyal readership (over 400+ tales published so far!), whilst Tecmo makes it clear that this is part of a series (pleasing for DS owners wanting more after this, no doubt!) and then captures people's interest by placing the game's three main Japanese locations in the mix as well: Kyoto, Atami and Zekkai. Finally, the real theme of the game is expressed by the subtitle 'Satsui no Wana', which forumites are translating as 'Deadly Intent', but is literally translated as 'Trap of Murder'.

When the game starts off, you are greeted by a little 3D model of Nishimura-san himself as he introduces you to the adventure and asks various basic questions to start things off (the rest of the game is in 2D, though, albeit with very impressively styled hand-drawn 2D characters and locations). And rather than taking the easy option of regurgitating storylines from his previous works, the prolific writer has penned an original idea for this particular scenario and the player is introduced straight away to a fledgling detective called Isshin Arata. Following the death of his father at the hands of another, Arata has chosen to follow the same path as his old man not only to show respect for him, but to attempt to track down the person behind the murderous deed. However, he finds himself embroiled in some other murder mystery whilst busy over in Kyoto (home of Nintendo, fact fans) conducting business. Now all he can hope is that between him and his trusty assistant, Aska Kyou, they can get to the root of all evil before things take an even greater turn for the worse. Expect twists galore during this engaging tale...

For those of you familiar with the point-and-click PC adventure genre, or even just the three main DS games mentioned earlier from Nintendo and Capcom, the basic idea is to don your sleuthing cap and travel around investigating various scenes and pieces of evidence found along the way, looking for key clues and witnesses that can aid you in the unravelling of the tangled web of deceit and purge the vile stench of treachery lingering in the air. All the while players are treated to a very pleasing soundtrack that really complements the mysterious gameplay. You may not think about it in general, but music plays a very important role in such a game, since would you really want to be sitting, reading lots of text whilst something annoying and repetitive was pumped into your ears? Exactly, and because the tunes included are so aurally pleasing, it leaves the player taking their time whilst reading evidence, reports and conversations, instead of simply skipping through and overlooking vital details!

Anyway, the game itself is broken down into two main sections, with the story mode on offer, as well as a Short Detective option, which is for those 'on-the-go'. The former has players using the stylus to jump from scene to scene, with the screen being split into different sections that can be tapped on to investigate in more detail. People in a room with you are shown by silhouettes on the top screen, so you know how many are around you at any one time and interrogating them is a case of working through the question lists shown when they are tapped on. Other than that, gamers are asked to analyse long documents and pick out the inconsistencies with the truth, as well as figure out the movement of specific characters, all in the effort of heading towards the final goal. The latter mode available, the Short Detective one, pits the player against smaller, bite-sized mysteries that can last anywhere between three and five minutes and are ideal for those travelling to work that do not have the time right at that moment to delve into the main adventure. Examples of some mini-mysteries include figuring out the meaning behind a message scribed in blood beside a victim's body, or scrutinising all the fine details of a crime scene in order to distinguish any anomalies or suspicious artefacts. On the whole, there is so much included in Kyotaro Nishimura's DS game that it seriously deserves to be translated and given the chance to flourish in a West market where similar games have already shown strong sales.