Note: This review refers to the Japanese version of this game, called "Another Code."

Another Code's box touts it as "the birth of the 'touchable mystery novel.'" From the beginning, it tries pretty hard to live up to that promise: a moody introduction sequence introduces us to Ashley Mizuki Robbins, about to turn fourteen and about to be sick from the swaying of the boat that she's on. The day before, she received a package from her supposedly long-dead father, asking her to visit him on a remote, deserted island. Together with Jessica, an old friend of the family who has been Ashley's guardian since the day her parents "died", the game begins with Ashley, Jessica, and a grizzled old sea captain who is taking the two of them to "Blood Edward Island" in search of the truth about her family.

If you think the island's name sounds just a bit foreboding, well, you're right. The Edwards, by all accounts a fairly aristocratic family, lived here for quite some time until every last one of them either died or was killed under somewhat suspicious and very perplexing circumstances. As you explore the Edward mansion, you'll encounter D, a ghost who's lost all memory of his former life, and the two of you will help each other to piece together your respective family histories from memories gathered in the Edward estate.

Another Code makes use of the DS's two screens in a somewhat innovative way: the touch-screen displays a top-down, 3-D view of Ashley and her surroundings. The top screen shows a (beautifully) pre-drawn first-person view, which can then be examined more closely to reveal objects, puzzles, clues and the like. You control Ashley simply by dragging your stylus about the screen in the direction that you want her to go. From time to time "touchy" puzzles will appear, requiring you to turn a wheel, punch in a keycode, push a button, etc. These puzzles, while not distracting as such from the gameplay, certainly don't seem to add much to it (with the exception of one or two puzzles which require you to use the microphone, a pretty neat touch). Additionally - remember the package I mentioned before, received from your dead father? It contains an awfully familiar-looking silver device with two screens - a "Dual Another System" or DAS. This device allows you to take pictures of your surroundings and also read "DAS Cards", which you discover along the way These cards contain clues and, occasionally, diary entries by your father. Each part of the house features its own soundtrack, which is at best atmospheric and genuinely creepy, and at worst decidedly inoffensive.

The game's subtitle is "Two Memories," and its general theme seems to be memory. Lost memories, regained memories, memories triggered by things seen or things that happen around you, and also the reliability of memories. Perhaps that's why the designers decided to implement what must be the most frustrating adventure game model in the entire world. To explain: The game is redolent of two things: Myst and Sierra adventure games. The puzzles and the "dropped into an environment with no idea what to do" aspect speak to this game's predecessors. However, unlike those games, where one would generally accumulate items along the way and then later figure out how to apply them to the puzzles with which one was presented, Another Code requires you to first encounter the puzzle and then backtrack your way through what is by all rights a fairly sizeable mansion to find the item or items which will solve it. I cannot possibly stress enough how irritating this game model is. Especially if you have ever played an adventure game before, you will be constantly annoyed when the game gives a dismissive description of some item in the game, making you completely overlook it when you first encounter it, only to require it later to solve a puzzle. (Not to give any spoilers, but the zoetrope puzzle is the worst of the lot.) When added to the fact that the puzzles are pathetically easy to solve once you've actually got the item you need, it really adds up to a pretty unsatisfying adventure game experience in my opinion. The "memory" sequences at the end of each chapter (in which you are asked to correctly identify plot points, key figures and happenings that you've just encountered) do tie in with the "memory" theme of the game, but otherwise they add very, very little.

However, having said all that, I'm not entirely sure that this game wouldn't be satisfying, fun and intriguing to a lot of people who have never played Myst or King's Quest. The story is certainly involved enough - in fact, it's twisty enough that if you're not paying attention you probably won't know what's going on by the time it's over. The protagonist is believable, "reluctantly courageous" in the face of a truly bizarre situation, and generally likeable. And if you're not set in your puzzle-solving ways like I am, perhaps the "find the puzzle, then find the solution" game model will seem perfectly natural. So all in all, I'm going to give Another Code a somewhat hesitant thumbs up. It's involved, it's long, it's original, and it represents another milestone in console gaming history - the first time that anyone has truly made a PC-style adventure game work on a handheld.

Adventure game fans can import this game at Lik-Sang, our importer of choice!