Eye on iOS: Volume 6

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Nintendo DS Ports—Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes

For almost a decade, the Nintendo DS has been the “go to” handheld platform for adventure gamers thanks to gems like Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, and Professor Layton. As this dual-screened device begins to show its age, the App Store is quickly becoming a resource not only for new adventures and PC ports, but for DS ports as well. Already touch-enabled and optimized for small screens, these games would be no-brainers for iOS if not for the vast discrepancy between a DS cartridge’s premium pricetag and the App Store’s bargain bin mentality. Attempting to bridge this gap, two recent DS ports, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes, use in-app purchases (iAPs) to offer the low barrier to entry iOS gamers are used to—with varied results.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Designed by Shu Takumi of Phoenix Wright fame, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective follows an amnesiac ghost, Sissel, as he tries to recover his identity and figure out why somebody just killed him—a tall order that must be fulfilled before sunrise. As this newly-minted ghost soon discovers, he has a few tricks up his ethereal sleeve: he can possess nearby inanimate objects, travel through telephone lines, and most importantly, turn back the minutes before another person’s death to try to alter the fatal chain of events. (Our 4.5-star review provides more details.) With standout artwork and animation, imaginative Rube Goldberg-style puzzles, and an unexpectedly poignant storyline, Ghost Trick is one of the best adventure games to grace the Nintendo DS; it even snagged the Best Handheld Console/Adventure honor in last year’s Aggie Awards. The high praise carries over to this capable iOS port.

In Ghost Trick, much time is spent leaping from one object to another by drawing a line between them with your finger. This simple mechanic works just as well on iOS as it did on Nintendo’s handheld. In the original, the top screen displayed a close-up view of the currently-possessed item and a brief description of what “trick” you could do with it (for example, “dial” for a phone or “open” for an umbrella). Manipulating objects is a big part of the gameplay and knowing what to expect when performing a trick is necessary to avoid trial and error, so not having that obvious visual cue in the iOS version is something of a letdown. But this feature isn’t totally lost: though it’s easy to miss, the trick description does show up in small print on the far right of the screen. The only other real difference between the two versions is that the dossier of information Sissel collects is more cramped, since it’s all contained on one screen rather than being spread out over two, but all of the information is retained. Plus the iOS port has Twitter functionality, and you can choose among five language options from within the app: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. (These are text-only, as the game has no voice acting.)

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The free portion of Ghost Trick includes 2 of its 18 chapters, which are more than enough to introduce the gameplay and hook you with the story. If you like what you see, you can purchase up to 3 additional chapter bundles for $4.99 a piece, or the full game for $9.99. This may seem pricey compared to other App Store offerings, but considering the high production values and the approximately 12-hour playing length, in this case you absolutely get what you pay for.

James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes

Sadly the same can be said for James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes: you get what you pay for. Released last fall for Nintendo 3DS, this Layton-like puzzle game was fairly mundane to begin with (our review explains why) and its iOS port doesn’t do it any favors. With three chapters available for $0.99 individually or $1.99 in a bundle, it’s pretty cheap, but even so you don’t get much for your money.

You play a character who ends up on a puzzle game show just before a murder takes place behind the scenes. Your dual objective: solve as many puzzles as you can, while also figuring out whodunit in a mystery that “puts you back in the best of the 1960s.” At first glance, the iOS version of James Noir seems to be the same game as on 3DS with scaled-back production values. The FMV sequences and voice acting have been replaced with still shots and on-screen text (some of which scrolls by almost too quickly to read). But the game does start out the same way, with your first-person character earning entry onto The Incredible Puzzle Master Show. Two very simple puzzles are presented before you’re encouraged to cough up money to unlock the rest. One of these requires you to rotate an object to find a hidden image; the other’s a slider.

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Without paying (which I didn’t), it’s tough to tell where James Noir goes from here. The demo is so short, with virtually no story teased within it, that I’m not sure if the murder mystery from the original Nintendo 3DS version is lurking within the locked iAPs or if it has been stripped out, leaving only the game show puzzle sequences. Either way, this is not a compelling trial sampler. And if you’re thinking that $1.99 doesn’t sound bad for three chapters, be warned that your purchase might not include a satisfying conclusion: the original 3DS game boasted five chapters with a complete story arc, and App Store reviews suggest that the three-chapter iOS version ends abruptly. If you’re thinking of giving James Noir a go, grab the free portion from the App Store and let this underwhelming demo speak for itself.