[Euan]

Hey guys. First ever review, tell me what you think. Can't walk due to being badly sunburnt (kayaking for a whole day) so have sat myself in front of a computer and wrote this review. In some areas spelling may be wrong as I don't have a spellchecker. Oh well, it's pretty bad... :oops:

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If games were woman, Another Code would be a strikingly beautiful brunette. By no means is she perfect, do not make that mistake, but still she holds her own in the games world without the aid of make-up – also known as violence – which GTA to name one uses to boost their popularity.

Nintendo have picked out a gem of a developer, CING, from almost the middle of nowhere and judging by their first effort, Another Code : Two Memories, it looks yet another great find.

Another Code follows a young girl, Ashley Robins, in a search to find the the truth. On the eve of her 14th birthday, Ashley recieves a note from her father – who she believed was dead – telling her his whereabouts in Blood Edward Island. Fittingly, this island is in the middle of nowhere and has little to no inhabitants. Alongside the note is a strange device, the DAS, which is shaped strikingly similarly to the Nintendo DS. Naturally Ashley travels to the island and there, after she finds a ghost-friend named ‘D’, she finds out things she never expects to hear…

This game is primarily built on puzzles. Due to the nature and storyline, however, it could also be classed as a RPG or even a Mystery game – a genre not often, if at all, ventured to by games developers.

The controls and cameras are simple. Players control Ashley on the bottom screen from a birds eye-view with either the D-Pad or the TouchScreen. The top screen shows a pre-rendered image of the near-by surroundings, changing when you enter a new area or look in a new direction. To investigate the image shown on the topscreen, players simply press a magnifying glass on the top right of the touchscreen and it appears on the lower screen. Then, you can touch areas of the image and then either text appears, or, depending on the importance of the item or thing you’ve touched, the image may zoom in and you can collect various storyline items. In turn, you can use the items you pick up to solve other puzzles, making investigating very important.

Although the system is easy to learn and generally fun to play, it does have it’s downsides. Quite often areas where you have been before, investigated thoroughly and checked over-and-over yield new items which you were not able to pick up beforehand. It’s frustrating for the gamer as generally, unless you remember the item from earlier in the game which relates to the puzzle, hours will disappear while searching for it.

The graphics are one of the areas CING really excelled in. Although the birds-eye view of Ashley is nothing special and the topscreen images don’t set the world alight, when communicating to other characters or in FMV’s, the graphics are impressive. They’re not perfectly realistic graphics, which the DS is incable of producing, but they are well detailed, with a tint of Japanese which just adds the icing onto the already sweet cake.

Another area which I believe is well done by CING, though I know of a view who disagree with me, is the music. Calming melodies pursue Ashley in her every step and movement, some of the best tunes I’ve heard in gaming. Particularly in storyline situations the music impresses, in particularly a mysterious tune which greets shocking details of Ashley’s or D’s story (which I am itching to tell you, but will refrain myself from doing so.)

With every plus there is a downside as I have already proved. Although the music is calming, alluring and well-selected, due to the nature of the game people will get frustrated. Then, as you trawl through an area for the 34th time, the music becomes a figure of hate and is at that point the opposite of calming.

Well here’s what you are all waiting to hear. The final verdict. Another Code is not for everyone – there’s no blood, there’s no fighting and thus will not appeal to the mainstream gamer. There is, however, an entertaining story to be found, addictive puzzles also to be found and a few hours of your life to the be lost. The main problem with the game is exactly that, though, the game is far too short. Completable in a day and even in three hours (though trust me, not many people would have completed it in that time first time round), it’s not the 40-hour long RPG that some may have hoped. Despite this, if you have the amount of money needed to buy the game, it’s well worth it.

Overall : 8/10