Cing`s adventure brings a unique experience to the DS...

Nintendo has been quietly championing Cing’s Another Code: Two Memories; a game that builds upon an intriguing storyline, adventure gameplay and more importantly one that’s been designed around the unique qualities of the Nintendo DS from the ground up.

Players take the role of Ashley on the eve of her 14th birthday, who receives a letter from her father, long presumed dead along with Ashley’s mother for the last ten years while researching human memory for the government. Setting off to find her father on the eerily named Blood Edward Island, Ashley seeks to discover the mystery behind her parents’ disappearance in a storyline that twists and turns throughout.

Relatively early on within the game Ashley comes across a ghost named D, who is looking for answers of his own as he attempts to piece together his shattered memories and escape his isolation on the island. Together, the pair set off to find the truth of their pasts in an intriguing storyline that bears more then a passing similarity to Hayao Miyazaki’s multi award-winning Spirited Away.

The game comes across as a distinctly different type of experience to the vast majority of DS releases, so those hoping for fast-paced action could be in for a disappointment. Instead Another Code: Two Memories plays very closely to the Myst series, with strong “adventure” overtones complimenting a vast array of cryptic puzzles. The two screens are put to good use, featuring an overhead 3D depiction of the game world with which to move around on the bottom screen, while a variety of pre-rendered “postcards” are shown on the top as you move around the environment. Tapping on the touch screen will often bring the pre-rendered screen onto the bottom when there’s a clue to discover or a puzzle to solve; often these are the type of “head-scratchers” that you’ll either love or hate, however it must be noted that Cing have done a good job of mixing up the variety and making good use of the touch-screen capabilities; such examples include the typically infuriating sliding-block puzzles to re-arranging a torn piece of paper or flicking an orb into a statue’s open palm.

If you’re not the biggest adventure fan in the world (like myself) then the various puzzles will often have you slamming the DS shut in frustration, but for some strange and unapparent reason I kept coming back for more. A lot of this can be attributed to the truly engaging storyline; yes the dialogue can be a little heavy at times and suffers from the usual translation issues that you see in many examples of anime, however you will find yourself dipping in and out of the game if you’re willing to persevere with it and find out the many mysteries of Blood Edward Island, Ashley’s family and the history of D.

In an attempt to lend the game some structure and to avoid too many obscure Myst scenarios of aimlessly wandering around, Another Code: Two Memories is a distinctly linear experience that often restricts you from moving between areas if you haven’t identified a key object or action. Other contentious issues include the awkward flick between the postcards, which can seem a little bewildering at times while you attempt to position Ashley correctly; it’s also fair to say that a number of the hidden puzzles and objects are hidden away a little too far, with one or two examples having you walking around for hours searching for something that’s not easily visible on initial inspection. Certain puzzles as well will have you screaming blue murder as you spend hours trying to solve them, only to quit out in frustration and listen to Ashley claiming that something else needs to be done prior to solving the problem – why couldn’t you have said that before I tried to solve it!!!

We’ve screamed out for original DS titles that make full use of the unique capabilities and in many ways Another Code: Two Memories succeeds on this front. However it’s doubtful that an adventure game will set the pulses of hardcore gaming DS owners racing, and it’s probable that Another Code will pass by without too many people even noticing...