Okay,
There are a few out now here.
Disney adventure games... (Hanna Montana, Raven etc)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Lost in Blue 1 & 2 (?)
Nancy Drew and The Deadly Secret of Olde World Park
Phoenix Wright
Phoenix Wright 2
Phoenix Wright 3
Touch Detective
Touch Detective 2 1/2
Trace memory
A few coming down the pipeline...
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (From Dragons Quest producers Level 5)
Scheduled release 2/10/08!!
Amazon linked video!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2E3UXYVBK3KM
http://www.level5.co.jp/products/layton/index.html
(Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XjLPBvDV8)
http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1296
As reported by several websites yesterday, including IGN, Japanese developer Level-5 has unveiled its first adventure, whose title translates to Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. Better known for its successful console RPGs like Dark Cloud and Dragon Quest VIII, Level-5 will be self-publishing the new DS game in Japan.
The game reportedly follows the exploits of Professor Layton and his assistant, a young boy named Ruke, as they discover a series of unique mysteries to solve upon their arrival in Mysterious Town.
**UPDATED 1/26/07 Scans:
---------------------------------
CSI: Dark Motives
Players will join Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows and the rest of the Las Vegas cast to help solve crimes using realistic techniques and lab equipment. Utilizing all-new gameplay concepts, CSI: Hard Evidence features forensic reconstructions and atmospheric crime scenes taken directly from the television show, including an all-new garage lab for analyzing large evidence such as cars and boats, improved evidence gathering, review and lab mini-games, and more areas to explore.
Gamespot preview page:
http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=819975
---------------------------------
Paradise
MarioColbert had gathered some info on this one being ported to the DS by Whitebird Productions as well, this was a 2006 release for the PC by Benoît Sokal:
According to White Birds website, they are also porting Paradise to Nintendo DS. Not really much more info than that. Again, Benoît Sokal...
Paradise is a point-and-click adventure developed by Benoît Sokal (best known for the award-winning Syberia and Amerzone). Set in the heart of Africa, the story follows a young woman named Ann Smith as she crosses the continent to take a leopard back to Kilimanjaro, the place of his birth, encountering fabulous, unknown animals in the wilderness on the way. Fraught with political turmoil, the lush landscapes are beautiful and dangerous. Puzzle solutions are seamlessly embedded in the story as players interact with their environment and other characters to gain insight into clues that will help reveal Ann’s true identity and answer why she’s in this strange African land.
PC Screen shots:
http://www.whitebirdsproductions.com
---------------------------------
World Detective Monumental Heist
When Sandlot Games asked if I wanted to be in the focus group for World Detective: Monumental Heist, a new game, I knew going in that this is not the final release and that they are aware of issues within the game. With that in mind, I was still excited to dive into this nifty opportunity.
The tutorial mission (which you can skip if you wish) introduces you to Commissioner Lynch. He welcomes you to the World Detective Agency and assigns you your first case - finding out who stole the world's largest ball of twine. Luckily, he will guide you through the various areas of the screen that you'll use as you navigate the world, investigating your cases. That ball of twine is just the tip of the iceberg, by the way. The thieves are actually stealing world monuments, and you have to get them back!
In each city, there are a variety of locations you can visit. At each location, there is one witness you can interrogate at any given time. This person may give you miscellaneous commentary or a clue to your case. This clue might be a description of the suspect, something about their interests or a hint at the city they've traveling to next.
There is a little crime computer in which you enter your suspect information. You enter physical characteristics as you learn them, as well as hobbies, fears, favorite modes of transportation, or even previous criminal record. As you enter this information, you can query the crime computer. It will tell you if you've found a match or that you've entered incorrect data in one of your fields. Who knew scarabs wouldn't be considered pets? In any case, when you've gathered enough clues and successfully narrowed it down to one suspect, you will be issued an arrest warrant for the foul miscreant.
As you receive clues, you can go to the world map and choose any of the different highlighted cities as your next destination. You'll want to make sure you understand your hint before you set off. You're given a limited amount of time to investigate each case, and flying takes a lot of time. If you made the right choice, you get a message that you're on the trail. If you made the wrong choice, you'll learn that the trail is cold. At this point, your only option is to go back to the previous city and start gathering those clues again. This is when I realized that it's been a REALLY long time since I had to take geography, and for this game, that is NOT a good thing.
.....
I enjoyed the time I spent as a world detective, but I'm pretty convinced I won't progress very far in the game without solid reference materials at hand. Thank goodness for the Internet. My hope is that before the final version of World Detective is released, it will include some sort of additional hint mechanism for those of us that consider ourselves geographically impaired. I will definitely be checking out World Detective: Monumental Heist when it goes live.
http://www.gamersinfo.net/index.php?art/id:1773
---------------------------------
Runaway: Dream of the Turtle
This one was a sequel that was somewhat recently released on the PC. Some of the screen shots below are from the PC game.
However it predecessor was a pretty good game overall in my opinion. I have this one for PC but have yet to play it through.
Here is what Adventuregamers had to say:
"Hawaii – an idyllic island paradise. It’s the spot Brian Basco and Gina Timmins have chosen to take a well-earned vacation. An impromptu daytrip to a remote and relatively uninhabited island goes awry, however – Brian forces Gina from the plane, giving her the only working parachute. Brian luckily survives the plane’s crash landing, but Gina has disappeared, setting the stage for a highly entertaining story. In Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle, players will travel the world, from Alaska and Hawaii to the depths of the sea and the sky above. Become immersed in a tongue-in-cheek story where you’ll meet a crazy cast of miscreants in order to solve a mystery too weirdly entertaining for words in this title that pays homage to all that was great about the glory days of graphical adventure games."
Official Site with trailer (making of), images, etc.
http://www.runaway-thegame.com/en
---------------------------------
Insecticide the Game
Preorder this for a bonus small art booklet (Thanks Strell!)
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp...7&sourceID=FKSJxY2VJAk-hFoosuPV4QVM7m2S5AeYRw
The developer, Crackpot Entertainment, is staffed with members of the dev teams behind Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. Infested with puns, yes, but it still looks like an awesome adventure game concept and maybe the most promising cockroach adventure since Bad Mojo.
http://www.insecticidethegame.com/
HD TRAILER: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20952.html
---------------------------------
Ankh: The Curse of Osiris
(I think this one has been confirmed for no US release....)
First information on the DS game Ankh: The Curse of Osiris has been revealed...
The Ankh series started on the PC, Assil's latest adventure heads to DS
Ankh: The Curse of Osiris is a point and click adventure game set around young Assil and the precious amulet Ankh. At a party, Assil accidentally dumps holy urns and gets himself a death curse. To make matters worse, the God of the Underworld is also after the Ankh.
The DS version uses the Stylus as a mouse pointer, and the game boasts varied locations, provocative mysteries, an exciting history, plentiful black humour and a promise of an unforgettable adventure experience.
http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=10644
---------------------------------
Undercover: Dual Motives
Anaconda's Undercover: Dual Motives is set to be released early next year (March 2007 starting in German-speaking territories), and is a prequel to their current PC release Undercover: Operation Wintersun. The stroy of that game involves an "exciting hunt for a Nazi nuclear bomb in the Second World War". In the DS game you will take control of Dr. Johnathan Russell, who is a British Scientist, hired by the British MI6 to be sneaky sneaky, and Audrey, a Ninja Assassin secretary. The game is being developed by Austrian developer Sproing (who are also releasing Panzer Tactics DS for the same console), and will make use of the touch screen for solving a variety of puzzles as you investigate a research facility.
http://my.opera.com/Nplus/blog/show.dml/505070
---------------------------------
Secret Files Tunguska
The story: Nina is torn from her normal life when she finds that her father has disappeared without a trace. The police cannot (or will not?) help her, so Nina begins searching for clues about her father's whereabouts on her own. In the course of her investigations, she meets Max Gruber, a young colleague of her father's, who spontaneously offers to help the pretty young woman. Together they soon find out that Nina's father was involved in a previous expedition to Siberia that set out to investigate what lay behind the mysterious Tunguska catastrophe of 1908. At the time a huge explosion triggered an inferno, and the reasons behind that remain a mystery to this day.
Nina and Max soon realise that events of that time are linked to her father's disappearance. Their search for answers leads Nina and Max to the most distant corners of the earth (Berlin, Moscow, Cuba, China, Antarctica etc.).
Basingstoke, 12th June 2007 - Koch Media has assigned the exclusive production rights in the Secret Files Tunguska PC game to 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE (implementation for Nintendo DS) and to Keen Games (implementation for Wii). This fun adventure. leading the player all around the globe, will soon be ready for all owners of Nintendo DS and Wii.
Pete Walentin, Development Director of keen games, stated: "It is a real pleasure to implement one of the best adventures of recent years for Wii in cooperation with Koch Media. We will optimise the controls for Wii Remote and Nunchuk in order to turn a game that is very good already into a 'perfect-match' for Wii."
"Secret Files Tunguska is one of the most successful adventures of recent years. We are happy that we can bring this gaming adventure to a new platform by developing a Nintendo DS version and that we can also enhance it in a useful way with our innovative touch screen control," says Alexandra Gerb, Managing Director of 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE.
The Nintendo DS version of Secret Files Tunguska will hit the shops in the 4th quarter of 2007, the Wii implementation is expected to be published in the 1st quarter of 2008.
http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/06/12/secret-files-tunguska-coming-to-the-ds
---------------------------------
Myst: DS
And while we'd like to say that Myst on the DS is going to be a brand new game, instead Midway is looking to bring the game that started it all to Nintendo's handheld platform. No worries though, as the game's code has been re-written, specifically with the DS in mind. New sound clips, new touch-screen controls and a new age to explore (the Rime Age) should help ensure both fans of the series and newcomers find something to enjoy come time for the game's release this November in Europe.
http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/06/07/myst-coming-to-the-ds/
---------------------------------
Sinking Island(From White Bird - Makers of Paradise) - DS version of their new game
http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1295
Written by Benoît Sokal, Sinking Island is the first game in a planned series of adventures starring middle-aged private investigator Jack Norm. The third-person game takes place on a private tropical island that is literally sinking under the weight of the colossal art deco-styled hotel built upon it. In a classic whodunit with a twist, the hotel's billionaire owner is murdered, and there are ten suspects on the island, each with a strong motive for having done the deed. It's up to Norm to determine the true culprit. The catch? With the island sinking and the game occurring over a simulated three day period, lower level environments (and the evidence they contain) are only available until they're lost forever to the sea, so players will need to make best use of locations and time in order to succeed.
The surprising news, however, is that White Birds has also begun pre-production on a DS version of the game. Believing there to be a strong market for more mature games on the popular handheld (an opinion we certainly share), White Birds will retain the same storyline, characters, and gameplay of the PC version, and adapt the controls and presentation to the unique features of the DS. The main screen will be the lower one, while various secondary interface features such as the inventory, map, and notes will be shown on the top screen. The link above has a mock-up of the game provided by the developer.
---------------------------------
Needless to say this is looking promising to say the least...
There are a few out now here.
Disney adventure games... (Hanna Montana, Raven etc)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Lost in Blue 1 & 2 (?)
Nancy Drew and The Deadly Secret of Olde World Park
Phoenix Wright
Phoenix Wright 2
Phoenix Wright 3
Touch Detective
Touch Detective 2 1/2
Trace memory
A few coming down the pipeline...
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (From Dragons Quest producers Level 5)
Scheduled release 2/10/08!!
Amazon linked video!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2E3UXYVBK3KM
http://www.level5.co.jp/products/layton/index.html
(Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XjLPBvDV8)
http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1296
As reported by several websites yesterday, including IGN, Japanese developer Level-5 has unveiled its first adventure, whose title translates to Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. Better known for its successful console RPGs like Dark Cloud and Dragon Quest VIII, Level-5 will be self-publishing the new DS game in Japan.
The game reportedly follows the exploits of Professor Layton and his assistant, a young boy named Ruke, as they discover a series of unique mysteries to solve upon their arrival in Mysterious Town.
**UPDATED 1/26/07 Scans:
---------------------------------
CSI: Dark Motives
Players will join Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows and the rest of the Las Vegas cast to help solve crimes using realistic techniques and lab equipment. Utilizing all-new gameplay concepts, CSI: Hard Evidence features forensic reconstructions and atmospheric crime scenes taken directly from the television show, including an all-new garage lab for analyzing large evidence such as cars and boats, improved evidence gathering, review and lab mini-games, and more areas to explore.
Gamespot preview page:
http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=819975
---------------------------------
Paradise
MarioColbert had gathered some info on this one being ported to the DS by Whitebird Productions as well, this was a 2006 release for the PC by Benoît Sokal:
According to White Birds website, they are also porting Paradise to Nintendo DS. Not really much more info than that. Again, Benoît Sokal...
Paradise is a point-and-click adventure developed by Benoît Sokal (best known for the award-winning Syberia and Amerzone). Set in the heart of Africa, the story follows a young woman named Ann Smith as she crosses the continent to take a leopard back to Kilimanjaro, the place of his birth, encountering fabulous, unknown animals in the wilderness on the way. Fraught with political turmoil, the lush landscapes are beautiful and dangerous. Puzzle solutions are seamlessly embedded in the story as players interact with their environment and other characters to gain insight into clues that will help reveal Ann’s true identity and answer why she’s in this strange African land.
PC Screen shots:
http://www.whitebirdsproductions.com
---------------------------------
World Detective Monumental Heist
When Sandlot Games asked if I wanted to be in the focus group for World Detective: Monumental Heist, a new game, I knew going in that this is not the final release and that they are aware of issues within the game. With that in mind, I was still excited to dive into this nifty opportunity.
The tutorial mission (which you can skip if you wish) introduces you to Commissioner Lynch. He welcomes you to the World Detective Agency and assigns you your first case - finding out who stole the world's largest ball of twine. Luckily, he will guide you through the various areas of the screen that you'll use as you navigate the world, investigating your cases. That ball of twine is just the tip of the iceberg, by the way. The thieves are actually stealing world monuments, and you have to get them back!
In each city, there are a variety of locations you can visit. At each location, there is one witness you can interrogate at any given time. This person may give you miscellaneous commentary or a clue to your case. This clue might be a description of the suspect, something about their interests or a hint at the city they've traveling to next.
There is a little crime computer in which you enter your suspect information. You enter physical characteristics as you learn them, as well as hobbies, fears, favorite modes of transportation, or even previous criminal record. As you enter this information, you can query the crime computer. It will tell you if you've found a match or that you've entered incorrect data in one of your fields. Who knew scarabs wouldn't be considered pets? In any case, when you've gathered enough clues and successfully narrowed it down to one suspect, you will be issued an arrest warrant for the foul miscreant.
As you receive clues, you can go to the world map and choose any of the different highlighted cities as your next destination. You'll want to make sure you understand your hint before you set off. You're given a limited amount of time to investigate each case, and flying takes a lot of time. If you made the right choice, you get a message that you're on the trail. If you made the wrong choice, you'll learn that the trail is cold. At this point, your only option is to go back to the previous city and start gathering those clues again. This is when I realized that it's been a REALLY long time since I had to take geography, and for this game, that is NOT a good thing.
.....
I enjoyed the time I spent as a world detective, but I'm pretty convinced I won't progress very far in the game without solid reference materials at hand. Thank goodness for the Internet. My hope is that before the final version of World Detective is released, it will include some sort of additional hint mechanism for those of us that consider ourselves geographically impaired. I will definitely be checking out World Detective: Monumental Heist when it goes live.
http://www.gamersinfo.net/index.php?art/id:1773
---------------------------------
Runaway: Dream of the Turtle
This one was a sequel that was somewhat recently released on the PC. Some of the screen shots below are from the PC game.
However it predecessor was a pretty good game overall in my opinion. I have this one for PC but have yet to play it through.
Here is what Adventuregamers had to say:
"Hawaii – an idyllic island paradise. It’s the spot Brian Basco and Gina Timmins have chosen to take a well-earned vacation. An impromptu daytrip to a remote and relatively uninhabited island goes awry, however – Brian forces Gina from the plane, giving her the only working parachute. Brian luckily survives the plane’s crash landing, but Gina has disappeared, setting the stage for a highly entertaining story. In Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle, players will travel the world, from Alaska and Hawaii to the depths of the sea and the sky above. Become immersed in a tongue-in-cheek story where you’ll meet a crazy cast of miscreants in order to solve a mystery too weirdly entertaining for words in this title that pays homage to all that was great about the glory days of graphical adventure games."
Official Site with trailer (making of), images, etc.
http://www.runaway-thegame.com/en
---------------------------------
Insecticide the Game
Preorder this for a bonus small art booklet (Thanks Strell!)
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp...7&sourceID=FKSJxY2VJAk-hFoosuPV4QVM7m2S5AeYRw
The developer, Crackpot Entertainment, is staffed with members of the dev teams behind Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. Infested with puns, yes, but it still looks like an awesome adventure game concept and maybe the most promising cockroach adventure since Bad Mojo.
http://www.insecticidethegame.com/
HD TRAILER: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/20952.html
---------------------------------
Ankh: The Curse of Osiris
(I think this one has been confirmed for no US release....)
First information on the DS game Ankh: The Curse of Osiris has been revealed...
The Ankh series started on the PC, Assil's latest adventure heads to DS
Ankh: The Curse of Osiris is a point and click adventure game set around young Assil and the precious amulet Ankh. At a party, Assil accidentally dumps holy urns and gets himself a death curse. To make matters worse, the God of the Underworld is also after the Ankh.
The DS version uses the Stylus as a mouse pointer, and the game boasts varied locations, provocative mysteries, an exciting history, plentiful black humour and a promise of an unforgettable adventure experience.
http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=10644
---------------------------------
Undercover: Dual Motives
Anaconda's Undercover: Dual Motives is set to be released early next year (March 2007 starting in German-speaking territories), and is a prequel to their current PC release Undercover: Operation Wintersun. The stroy of that game involves an "exciting hunt for a Nazi nuclear bomb in the Second World War". In the DS game you will take control of Dr. Johnathan Russell, who is a British Scientist, hired by the British MI6 to be sneaky sneaky, and Audrey, a Ninja Assassin secretary. The game is being developed by Austrian developer Sproing (who are also releasing Panzer Tactics DS for the same console), and will make use of the touch screen for solving a variety of puzzles as you investigate a research facility.
http://my.opera.com/Nplus/blog/show.dml/505070
---------------------------------
Secret Files Tunguska
The story: Nina is torn from her normal life when she finds that her father has disappeared without a trace. The police cannot (or will not?) help her, so Nina begins searching for clues about her father's whereabouts on her own. In the course of her investigations, she meets Max Gruber, a young colleague of her father's, who spontaneously offers to help the pretty young woman. Together they soon find out that Nina's father was involved in a previous expedition to Siberia that set out to investigate what lay behind the mysterious Tunguska catastrophe of 1908. At the time a huge explosion triggered an inferno, and the reasons behind that remain a mystery to this day.
Nina and Max soon realise that events of that time are linked to her father's disappearance. Their search for answers leads Nina and Max to the most distant corners of the earth (Berlin, Moscow, Cuba, China, Antarctica etc.).
Basingstoke, 12th June 2007 - Koch Media has assigned the exclusive production rights in the Secret Files Tunguska PC game to 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE (implementation for Nintendo DS) and to Keen Games (implementation for Wii). This fun adventure. leading the player all around the globe, will soon be ready for all owners of Nintendo DS and Wii.
Pete Walentin, Development Director of keen games, stated: "It is a real pleasure to implement one of the best adventures of recent years for Wii in cooperation with Koch Media. We will optimise the controls for Wii Remote and Nunchuk in order to turn a game that is very good already into a 'perfect-match' for Wii."
"Secret Files Tunguska is one of the most successful adventures of recent years. We are happy that we can bring this gaming adventure to a new platform by developing a Nintendo DS version and that we can also enhance it in a useful way with our innovative touch screen control," says Alexandra Gerb, Managing Director of 10TACLE STUDIOS MOBILE.
The Nintendo DS version of Secret Files Tunguska will hit the shops in the 4th quarter of 2007, the Wii implementation is expected to be published in the 1st quarter of 2008.
http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/06/12/secret-files-tunguska-coming-to-the-ds
---------------------------------
Myst: DS
And while we'd like to say that Myst on the DS is going to be a brand new game, instead Midway is looking to bring the game that started it all to Nintendo's handheld platform. No worries though, as the game's code has been re-written, specifically with the DS in mind. New sound clips, new touch-screen controls and a new age to explore (the Rime Age) should help ensure both fans of the series and newcomers find something to enjoy come time for the game's release this November in Europe.
http://www.dsfanboy.com/2007/06/07/myst-coming-to-the-ds/
---------------------------------
Sinking Island(From White Bird - Makers of Paradise) - DS version of their new game
http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1295
Written by Benoît Sokal, Sinking Island is the first game in a planned series of adventures starring middle-aged private investigator Jack Norm. The third-person game takes place on a private tropical island that is literally sinking under the weight of the colossal art deco-styled hotel built upon it. In a classic whodunit with a twist, the hotel's billionaire owner is murdered, and there are ten suspects on the island, each with a strong motive for having done the deed. It's up to Norm to determine the true culprit. The catch? With the island sinking and the game occurring over a simulated three day period, lower level environments (and the evidence they contain) are only available until they're lost forever to the sea, so players will need to make best use of locations and time in order to succeed.
The surprising news, however, is that White Birds has also begun pre-production on a DS version of the game. Believing there to be a strong market for more mature games on the popular handheld (an opinion we certainly share), White Birds will retain the same storyline, characters, and gameplay of the PC version, and adapt the controls and presentation to the unique features of the DS. The main screen will be the lower one, while various secondary interface features such as the inventory, map, and notes will be shown on the top screen. The link above has a mock-up of the game provided by the developer.
---------------------------------
Needless to say this is looking promising to say the least...
(
