Every few years a genre gets really popular, and a whole load of games come out in that style. For example, the platformer was extremely popular twice, in both 2D and 3D, Real Time Strategy (RTS) games like Warcraft and Command and Conquer were once on top, and just recently the First Person Shooter (FPS) has come into full bloom. There was also once a time where the point-and-click Adventure was all the rage. LucasArts had a multitude of Adventure games such as Sam and Max, Grim Fandango, and Full Throttle. Myst was at one point the best selling game ever. But that ship has since sailed, and memories of point-and-click adventure titles for some might be slightly cloudy; it has been quite some time since the genre was popular. Now that Nintendo has a system you can "touch," they’ve decided to finally take a stab at this once mighty genre with their upcoming DS title Another Code. The game is out in Japan and has earned a 38 out of 40 from the country’s famous and reputable magazine Famitsu. After seeing the game in motion, and discovering some of its details, it’s not hard to imagine why it has received such a magnificent score.

The first thing that’s noticable with this title is how different it is for "a Nintendo game." They’re not using an established character, and they’re not using a traditional genre. They’re also using a completely different graphical style, creating an adult feeling with a more serious tone. This might be attributed to the fact that the story is also not your typical Nintendo fare, also with a darker slant. As the game begins, Ashley (fifteen years of age and an orphan), receives a message from her father, whom she believed to be murdered along with her mother eleven years ago. The message states he’s alive and waiting for her on an island, but when Ashley gets to there, he’s nowhere to be found, and thus the game begins.

The dual-screened set up looks like it’s being used nicely. The bottom screen is an overhead styled view, where you control where your character goes. The top screen switches views from close up shots, or other points of interest. You can move with the D-pad, or with the stylus. Should you come across an area of interest, tapping it with the stylus will bring up a group of options, one of which is "investigate." This will sometimes initiate a puzzle, or other events.

Puzzles so far seem to be of traditional point-and-click fare. One has you putting pieces of a sign together to form half of a password, and in order to get the second half, you’d need to use the brush you found earlier to brush off a sign where it was written. Puzzles are sure to get more complex than this, but not much has been revealed. The game is estimated to last about ten hours, which is quite lengthy for a handheld title.

Any way you look at it, Another Code sounds like it’s a refreshing change of pace for Nintendo’s newest system, and for the company in general. While a release date hasn’t been announced for release outside of Japan, it has been confirmed that the game will come to North America later this year.