Ghost Trick (Nintendo DS)

(this is a re-post from an old Google+ entry)

While in the US and in Europe we are still reiterating over the epics JRR Tolkien wrote half a century ago, Japan is still, as we speak, creating stories that will blow you away.
And what's so special about that, you ask ? They package those stories in neat, little, "are-you-playing-a-gameboy-thats-so-childish", Nintendo DS boxes.

Yesterday evening I finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the second time. Normally I play my DS on the train, in short 20-minute-commute playsessions, but I was prepared for the fact that I should play the last chapter of this game at home, safely tucked away on the couch. While a normal chapter takes 20-30 minutes, the final chapter almost takes an hour. Not playing, mind you, but listening to the unraveling of the narrative.

The gameplay is nice, easy, and purely there as a vehicle for the Big Story of a ghost that wants to know what happened to him, why he died. He needs to follow some characters and prevent their deaths in order to get closer to the truth.

The characters are well drawn-out, funny, with lots of exaggeration, but always supporting the story. Some of the quirks still make me laugh out loud: the Panic Dance of the security guard, the detective way of Eating Turkey.
The supporting music is very Nintendo-like, which for me means: special, on some level even mesmerizing, but always a part of the experience. To outsiders: childish.

I admit that, during the final chapter, hearing the full story unravelling (again) on the couch, I had to bite back a few tears. Play it and tell me you're not moved by Missile, goddammit !!

Supposedly the game is being re-published for the iPad, so if you can get it from the appstore, DO IT ! If not, try to get hold of a Nintendo DS and buy the game on the internet. You won't regret it.

This is a perfect example of a Art flying under the radar, and if I hadn't met my nerdy-gamey colleagues a few years ago I wouldn't have known about these Great Tales hiding in Small Boxes.

Thanks guys