This classic adventure game choses to introduce itself with a stage play roll call of the ‘actors’, of a murder mystery set in 1920s Louisiana. As the player, you take on the role of student and aspiring journalist Laura Bow.

Laura’s university peer and flapper friend Lillian casually asks to be accompanied to a family gathering taking place in an old mansion on an island planation. Lillian’s favourite and childless uncle, colonel Henri Dijon, has invited his attorney, his doctor, and several relatives to hear the reading of his will due to his ailing health. On the night of the gathering, the colonel stresses, if any inheritors to his fortune are to die before he does, the deceased’s shares will be distributed evenly among the remaining inheritors. It’s not long into the night before a guest’s body is stumbled upon by Laura, and in quick succession, other guests fall one by one. However, Laura, being the daughter of a detective, is well equipped with the knowledge to take on this whodunit.

The gameplay is straight forward. The game’s murder mystery is contained within a single night and a new ‘act’ commences with the passing of every in-game hour, trigged by the actions you take. As point-and-click, you’re graded by your sleuthing skills upon completion, but a final score doesn’t effect the ending you get; there are indeed specific actions that drive you to particular endings. There are game secrets hiding that only the most persistent, investigative players will come across.

Text parsing is at the core of the gameplay; both a great source of fun and of frustration. It’s fun to read reactions to actions that I wasn’t expecting to be executed. Only words the programmers expect the player to use will be recognised by the program. Strangely, when questioning characters about other people, you’ll have to refer to characters by given name, and not family name, which feels odd, with so many characters mentioning each other by family name given their emotional distance with one another.

There are plenty of humorous and even gory fates that Laura can meet while casually exploring the plantation's mansion and grounds, and for the more nosey and cerebral player, you’ll see further strange and violent ends throughout the night. You will have to go out of your way to see some bizarre game overs. The deaths did not feel frustrating given that you have the option to save at any time.

Since the game involves a lot of observation, it is slower paced. The game gives characters their own timetable to keep to during the night, for example, you can tail the colonel’s butler, Jeeves, as he does his evening tasks about the mansion before retiring to his room for the night. This adds a sense of realism to the interactive story.

While the visuals are limited to a palette of only 16 colours, a lot of dithering is used to create shadows, and thus the impression of additional colours, and a real depth to the two-dimensional environment drawings. Form is given three dimensions through use of light, and I was impressed with the with rays of moonlight filtered through windows, and the shadows of trees cast outdoors. The era the story is set leads to the interior design reflecting the Art Deco movement, and the lonely atmosphere and sad state of the plantation are very well communicated. I enjoyed most the screens that had fewer colours at work.

I’d recommend this game to those who enjoy a slower, casual adventure PC game, and of course, fans of period murder mysteries. This games’ setting specifically owes some of its story structure to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. Don’t let the limited visual presentation of games from this era deter you; it’s got charm, and just as important, skill put into it.

This is a (very) short platform game for the fans of the Gravity Falls television series looking for more of the characters’ antics and the town’s supernatural lore outside of the cartoon, yet it doesn’t deliver the same feel of mystery or discovery the show is adored for. As a licensed Disney game with lush visuals, it still falls completely short in gameplay and fun-factor.

The visuals being the stand-out of this 3DS game unintentionally show its shortcomings in other areas. While the environments look like a 1:1 representation of the background art within the cartoon, and the characters themselves look good, there’s life and heart missing in the story, gameplay, and sound.

The narrative of the game feels like it could have been an episode if there was a funny sub plot to compliment it. That is to say, it’s a little light.

Since Dipper and Mabel don’t often actively, physically fight their adversaries throughout the show, it feels somewhat odd for the two to take on weapons in this platform game, but fight enemies they must. It’s not so fun when the combat is so simple that it is mapped to one button. The platforming itself is fine. Nothing is too difficult to press on through, but the level design doesn’t throw any curve balls at the player - despite each level having different environments to enjoy visually - they all feel very much the same. There is minimum use of the touch screen, reserved for the most basic of puzzles.

In regards to sound, voice acting is sorely missed, even if a line here or there could have been thrown in, I feel it would elevate the game, and add some warmth. I didn’t find the environmental music noteworthy either; it’s a bare-bones presentation.

Fans of Gravity Falls would enjoy this game as the dialogue captures the characters’ personalities well and the secret behind the Gnome Gemulets is fun, but there’s not much incentive for the player to collect all of the lost items scattered about each level and return them to their owners, unless you want some supplementary trivia. For the die-hard fans, there are codes hidden in the game to crack. For me, I came away thinking I wanted so much more out of this pretty-looking licensed game.

Another Code is a slower, moodier, puzzle point-and-click game on the Nintendo DS that I failed to notice upon release, being fixated on the console’s faster and brighter JRPGs at the time. I probably would not have appreciated the thought that went into the story upon release as much as I do now.

The player takes control of the young teen Ashley, as she searches the abandoned mansion of “Blood Edward Island” for her absent researcher father, and the answers to her mother’s death. The secondary story thread is the events that lead to the death of the island’s amnesiac ghost, “D”.

The game controls as expected; the touch screen is used to drag Ashley about the 3D environments, but you can also use the D-pad. The use of the dual screens of the DS come into play at points, as does the console’s ability to fold in on itself, and the use of the mic. I thought that the the puzzles that utilised the in-game ‘camera feature’ were unique and fun.

In regards to the art direction, the Japanese sensibilities are present in character portraits, and they look good. The environments are all well-rendered and atmospheric. I had no trouble navigating the game’s setting and finding the necessary items and puzzles to progress the game’s plot.

As far as narrative goes, I was more invested in uncovering the events that lead to D’s death, the Edward’s family trauma, and the subsequent abandonment of the Edward’s family home than I was invested in finding Ashley’s father. Overall, I feel that the darker themes of the narrative were overly simplified at times, perhaps to the ‘benefit’ of the intended child audience. I think the story could have avoided so much of the dace around death it commits to, without upsetting, or confusing the child audience that would actively seek out this type of mystery and puzzle-solving game in the first place.

It’s important to note that it is possible to complete the game without uncovering all clues to D’s death, and thus to end the game with a somewhat unsatisfactory feeling, lacking full closure. Though the game’s so short that you can complete it within a few hours!

As a first outing on the DS for Cing, it’s a good mystery adventure game for kids (and adults) that’s still worth playing if you enjoy a darker atmosphere and mystery elements in puzzle point-and-click games.