[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tracememory/cover.jpg[/floatleft]The adventure game genre is a personal favorite of mine. Some of the most creative games of the 1990s were adventure games. Lucasarts and Sierra ruled the PC world for years with their combination of comedy and clever puzzles. As the new millennium approached, adventure games fell out of favor. Recently, however, they are experiencing a revival, and the Nintendo DS seems like the perfect platform. It’s portable, supports beautiful 2D graphics, and has an interface that almost seems designed for the games. [i]Trace Memory[/i] is the first effort on the system as a pure adventure game, and it does the job quite nicely

The first thing I noticed when I booted the game up was the beautiful character graphics. They are well drawn, bright, and make use of the DS’s admirable color depth. The anime style brings a lot of personality to the characters. Most of the game takes place in pre-rendered backgrounds which the player can click around and explore. These, like the character graphics, are extremely attractive. The only shortcoming of the presentation is in the 3D walkaround areas. As you move from place to place, you are given free control of the main character, Ashley, with the D-pad. These sequences are seen from a top-down perspective, with simple character models and ugly textures. This is offset, however, by a really good soundtrack. There are a ton of ambient sounds that give the outdoor areas some life. Overall, these parts are passable but do not detract from the experience too much.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tracememory/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The interface is extremely clean and easy to use. It makes use of the DS’s touch screen in many ways, like selecting conversation items and navigating the pre-rendered backgrounds. Unfortunately, the game feels like it was not originally designed with the touch screen in mind. A few peculiar design decisions were made, like having to double-click on the touch screen to select things in the areas. There is an arrow on the screen all the time, and it seems unnecessary when using a touch screen. On the other hand, buttons for the touch screen interface are large and easy to navigate. The interface is good, but hopefully future adventure endeavors will go a step further.

The meat and potatoes of any adventure game is the story, and [i]Trace Memory[/i] serves up long dialogue sessions and interesting plot twists in spades. The story revolves around a teenage girl named Ashley who recently learns that her father is not dead like she thought. He invites her to meet him on a secluded island. Ashley soon meets a ghost named D, and through the next few hours of gameplay, you piece together his past, her father’s disappearance, and Ashley’s own past. The conversations can get kind of melodramatic, but not overly so. The main problem I have with the story is how slowly it moves. Some conversations have stupid sequences where Ashley will freak out every other line, and it bogs down the gameplay. Fortunately, the story is good enough in spite of this to make the experience enjoyable.

And an enjoyable experience is the important part, of course, but many players may be turned off by the short length of [i]Trace Memory[/i]. It can be completed in under seven hours by a decently intelligent human being. If you can get past this aspect, [i]Trace Memory[/i] is a good investment. It is an adventure game through and through, and anybody that grew up playing [i]Kings Quest[/i] and [i]Monkey Island[/i] should pick this up. It’s short, it’s sweet, and it hints at great things to come for the Nintendo DS’s adventure library.