There's a good reason I keep my Nintendo DS around; for every couple of lame movie-tie ins, lazy children's games and tech demo experiences, along comes a completely unique and fulfilling experience, like Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, Trace Memory and perhaps the most original of them all, Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Oddly, I wouldn't really classify this as a game per se - Hotel Dusk is an interactive mystery novel, with the most character depth you're likely to see in a game for a long while to come.

Holding the DS on its side like a book - similar to Brain Age - players follow former NYPD Detective turned LA salesman Kyle Hyde as he's sent to a run-down middle of nowhere hotel. Knowing his boss dabbles in other things on the side, Hyde assumes there's more to his task at the Hotel than meets the eye. Discreetly, Hyde has been searching for his former partner in New York for the last three years, and all we know is that before he vanished, Kyle himself shot him. Why? That's up to you to reveal, along with where his partner is now. Spanning ten chapters, all taking place within one evening, Kyle will discover numerous revelations and interwoven events relating to his own mystery, and help troubled souls in the Hotel along the way.

The cast of characters is made up of numerous sizes and shapes - old woman Parker, who has a patch over her right eye, is there to visit the Hotel's famed "wish room" and have her one wish that must come true granted. Martin Summer is a famous novelist whose motives are unknown - perhaps he's just getting away from it all? Jeff Angel is an enigma who seems to have no purpose in the Hotel, other than bringing with him a young mute girl named Mila who Hyde can't help but feel a connection to. Some faces from Hyde's past show up as well, although not ones he's too thrilled to see initially. Along the way each character's mystery is revealed and some intertwine with other characters', or Kyle's own, in very cool ways. Sure, it's hard to believe all of this is coincidence - and not all of it is - but it's a story and a damn fine one at that!

Hotel Dusk is from the same team that brought us Trace Memory back in 2005, but this title is far less Japanese, to the point that it's hard to tell it was even developed by a Japanese team. Though it shares a similar theme of memories, the two games are otherwise completely unconnected outside of gameplay similarities. The main difference, and a huge selling point of this game, is the dialogue. If this was translated from Japanese, I would love to shake the hand of the team that did it! The text here is some of the most believable and readable that any video game has even seen. They've absolutely nailed 1979 (the year the game takes place) slang and accents, and the dialogue will make you genuinely laugh. Cluttered junk that plagued Trace Memory, such as "... my father ...? ... Who? ... ... ... why? ... I don't understand ..." is nowhere to be seen here. This is the saving grace for the title, as 80% of the game is simply reading. That's why it's an interactive mystery novel; for the most part you're just reading a story and the text is more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined any dialogue being.

Of course there are some great gameplay moments where you're in control as well. You use the touch screen to move Kyle around via a small map, while on the left screen you see from his perspective. When you investigate a room with the touch screen, such as looking at paintings, furniture, bookcases, etc., you see a stylized black and white sketch of Kyle on the left screen, which is slightly animated in a very rough fashion. The style is very well realized, lending itself well to the film noir genre of the game and also always reminding us we're in 1979 due to its old-fashioned nature. Take a gander at the screenshots for a good idea of how it looks and then imagine that in motion. Truly this is one of the best looking and most unique presentations for any DS game to date.

Back to the gameplay though! In some cases you need to closely examine objects and look for clues, mostly just using your eyes. At times when you need to use an item from your inventory to accomplish a task, you go into a small mini-game where you, for example, rearrange items or rub things together. Other moments make more innovative use of the DS; several puzzles require you to tilt or move the DS in very unique ways.

Things in Hotel Dusk aren't all good, however; while the jazz infused soundtrack has some truly great and memorable tunes, the rest of the sound gets a bit repetitive after a while. There is no actual spoken dialogue and, outside of the sound effects for objects, you interact with during puzzles you're only really going to hear Kyle's footsteps. But I tell ya, the music is great! Nothing about the sound is actually bad - just limited.

The biggest drawback though is that the game holds your hand a lot of the time. Sure, some moments will stump you, but you're not really allowed to figure everything out even if you were well on your way. You can write down notes in Kyle's notebook any time, but he remembers many things on his own and thus it's unwarranted. Mostly the book is used to do math, and this is only during a side quest.

Numerous conversations can require you to choose Kyle's reactions, some of which will get you evicted from the Hotel and cause a game over. Your actions along the way also determine the ending, of which there are numerous possibilities. It isn't easy to really screw up and get a poor ending, but it is possible. Playing the game a second time also unlocks new paths and scenes, including access to a room previously locked for the entire game the first time through. There is a lot of replay value for those who can stomach going through the game again (the first time took me a good ten hours and when most of it is text you've already read, well, have fun!)

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is, all around, a stroke of genius. The dialogue is great, the storyline will pull you in and grab hold, the graphical presentation is simply phenomenal and the puzzles are a joy to solve, if a little easy and linear. For those who don't mind a lot of reading with their games and who are looking for a good story to follow or just something different, this is perfect. For others, you'll probably find the game boring. In fact, most people will, but the intended audience will absolutely be in love until the very end and the stunning revelations that accompany it.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).