|| REVIEW || James Patterson Women's Murder Club - Games of Passion (Nintendo DS)
Developed By : Griptonite Games Published By : THQ
Category : Puzzle, Hidden Objects, Narrative
Release Date : September 22, 2009
If you follow any of my social media accounts, or know anything of recent events in the northeastern area of the US, my area just got ravaged by a tropical storm, leaving my family and I without power for a handful of days. But, like any proper gamer, I am usually quite prepared for these kinds of situations. With the Switch and it's fully portable capabilities, it's quite easy to keep up on gaming habits, but I decided to go back even further. I haven't touched my DS consoles in a while so I decided to take one out, brush some dust off, and fire in a game that's based off of one of my favorite mystery thriller series.
Now I'm not completely up to date on this novel series, but with how old the game is there's really no need to be as the game is based more off of the TV series which only lasted one season. Even so, I'm an avid reader, I love puzzle games and games that make you think, so regardless of how heavy or soft of a connection there was, I was hoping to like the game for what it was.
One cool thing about the game is that right away it has you holding the DS in a sideways position, sort of like a book with the screens being left and right instead of top and bottom (and the touch screen specifically being on the right). I've only seen this done a few times on the console, and right away I thought it worked perfectly for this game. Utilizing the system this way kind of puts you a little bit into the detective shoes, with your DS opened like a small notebook and your stylus ready for you to take notes.
The game is broken up across a series of chapters with each one covering some sort of serious event, typically a murder that has occurred. The actual gameplay of this title takes form in one of two ways. The first is the most common, and that is the hidden objects approach. You'll be given access to the crime scene, which you can scroll and move around as you look for a series of items that fit into different lists. Some will be you "cleaning up the scene" a little bit and finding completely random items, while others are more specific and have you finding say, sharp objects that could have killed the victim if they were shot.
The less common form are scenes where you'll be presenting evidence, whether it's to other suspects while questioning and accusing them, or at the end of the chapters when you are together with the other members of the WMC and catching them up on the events of that day in a sort of recap form. Each question will be specifically prompted and you'll be given a small selection of evidence or suspects that could apply and you'll need to find the correct ones before you can advance.
Initially, I was excited to check this game out. Like I said I'm a huge fan of the books. After I got started on the first couple of crime scenes, I started to feel let down by the initial hidden objects approach when "cleaning up" the scene. These parts tasked you with finding symbols, shapes and designs etched into things, like a pattern on a stone that resembled a puzzle piece shape, or a cloud that looked like a heart. However, after my third or fourth crime scene I realized that this was a brilliant way to get you to examine the level entirely, so that way when the follow up lists came up you might have already seen the objects you needed to find.
This game is far from being anything to scream from the rooftops, but is it enjoyable? It absolutely is. What's great about it being enjoyable and such a low-tier game is that finding a copy should be relatively easy and cheap. You should be able to find an in-box game for just $5 USD, or if you fancy that special cellophane wrapping, you can find that for $10. So with all that being said I definitely label this game as...
