Kristan Reed (Modojo): If you're more familiar with cult Japanese video games than with your own family, you're probably aware of BeeWorks' 2006 DS adventure.
The charming Touch Detective series is making a come back? Maybe and it makes sense since Funghi is insanely popular in Japan.
From the Gamertell article, "All too often, female characters in video games are given bit parts, or designed in a manner that shows developers clearly intended them to act as eye candy. While female characters have become incredibly visible in games as time has gone by, it still can be difficult to discern characters who are really good role models for female players.
To make matters worse, when lists are compiled of strong female leads, they tend to feature the same characters over and over again. I've seen Lara Croft appear in lists at least 20 times, and frankly she doesn't always deserve the spot. Samus Aran is also a popular star in these lists. Lara's got her merits, sure, but there are stronger and more competent female characters. And Samus really hasn't had much character development - sure she's a strong bounty hunter and fights aliens, but other than that we don't know that much about her.
Here are eight female characters, many of whom are often forgotten, who should be considered role models for girl gamers. They are unique individuals in their various storylines and possess strong personalities. In order to help narrow down the field of eligible role models, the characters are all ones who appeared in role-playing (or RPG-like) games."
If the adventure genre truly is dead, it's the kind of dead you find mulling about in a shoestring budget zombie flick. All visible signs point to a loss of life, but the supposed corpse is still surprisingly animated, shambling towards you in search of an exposed brain. Before you know it, you've been surrounded and your only choices concern the order in which you lose vital body parts. While Atlus' Touch Detective is likely a good deal more fun than being eaten alive by a snarling, undead force (that quote coming to a review soon!), it forms a firm part of the genre's inability to stay beneath the ground.
A traditional adventure game in almost every sense, Touch Detective joins Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Trace Memory on the portable platform that seems to have been made for pointing and clicking. Or rather, touching. The DS lends itself well to typical adventure gameplay mechanics, though a functional interface does not a good game make. The story, the characters and the puzzles are the elements you'll remember as being stellar or awful. Touch Detective promises to lump itself into the former and largely preferable category as it follows the adventures of a young sleuth searching for answers, culprits and stolen dreams. Using our finely attuned detective and e-mailing skills, we grilled the game's project lead, Jamie Ortiz, about the game, localization and questionably shaped mushrooms:
