Last year’s Touch Detective was a pretty unique DS title, presenting an interesting take on the point-and-click adventure genre while taking advantage of the system’s control capabilities. By “touching” objects in the environment, you could investigate them by the way they felt, recording them in your touch journal and gaining clues to solve your missions. The game required you to do a fair amount of sleuthing and investigating, and while the pace was a bit tedious, it managed to be a pretty interesting take on the adventure genre.

Now, a little less than a year later, Atlus is launching the sequel Touch Detective, Touch Detective 2 1/2 (so named to keep with the original’s quirky sense of humor). For the most part, Touch Detective 2 1/2 is mostly the same as the original, albeit with some more connected mission structures. If you were a big fan of the style and humor of the original and left it wanting more, then Touch Detective 2 1/2 might be worth a look.

Touch Detective 2 1/2 returns you back to Mackenzie, the original game’s protagonist, as she continues to struggle to gain respect in the community after taking over her late father’s sleuthing business. With the help of her butler Cromwell and her trusty mycological mate, Funghi, she takes on a series of quirky missions in order to become a well-known and respected detective.  

Whereas in the original Touch Detective the missions were very much separated from each other, they seem to flow much better in the sequel. Each of the five missions run together much more fluidly, making the game seem a bit more cohesive and less disjointed. The overall story benefits from having a villain tying the missions together. The Cornstalker, as he’s called, is a common element in the missions and adds cohesion to the storyline. Depending on your skill level with puzzle solving, Touch Detective 2 1/2’s individual missions will run you about 2 to 3 hours a piece.

The puzzles that you complete in Touch Detective 2 1/2 are done in a pretty outlandish sort of way, and most of the things that you’ll do to proceed require a fair amount of open-minded thinking. Some of the thought processes are slightly ridiculous and might not make a whole lot of sense. For example, at the very beginning, you must get your friend Funghi to open the door to your room by spraying him with a homemade perfume dispenser. While this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, it’s fairly typical of what you could expect from the puzzles in Touch Detective 2 1/2.

Touch Detective 2 1/2 is in most ways nearly identical to the original game. While the puzzles and storyline are different, of course, the gameplay elements are still essentially the same. The stylus is king, allowing you to move your character around the map and interact with objects in the world or in your personal inventory with a tap of the touchscreen. You have a touch journal where you can record the feeling of every tangible object in the game, readily accessible should you want to know the texture of a wall or a carpet or whatever. The top screen is still devoted to Mackenzie’s thoughts, giving you insight to her inner workings as you converse with NPC’s throughout the world. Needless to say, if you played through the first game, you won’t feel out of place in the sequel.

Aesthetically, the game is identical to the original, presenting the same quirky art design of its predecessor. The characters all have a slightly dark yet cartoony look to them (similar to a Tim Burton film), and are done using 2D sprites instead of 3D polygons. The sound is pretty sparse, with 16-bit sounding music filling out the soundtrack and a few sound effects here and there.

The original Touch Detective was a niche game, appealing to the audience that would most appreciate it’s humor and graphical style, and the sequel is even more so of a niche game. If Touch Detective didn’t win you over, then chances are the sequel won’t, but fans of the original wanting more missions and more story should enjoy this entry to the series.

Gameplay: 7.0
Touch Detective 2 1/2 offers the player more quests and puzzles to partake in, all done in the same quirky vein and humor style as the first game. The game uses the stylus for every function in the game, requiring you to touch almost everything in the environment to solve the puzzles. The gameplay is essentially identical to the original, so fans of that game should feel right at home.

Graphics: 7.5
Graphically, the game is done in the same stylized way as the original, meaning that it as a Tim Burton-style look that is slightly dark, but mainly quirky. The game doesn’t really push the DS at all graphically, but the 2D graphics have a pretty unique look.

Sound: 6.5
The soundtrack has a charming 16-bit quality, but isn’t at all an indication of what the DS is capable of from an audio standpoint.

Difficulty: Hard
The puzzles are pretty difficult, requiring some pretty open thinking in order to get through the bizarre situations.

Concept: 7.0
While the cases are new, the fundamental gameplay has been left untouched (no pun intended), so fans of the first game should know what to expect.

Overall: 7.0
Touch Detective 2 1/2 is essentially the same as the original title, albeit with some brand new cases and puzzles. If you were a huge fan of the first game, then Touch Detective 2 1/2 is right up your alley. However, if you didn’t enjoy the first game, then chances are you should probably skip out on the second journey.