Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

First off, this is a slow mystery game.
I don't mean that in an all-bad way, say, it takes forever to do anything and nothing ever happens plot wise. No, not at all. The game will not be for anyone expecting to come to a hotel and have a Phoenix Wright murder investigation on their hands with a lot of flash. The text is slow, yes, and you want to speed it up but you can't. A few 'key' objectives and choice puzzles are frustrating in how little is explained of what you are to do to succeed. The players are introduced, and then some go on a back burner until you almost forget they are there, but rest assured all characters play a part in the story.
And the story is on one of the highlights here, its not what I was expecting, it builds slowly, if you can make it past the first relatively uneventful segments (story is divided into chapters) you will soon get mired in one heck of a plot. Frequent objectives include looking for clues for various mysteries and a shake-down of fellow characters for information. The dialog (the 1970's time period was not ignored) parts are not nearly as entertaining as they could be, but I enjoyed the personalities of the residents and guests with all their unique looks and mannerisms that can be seen as well as read.
The art is a main draw, a pulp-comic 2-D art put on 3-D background. Its not necessarily beautiful, many 3-D scenes seem grainy and lacking great quality, but it gives the story an entertaining backdrop of style. You will be called on sometimes to look for small, dainty objects, so keep your eyes sharp for clues. I did enjoy the red-herring objects the game put in (meaning not every item you pick up is relevant to the story), but your pockets are still bottomless. Does not use all the DS' features (microphone, etc.).
The sound is nothing noteworthy, it has a soft jazz feel to it. No characters have voices, but footsteps, door sounds, are used.
A strategy/rpg gamer may like it best. Give it a try.