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IGN Review of Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles
Jake Hunter is another adventure offering for the Nintendo DS, heavy on the text and light on...everything else. It's a Japanese title through and through, made evident by some awkward translation and a few spelling and grammatical errors strewn about. But that's not the main weakness here. Jake Hunter holds the player's hand the entire time, removing most of the "game" and instead offering an interactive detective story. There are certainly worse ways to spend your time, but these Chronicles aren't as strong as, say, Phoenix Wright.
There are three chronicles contained in this cartridge, and players can take on the cases in any order. Jake Hunter is a private detective, although the questionable translation simply refers to him as a "detective," with no mention of the important private part. He's pretty much the clichéd P.I. we've been seeing in crime noirs for decades: a chain-smoking tough guy loner with a knockout secretary. The stories on offer also tread familiar ground, featuring one-dimensional characters.
It's impossible to "lose" the game, as whenever you arrive at a crime scene or other location the game won't let you leave until you've gathered whatever evidence is available there. If you ever select the wrong thing to say, or make the wrong decision, the game lets you know so you can correct it. This keeps everything from becoming frustrating, but it also makes the player feel like they're watching the story unfold, rather than actually playing it. It can also become a little tedious, as a very specific dialogue tree is often required to progress.
At the end of each day, Jake heads back to his office to clear his head and consider the evidence he gathered. This leads to a pretty cool quiz mini-game that tests players on the characters and events that have happened thus far. Answering a series of questions correctly will lead to Jake having an epiphany and sets the stage for the next day's events.
Graphically, Jake Hunter offers generic character art and environments that look like stock images. For the most part, characters only have one drawing, and it is used each time they appear -- even if something dramatic has happened to them, like being mugged. The developers could have put more effort into their presentation and given us scenario-appropriate art for each character. The music is in a very jazzy, sultry style, but is played as 16-bit chiptunes.
©2008-06-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
There are three chronicles contained in this cartridge, and players can take on the cases in any order. Jake Hunter is a private detective, although the questionable translation simply refers to him as a "detective," with no mention of the important private part. He's pretty much the clichéd P.I. we've been seeing in crime noirs for decades: a chain-smoking tough guy loner with a knockout secretary. The stories on offer also tread familiar ground, featuring one-dimensional characters.
It's impossible to "lose" the game, as whenever you arrive at a crime scene or other location the game won't let you leave until you've gathered whatever evidence is available there. If you ever select the wrong thing to say, or make the wrong decision, the game lets you know so you can correct it. This keeps everything from becoming frustrating, but it also makes the player feel like they're watching the story unfold, rather than actually playing it. It can also become a little tedious, as a very specific dialogue tree is often required to progress.
At the end of each day, Jake heads back to his office to clear his head and consider the evidence he gathered. This leads to a pretty cool quiz mini-game that tests players on the characters and events that have happened thus far. Answering a series of questions correctly will lead to Jake having an epiphany and sets the stage for the next day's events.
Graphically, Jake Hunter offers generic character art and environments that look like stock images. For the most part, characters only have one drawing, and it is used each time they appear -- even if something dramatic has happened to them, like being mugged. The developers could have put more effort into their presentation and given us scenario-appropriate art for each character. The music is in a very jazzy, sultry style, but is played as 16-bit chiptunes.
©2008-06-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved