One of the most fun experiences I’ve had with a video game in a while. It’s a shame I couldn’t “forget” everything and go through it again…

I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way; I am horrible at reviewing video games. If you’re coming here expecting this to be a well written article about the pluses and minuses of Hotel Dusk, then you’ve come to the wrong place. Check out metacritic.com for some reviews by people who can actually string coherent sentences together.

Otherwise, if you want to read a bunch of awkwardly written thoughts littered with horrible grammar that was hastily written so that I can go and watch reruns of Futurama and Aqua Teen Hunger Force before I go to bed, then by all means, read on…

Hotel Dusk is brought to us by the same people that created one of my favorite DS games, Trace Memory. (By the way, no other DS game has made full use of the DS’s features like Trace Memory. Despite its flaws it is an amazing game.) From the getgo, you can tell Hotel Dusk is going to be different just by the simple fact that the game makes you hold the DS like a book (much like Brain Age).

And the thing plays like a great mystery novel. I won’t get into the details, but there are more twists and turns than the last 20 minutes of Metal Gear Solid 2 and all the M. Night Shyamalan movies put together. Despite the fact that that each character has a few frames of animation, they are all fleshed out very well and have distinct personalities. You’ll actually finding yourself loving (or hating) some of characters.

Music and graphics are top notch. I really like what Hotel Dusk does in both in these categories. The art style has been described by some as noir, but I’d like to think of it very much in the art school of that Ah Ha Take On Me video. You know, the one where the girl is reading a comic book about and then gets sucked into it and starts hanging out with the lead singer of Ah Ha until he gets beaten to death with a monkey wrench by a bunch of race car drivers. That was a great video. Unlike Take On Me, Hotel Dusk doesn’t feature any new wave, but that is probably for the best.

The puzzles in Hotel Dusk are also fun and make use of many of the DS’s features (although nowhere near as brilliantly as Trace Memory does). Most of the puzzles are challenging, but not so mind-bendingly impossible that they would make you want to throw your DS against the wall.

As you can probably tell, I really liked this game and I highly recommend it. There’s nothing out there quite like Hotel Dusk with its unique combination of style of play, art, and hot Iris and Rachel action.

Score: 9.0