The Nintendo DS was designed for adventure games. Luckily for us rabid “point and click” fans, developers realize this basic fact. We’ve seen a number of excellent games in the classic adventure style — Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Trace Memory. One of the first adventure titles to hit the DS, Touch Detective, was a beautiful, if flawed, entry in the genre.

Atlus has been hard at work preparing Touch Detective 2 ½ for an American release. What improvements have they made to the original? In a season full of anticipated titles, is this worth your hard-earned dough?

Touch Detective 2 ½ starts on a high note. You, as the young and highly sarcastic Mackenzie, must solve a timeless mystery -– how to exit your bedroom. That might actually sound boring, but the tutorial does a good job of plunging you into the game. The controls are flawless. You simply use the stylus to move your character and click on objects to interact with them. Input is precise, and the controls are easy to grasp. Kudos to developer SUCCESS for getting that right.

One of the first things that any player will notice about the Touch Detective series is the artwork. The art direction was one of the most striking things about the first game and continues to impress this time. The character designs are a twisted combination of Tim Burton and Japanese anime aesthetics. The bizarre art and the beautiful 2D world make Touch Detective 2 ½ a treat for the eyes. The user interface has also been touched up this time around; navigating menus and looking through the touch list are less of a chore. I only wish that we could have had some sort of cursor that would light up when it was over an item. It looks like this game will fall into the pixel hunting trap that so many other adventure titles fall prey to.

Like any other Atlus game, the writing is top-notch. You’ll see that within the first few minutes. The top screen occasionally displays Mackenzie’s thoughts, which are often hilarious. Even though this game is about a bunch of kids and their fairly family-friendly adventures, it does carry a certain dry sense of humor that adults will enjoy.

Touch Detective 2 ½ faces some stiff competition in October with the release of Phantom Hourglass and Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations. With five full cases in addition to the tutorial, adventure fans should get their money’s worth. There are also bonus missions and a “touch list” to complete. Touch Detective 2 ½ hit store shelves October 9th. Be sure to check back in a couple of weeks for our full review.