Miami Law Review for Nintendo DS

System: DS	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Hudson Soft	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Hudson Entertainment	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Jun. 9, 2009	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Beyond these brief moments of intense activity and long bouts of menu clicking, much of the interactive portion of Miami Law comes in the form of branching option trees – like a choose your own adventure book.

Miami Law screenshot

Often during tense points in the plot, you’ll be forced to make split decisions about whether to trust certain characters, whether you should take certain actions, and what you should say in specific situations. Sometimes your selection doesn’t seem to really have much of an impact either way, besides tweaking how the story branches slightly, but there are frequent instances where picking the wrong choice leads to a hard and fast game over. While you’ll usually start back up at the point just before you made the bum decision, it’s irritating to have to go back because you arbitrarily picked a wrong choice.

Miami Law has a major quirk in its presentation that will either enhance or detract from the experience, depending on your individual tastes. Oddly, almost all of the male characters, including Law, have a distinctly feminine look to their appearance. It’s not the fact they look like ladies in drag that’s the main issue; it’s that this visual inconsistency occasionally hampers the otherwise spot-on cop drama vibe. Beyond that, the game generally does a decent job of immersing you in the admittedly outlandish plot with sound storytelling, swanky music, and well-timed action-heavy twists.

Breaking Miami Law down into its individual parts reveals minor design flaws across the board that whittle away at its overall stability. Some players will take issue with a few of the more glaring deficiencies, but the game as a whole isn’t a complete throwaway. The plot delivery is paced perfectly – with a good mix of action and mystery – to keep you interested and plodding through the slower moments. Miami Law isn’t the best cop drama gaming on tap. However, it does the trick after a while.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

3.5

Graphics
Reasonably good characters and backgrounds that do the trick without wowing us.

3.3

Control
Tons of hunting and pecking. Mini-game touch controls aren’t so hot.

4.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Slick music enhances the crime drama vibe.

3.4

Play Value
Five missions offer a solid amount of play time, but you won’t want to be revisiting this drama when it’s all said and done.

3.4

Overall Rating - Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

A story worthy of a TV series. A shadowy terrorist conspiracy involving revolution, nerve gas, a time bomb, and even a takeover of a US Navy missile cruiser.

Action and crime-scene investigation. Survive event sequences such as furious shoot-outs in abandoned warehouses or tax your brain with analyzing mysterious evidence.

Choose your character and change the story. Pick from Law Martin and his action-oriented event sequences or Sara Starling and her puzzle-solving challenges

Unlockable extras. Once you complete the game, you’ll unlock several additional games and event sequences 50+ mini-games.