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Exit DS Review for Nintendo DS

Exit DS Review for Nintendo DS

Control Freakout

The cool visual style and pick-up-and-play nature of Exit, an action puzzler first released in the U.S. almost three years ago, made it an easy sell for PSP owners. Last year, the game got some love on the Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Exit DS screenshot

Needless to say, it took quite a lengthy amount of time for Nintendo’s handheld to finally get its own version of the game. Now the wait is over, and it’s very clear this title could use a little more time in the oven. However, even that may not be enough to save this train wreck of a port. Though some players may initially rejoice at the thought of being able to play Exit on the DS, the few unique features of the handheld serve more to hamper the game than improve on the original design. The game has lots of quirky personality and some very challenging puzzles to enjoy, but contending with the nearly broken controls and generally unforgiving “instant death” health system will quickly whittle away at your patience.

The premise of Exit is to do just that. A yellow fedora and red scarf wearing escapologist named Mr. Esc has taken on a quasi-super hero lifestyle and jumps at the opportunity to thrust himself into dangerous situations. Rather than simply doing this for the thrill of the escape, he risks his life to save others. What a nice guy. Mr. Esc has no cool superpowers to aid him in his mission; he’s just a tad crazy, relying on his own mortal abilities. His death-defying missions run the gamut of diving beneath the depths of a quickly sinking ship and dashing into a hospital decimated by an earthquake to rescuing shoppers trapped in a snow-bound mall and a mobster caught in a fire-bombed building.

In each level, Mr. Esc winds up inside a structure in some varying manner of distress. He must navigate a series of obstacles and safely usher any trapped civilians to the exit before time runs out. Doing so is relatively easy at first, but getting farther along in each tier presents more complex situations to solve. You’ll often be required to push boxes around and climb up and down on them to reach different areas. There are fire, water, and electrical hazards to navigate, and you’ll use tools like the fire extinguisher and a pickaxe to deal with some problems. Pressure sensitive switches, control panels, keys, and doors are also frequently put into play. Dealing with these and other elements in and of themselves is pretty straightforward. The process becomes complicated when the game adds in different kinds of victims to save.

Exit DS screenshot

Mr. Esc will come across a handful of different types of people huddling in fear and yelling repetitively until they’re found. The victims you’ll encounter, and their strengths and limitations, directly come into play in the puzzle design. Kids can crawl through small passages, yet they require Mr. Esc or another adult to help them climb over anything but the smallest obstacles. Young adults are generally helpful and mobile. Adults are rotund, requiring two other people to help lift them up moderate obstacles. On the upside, they possess massive strength and can be used to push heavy objects. Mr. Esc will also run into injured people who must be carried by an adult and a K-9 pal who can swim and retrieve items. Unfortunately, Mr. Esc and the people he’s trying to save will meet an untimely demise far more often than not, thanks to the game’s real killjoy: the controls.

By default, nearly all of the controls in the game utilize the stylus and touch screen. While this could have been a great opportunity to really make the game shine on Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld, the way the touch controls are implemented ends up being a critical misstep. To move Mr. Esc, you must first tap him and then tap where you want him to go. You’ll have to do this every single time you want him to move, which often doesn’t allow you to do things very quickly.

Exit DS screenshot

Other context sensitive maneuvers, like pushing objects, working an elevator, hanging off a ledge to drop down a cliff, and climbing require swipes of the stylus that aren’t always accurately registered. Though holding the L button when making selections lets you queue up a series of moves, Mr. Esc often misinterprets your commands.

Exit DS screenshot

The same happens when switching back and forth between the protagonist and the different people he picks up along the way – a necessity due to the puzzle design of some levels. If there’s any one reason to not buy the DS version, it’s because the controls are simply awful. Sure, you can switch back to the D-pad and button control scheme from the original, but this isn’t immediately evident. Also, new players unfamiliar with the PSP game that start out with the touch controls will find the alternative only slightly less cumbersome.

Exit’s cel-shaded graphics seem like they come almost straight out of a comic book. Aside from his big, yellow fedora and a red scarf, Mr. Esc is mainly constructed of thick black lines and small white details. The same goes for other characters in the game. Keeping up with the comic book vibe, cutscenes at the beginning of each scenario pop up as static panels and brief amounts of text narrative. The PSP version of Exit featured backgrounds etched with intricate detail. These nuances have been scaled back substantially for the port. While much of the cartoonish visuals remain intact, Exit on the DS does take a bit of a hit in the visual department to run on the less powerful hardware.

In most ways, Exit DS is essentially the same game as the two earlier versions, only with weaker graphics and horrible controls. The game’s 100 levels offer tons of puzzles to plow through. Still, replaying many of the puzzles over and over again, because of frequent deaths from poor control interpretation and unforgiving level designs, quickly sucks the fun from the experience. This DS port simply holds more frustration than the effort is worth. It’s best to stick with the original or pass this one up altogether.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.5 Graphics
The comic book, cel-shaded graphics are interesting, even if they’re a step down from detail in the original game. 1.5 Control
Miserable touch controls simply ruin an otherwise decent game. 2.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Frequent cries of “help me” and “over here” are like nails down a chalkboard. 3.0

Play Value
100 puzzle-filled levels offer a lot of short play session potential, but you likely won’t find yourself wanting to delve too deeply into the experience due to its other issues.

2.4 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • All-new Touch Screen functionality.
  • More than 100 stages and global rankings over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection!
  • Play as the heroic, fedora-clad Mr. Esc, the professional escape artist.
  • Help people escape from all kinds of disasters is his life’s work.

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