Phone Detective

DS, Nintendo, cert 6, immediately

Japanese role-plays have often been guilty of esoteric design and storytelling that Western audiences can be cold. As expected, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter certainly flirts with this tradition. Welcome then, to the floating islands of the Shepherd's Republic, where to take the player plays the role of the eponymous Red, a mercenary dog ??who speaks French, his fights doing in a massive robotic arms, and can transform into a human, when the situation demands .

The gameplay is mostly standard RPG - players move strictly linear buildings and roads, to find a simple puzzle or evil to beat - but leveling and skill trees are removed down to the bone and all the more appealing to them. Breakneck racing mini-games and a variety of entertaining subplot to make missions a welcome distraction from predictable "save the world 'history and dull main characters.

Aesthetically, Solatorobo doing what they can, and the animated cut-scenes are a joy. But the in-game screens look outdated in comparison with their peers 3DS. Of course, as a JRPG, this will remain an acquired taste for many, but newcomers of the genre could do much worse than from a well-rounded as well, if somewhat unoriginal titles.