As I stated above, Hotel Dusk is a detective story. It could almost be considered an interactive novel, and to emphasize that point developer Cing has opted to have you hold the DS in it's sideways position as if it were a book. The game follows (the very attractive) Kyle Hyde, an ex-cop turned shady delivery man who is haunted by the disappearance of his old partner. A delivery job takes him to Hotel Dusk where he is put in room 215, a room rumored to grant the wishes of those that spend the night in it. Kyle discovers that someone using his name stayed at the hotel not too long ago and begins snooping around to find out if there's more to Hotel Dusk than meets the eye.

The story really is the strongest part of this game. It starts a little slow, but after a short time the conversations with each character really draw you in, and you look forward to every new encounter and what new small bits of information you may discover. It's just incredibly well written and a joy to play through. It's also one of the most mature stories available on the DS. I don't mean mature in the "M" rated sense of sex and violence, but instead a high level of maturity in the topics that are brought up and the treatment of those topics. Extortion, murder, death of a loved one, and even child abuse are all presented in mature and subtle ways that I'm not sure a younger audience would appreciate. It's very reminiscent of film noir.

The game also uses a unique visual style to great effect. The touch screen shows an overhead map of the hotel which you guide Kyle through with the stylus. The second screen shows a first-person view of the hotel, a view which switches to the touch screen when you interact with objects. Characters are black and white sketches, almost similar to the style seen in A-ha's video for the song "Take on Me." The sketched characters add to the film noir feeling and just plain look gorgeous.

Of course, I said before that a younger audience might not appreciate the story, but that's assuming they could even get through the sometimes near-impossible puzzles that fill the game. Hotel Dusk is hard, and one of it's main drawbacks is that it's easy to get stuck on a puzzle for weeks, bringing the amazing narrative to a complete halt. But trust me, the pay off in the story is worth the frustration with the puzzles. Hotel Dusk is not a game to leave you unsatisfied, and by the end you will know all of the mysteries of Hotel Dusk, and they most certainly will not be what you are expecting.

The other problem with the game is replayability, or rather, the lack thereof. On your first play through you'll see everything that there is to see. Though it can be fun to play through a second time knowing what is going to happen and noticing the subtle foreshadowing of events, there's nothing new that you'll uncover.

Even without a reason to play it again, Hotel Dusk stands as my absolute favorite DS game. Like a good book, you can't put it down and the story and characters stay with you long after the ending credits have finished. Most gamers missed this game the first time around, but with the game's reprint comes a newly reduced price of $19.99, or better yet, $16.95 through the GayGamer Store, making it an absolute steal. If you're the type of person that likes to curl up with a good book, and you own a DS, then you owe it to yourself to pick up this game.