Hands on with Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking on DS

Ubisoft wants you to trade in your smokes for a stylus in its unconventional new game designed to help break the habit of cigarette smoking. Part of the publisher's casual 'Games for Everyone' line, Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking attempts to marry serious content with simple gameplay. While we're skeptical about its efficacy in helping you quit smoking, our hands-on with the game has us intrigued with its one-of-a-kind approach.

As the name suggests, Ubisoft has partnered with expert Allen Carr in crafting a programme to help ween you off cigarettes. Between his internationally acclaimed book and chain of clinics, Carr has experience one of the highest success rates among like programmes. The best-selling author has provided the fundamental precepts on which the game is based, taking the core principles in his quit smoking book and pairing them with interesting mini-games.

Carr's philosophy behind quitting the habit centres around cultivating an understanding of why you smoke and then addressing these reasons to help you quit. The game identifies 14 specific reasons for smoking and ties them to stylus-driven games.

"The challenge for us has been in creating a product that can be fun and work at the same time," producer Denis Dore explains.

Addressing the common claim that smoking serves as a social prop and means of interacting with others, Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking puts you to task with your stylus. The Social Prop mini-game depicts adorable line-drawn characters getting down in a dance club. As you hang out with your stick figure friends, a sour-faced cigarette tries pulling you out of the fun. Fighting against the nicotine addiction requires drawing links between your character and friends. Fail to do so and you stumble out of the club, only to reenter surrounded by a repulsive cloud of smoke.

Another illusion, I Like the Taste, confronts the notion that cigarette smoke tastes great. A pot of nicotine saute pops up on the touchscreen, which naturally needs a stir with your stylus. A list of ingredients outlines what you need to add to the mix including tobacco leaves, nicotine sauce, and the altogether delicious carbon dioxide.

Upon actively engaging an illusion, you'll receive specific advice from a coach on how to improve your performance in future sessions. A 'Path to Freedom' chart shows your progress in kicking smoking graphical as well. The further you advance in your efforts to stop smoking, the game will introduce suggestions for alternate activities to get your mind off smoking. There's even advice given on how to spend all the money saved from not buying cigarettes.

"It's been a real challenge to get non-smoking gameplay," Dore admits, and in fairness the range of mini-games we played weren't exactly the most thrilling sort. Of course, the goal isn't to excite you into not smoking, but rather to inform and persuade. It's an interest approach, especially given the glut of cutesy casual games hitting the handheld space. Ubisoft is taking a huge risk with Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking, yet it's a commendable, highly innovative new venture.