James Noir's Hollywood Crimes

Let's get quizzical

by Matt Wales 2/7/2012

If you want to point the finger of accusation anywhere, we suggest you point it at Level-5's Professor Layton series on DS.

Ever since the dapper gent and his teeth-gratingly peppy assistant proved that everyone and their mum world would happily cough up for ancient logic puzzles if they had a bit of a story wrapped around them, the ancient-logic-puzzle-with-a-bit-of-story-wrapped-around-it genre has grown rampant.

James Noir's Hollywood Crimes, first seen on Nintendo's 3DS handheld last year, is a prime example.

Wrapped clumsily around its familiar puzzle core is an inscrutable tale of murder, intrigue, and a suspiciously naff TV game show. Some goon is killing off previous contestants and the FBI has (obviously) called on your amazing puzzle-solving prowess to help crack the case. ...

A series of decent - if overly familiar - puzzles buried beneath a dreary, nonsensical narrative

RATINGS
Audio/visual: 6
Gameplay: 6
Value: 6
Innovation: 5
Overall: 6