Play it on: Switch
Current goal: Explore the mysterious mansion
The Nintendo DS’ library was vast and rich, packed with epic adventures, wonderful platformers, great racing games, and more. The experiences I remember most fondly, however, were those that felt uniquely DS, that made playing the handheld feel something like curling up with a good book. I’m thinking of games that were both cozy and captivating and that often used the DS in some pretty unique ways, games like Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory. Now, Trace Memory (and its sequel, Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories, which was never before released in the U.S.) have been entirely remade and released on the Switch as Another Code: Recollection, and I eagerly picked it up to see if it could recapture that wonderful feeling I once experienced with Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld.
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Of course, however, Another Code can’t faithfully reproduce everything that made the original Trace Memory unique, because some of that game’s puzzles incorporated the DS’ unique hardware into their solutions. The best it can do, it seems to me, is tell the same story, albeit with very different visuals, maybe introducing fresh new puzzles to change things up but also losing some of what made the original game so distinctive. At this point, I’m only a few hours into Another Code, and it’s proving to be a pleasant enough adventure so far, with comfy vibes and alluring atmosphere as I explore the mansion that serves as its central location. This weekend, I hope to spend more time with it, and see if I think it can distinguish itself enough to live up to the distinctly DS game that inspired it. — Carolyn Petit
And that wraps our picks for the week. What games are you playing this weekend?
