Exit once again proves that it's very hard to go wrong with a puzzle game on the DS.
Exit is a game that many of you might've heard of or even played on Xbox Live Arcade and though that it was new and snazzy and had a unique quality about it. Well now Exit has been made handheld for the Nintendo DS and it actually manages to maintain the same amount of fun and brain twisting puzzle adventure that it had on its console birth
Exit is a really simple game with a simple story, you play as Mr. Esc, a professional escape artist as he travels around a 50's era New York like city to save various people from various fates such as fires, flooding, and just being useless. Throughout your adventure you will come across all of those who need saving from the injured to the canine, the fat to the thin, the young to the old. Can you control Mr. Esc and help him get those lost souls to freedom?
...Maybe if the controls would let you.
Graphics
Exit's graphics are very VERY simple. They take a bit of a cue from the Sin City (and now more recently MadWorld) approach of sharp black and whites and only a bit of color. For instance while most of the backgrounds are in black and white, Mr. Esc's tie is a bright red and his hat a bright yellow. Also the character design lends itself well because it all is very sharp and abstract, which is very true to the era. This also helps it out because everything is really cel-shaded and clean which lends itself very well to the DS's graphic capabilities. Throughout the levels I played on (and there are TONS) I never noticed any sort of significant slowdown or choppiness. Although I will say some of the effects in the game could've just looked better overall like the fire and the smoke but when you realize the game is supposed to have this sort of pop-up book style it makes it all work together.
One minor gripe is that even with simplistic graphics everything just looks very samey after the first few stages. While the levels certainly do change you really won't notice since the backgrounds all look nearly exactly alike. Also the game does have a few cut scenes and they are only told by still pictures with text on the bottom. It's very annoying that although we have seen full motion video on the DS it still hasn't been put in most of the games that come down the pipe from Square-Enix outside of its RPG offerings.
Overall Exit isn't the prettiest game on the DS, but it looks nice and smooth for its style and fits the small screen and graphic capabilities of the DS well.
Gameplay
Exit may look like a platformer but it really is a puzzle game at heart. As you control Mr. Esc you will have to use a series of moves to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible as well as making sure to pick up any people (or pets) that need help along the way.
As far as the game goes it actually is very simple to pick up and learn, the hard part is how the touchscreen controls are implemented. In order to do anything you first have to tap Mr. Esc (or any companion you are controlling) and then touch where he needs to walk/run, or what he should do. The touch screen is pretty reactive and accurate; it's just the tedious motion of having to select the character before dishing out orders is very annoying and in the later levels downright frustrating seeing as you have to wait for them to complete one action before they start another. Having them be able to 'stack' or set actions in some sort of sequence would've been greatly appreciated.
But someone must've known the Touch Controls were annoying because they actually offered an alternate control style which uses the D-Pad and the face buttons. I found this control style MUCH easier to use, although controlling companions was still a bit of a pain. Some of the online players might find the alternate control method a bit to easy or cheap as it allows you to do things a lot faster than the touch screen would, but they even took that into consideration seeing as the leader boards actually tell you what control style the player in question was using.
Annoying touch screen control aside Exit is very fun to control and when you get into the rhythm of things it can actually be pretty cool. As with most puzzle games the longer the game goes on the harder and trickier the puzzles tend to get, especially on the last few levels where you actually have to do a bit of micromanaging between Mr. Esc and his companions. But even then the puzzler never gets so hard that it gets frustrating or cheap, it has a nice balance between fun and challenging that a lot of people might enjoy.
Sound
If there is a weak point in the game, it's going to be the sound department. The music in the game is fine, if not a tad repetitive, but that's not the complaint here. The big complaints are from the low quality voice clips that each character has and how they are used. Mr. Esc will scream or laugh from time to time...but god help you if you get to a level with a survivor in need of help
They will yell "Help" constantly until you find them. And I mean CONSTANTLY as in EVERY 5 SECONDS. It gets to the point where you wish Mr. Esc would just let the poor bastards burn to death due to the fact that you will hear "HALP!" in a nonstop cadence until you make it all the way across the level.
It actually got so bad for me that I had to turn the sound affect OFF for the remainder of the game due to the fact that there is no 'voice' slider. It's sucks that you have to sacrifice all of the sound effects due to the bad decision to have the survivors constantly screaming over everything else but I assure if you if you don't turn this option off soon enough you will end up going MAD by the time they game starts putting multiple survivors in one level.
Outside of that the rest of the games sounds are pretty average but the voice work alone brings the whole package down just by the sheer factor that it's annoying as all hell. Once again I highly recommend that you simply turn the sounds OFF as you play the game, you will enjoy it A LOT more at the expense of everything being oddly silent.
Fun Factor
If you are a fan of puzzle games then you will definitely enjoy what Exit has to offer, if you are NOT a fan of puzzle games then you will definitely find Exit to be a good one to convert you over. It does drag a little in the end and at the beginning, but in the middle section after the game is done with its MANY tutorials and stops holding your hand to let you experiment, you will see that this is a pretty deep and fun game. Also with the ability to go back and complete levels again for faster times is always a good thing when it comes to puzzle games that you want to master.
Lasting Appeal
As I mentioned above Exit DS does have Nintendo Wi-Fi leader boards as well as over 50 levels to play through. If you are the kind of person who strives to get to the top of the leader boards you will definitely be at home here. Someone else actually suggested playing through the game with one control style and then replaying the same level again with the alternate. I tried it and I can tell you that it is a completely different game. Although the replay value is STRICTLY linked to whose who are a fan of puzzle games, if you are not a big fan of puzzle games and are just renting this or playing it as a one off I highly doubt you'll try to go for the top scores or go back to replay any of the levels.
What's sadly missing is some sort of way to create and send levels to other players around the world that would've GREATLY increased the lasting appeal for those no necessarily into Leader boards.
The 411
Exit DS is a pretty simple game with a simple premise but it's hard to master and get down to a science. That's pretty much the formula for any great puzzle game. It lends itself very well to the DS in its port over from the big boy consoles with very little difference or changes from the original. A few things keep the game from being an instant classic or a big hit such as it's sound design and sometimes it feels like it has TOO many levels, but in the case with games of this type and especially portable games it's always better to have too much of a good thing than too little of it. Great in small doses, even better in large ones, Exit DS was a pretty solid game for consoles and shines brighter on portables.
Graphics
7.0
Not pretty by any means, but it works for the game and the DS.
Gameplay
8.0
Very simple to begin with, but when it gets deep you'll start having a lot of fun
Sound
4.0
The voice effects almost DESTROY this, but luckily they can be turned off.
Lasting Appeal
7.5
Leaderboards are there for those who want it, but a level editor is sorely missing
Fun Factor
7.0
Puzzle fans will love this, those new to it might have to warm up to it first.
