Hijouguchi: Exit DS’ red cover would make a rather nice addition to my collection of Nintendo DS games, but the real clincher would be gameplay!

Exit DS puts you in the shoes of Mr. ESC, who with your help, will find the rescue any survivors from a dangerous situation and find the exit. The premise sounds like a puzzle game and indeed it is. In each level, Mr. ESC will have to make use of different types of NPCs he rescues (most of the time to push stuff, or to grab an item) and besides that, he is endowed with abilities such as being able to jump across longer obstacles.

Most of the time, Mr. ESC’s bane would be heights. He can come down from a high ledge only by hanging onto the ledge (Prince of Persia style) before dropping down, or otherwise, you’ll have to restart the level :). There’s no in-level save and no complaints here as that serves to heighten the challenge.

Graphics wise, the game is cell-shaded with the characters in black and white. Kudos to the designers and artistes as the characters comes with really cool character animations, look out for how the fat guy walks about like Humpty Dumpty. The top screen is used as a map, and the touch screen is where all the action happens.

The sound however is a different beast altogether. Almost every level would have NPCs shouting “Help Me” and this gets annoying in after while. It’s best that the speakers and headphones sit this one out.

I’ve so far completed the levels in the first stage of the game, moving on to Stage 2. Don’t wait for me though, Exit DS is available at Play-Asia. Click here for details.