Gameplay: A True DS Game

Hotel Dusk, perhaps more than any other game of its time, was made to play on the DS. Because of that, trying to emulate it is a bit of a nightmare, and it will never be easy for the game to be ported to another system. To play it, you hold the DS on its side like an open book. Hyde is usually portrayed on the left screen, while the character he's interacting with is shown on the right screen, allowing you to see both characters and all of their actions and reactions at once.

Hotel Dusk's puzzles were innovative for the time, making full use of the DS's touchscreen and other features. There's one particular puzzle where you actually have to close the DS while you're playing the game, something that admittedly took me days to figure out because I had never seen anything like it before.

One of the menu items is a notebook where you can record notes in real time by using a stylus like a pen to draw or write. Kyle will often pull out his notebook and consult it, making this feature feel organic, like you really are taking notes as Hyde. You also use the touchscreen to physically walk throughout the hotel. When Hyde is exploring, the right screen becomes a map with a marker on it showing where Hyde is located, and you tap and drag on the screen to indicate where you want to go. Meanwhile, the left screen shows you what Hyde is looking at.

Playing Hotel Dusk is a tactile, analog experience that feels really good. The devs made creative use of the DS's unique features, and the result is a game literally unlike any other. There's no other game that plays like Hotel Dusk, and there probably never will be again since the world has moved on from the DS and its capabilities. As a result, my first playthrough was full of engaging surprises, and Hotel Dusk is the main reason that I'll always have a DS -- because I never want to give up the experience of playing it.