In an empty Junkyard on the outskirts of town, two figures stand alone in silence. The first a slender, young redhead; the second, a vile blue-skinned assassin, brandishing a golden shotgun. It’s clear what’s about to happen and you want to help, but there’s just one problem… you’re dead. Welcome to the world of Shu Takumi’s latest magnum opus, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

Taking control of Sissel, the aforementioned specter, it will be up to players to save lives, solve puzzles and track down the truth behind his untimely demise. While this may seem like a difficult task for one lacking a corporeal presence, Sissel has a number of unique ghost abilities or “tricks” at his disposal to make this possible. The first is the ability to posses certain inanimate objects and manipulate them. This allows you to not only create new paths of movement between objects, but it also allows you to interact with the world; startling characters, disrupting events and even eliminating a few bad guys. You can also enter the Ghost World, a place where time stands still and you’re free to move about without consequence. Of course none of this is particularly helpful if the person you want to help is already dead, so Sissel has one more trick up his sleeve; the ability to turn back time. If you leap into the body of a person who is recently deceased you will be able to travel back to four minutes before their death. If you can work your magic and prevent their death from occurring, then their fate will be altered and they will be alive when you return to the present. While you can’t use this ability to prevent your own death as that would create a paradox, you can use it to protect a number of key characters, as well as to find out more information about your previous life. Once you’ve made a connection with someone’s spirit you will be able to communicate with them when you return to the present.

Like all good adventure games, Ghost Trick is based around a series of puzzles, but instead of combining random object A with illogical piece of crap B as is tradition, you’ll be manipulating the components of what is essentially a giant Rube Goldberg machine. By knocking an item off a shelf you could startle a mouse, which causes a character to chase it with an object that you can leap into and use to get the the other side of the room, where you can open a door to make a donut go rolling, causing a dog to chase it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It’s a simple system, but there are often multiple routes available, making choosing the correct order of events a bit of a challenge. Fortunately if you screw up you can always go back in time and start again. While this does reinforce trial-and-error gameplay, you’re failures are often hilarious (swap a bullet with a hardhat to see what I mean) so it’s a tolerable experience. The game usually provides you with enough hints that you won’t get too far off course.

Although the fun of solving puzzles is a strong selling point, it pales in comparison to gripping intrigue of Ghost Trick‘s story. Sissel’s case of Ghost-amnesia serves as the primary driving force behind the plot and while you’d think that’s a tired cliché that’s been done to death, it’s actually used effectively to create a sense of doubt and confusion. What you think you know at the end of one chapter can be, and regularly is, proven false by the end of the next one. This isn’t the kind of mystery where the answer is staring you in the face from the beginning of the game, but is buried and well hidden. Until the final moments of the game it’s quite unlikely that you’ll have figured out the truth. Surprisingly despite its many plot twists the story never becomes a convoluted mess and backs up even the most ridiculous leaps of logic with solid explanations. Like Takumi’s previous works, Ghost Trick features a cast of crazy and colourful characters and as with the plot your feelings towards them will change dramatically over the course of the game. It’s easy to go from hating a character to caring about their fate and even feeling sorry for them. While their quirks are often exaggerated to the point of farce, such as Det. Cabanela’s dancing, it all adds to the surreality of the world and helps draw you in. This is just an all round better put together experience than what we’ve seen from the Phoenix Wright games and those were damn good in their own right.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is probably most gripping game I’ve played on the DS, finishing it in only two play sessions despite its 10 hour length. Like a good book, once you pick it up it’s hard to put it back down. If you’re a fan of adventure games then this is an obvious no-brainer, but even if you’re not I strongly recommend you give it a try. If there’s such a thing as a must play, this is it.

Verdict: BUY IT NOW