QuickSpot Hands-On

Currently scheduled for release in March, QuickSpot is a DS-exclusive puzzle game in which you're tasked with finding subtle differences between two seemingly identical pictures. The premise sounds a lot like the traditional Spot the Difference pen-and-paper puzzle games, because that's essentially what it is--though having spent some time with a near-finished version of the game recently, we're pleased to report that Namco Bandai uses some of the DS's unique features to spice up the classic formula.

The gameplay mode that's most like traditional Spot the Difference puzzles is titled focus play. In this mode you're presented with two pictures (one on each screen), and you have to find up to 10 differences between them. You mark the differences that you find simply by drawing a circle around them on the touch screen, and you're generally allowed up to three mistakes before having to start the puzzle again. From the outset there are 50 pairs of images available for you to play through in any order, and you'll unlock additional puzzles as you complete those.

QuickSpot's other single-player mode is rapid play, in which pairs of pictures with only one difference appear on the screen in quick succession. You have around 10 seconds to find the difference before the next pair of images appears, and each game lasts for only a minute or two. As you progress through the numerous rapid play levels, new challenges are introduced in the form of mirrored images, images that scroll horizontally or are animated, and others that are obscured by items that need to be rubbed or blown (using the DS microphone) off the screen.

The images themselves are incredibly varied in terms of their art style, subject matter, and difficulty. There are a number of pictures that you'll feel some familiarity with if you're a fan of other Namco Bandai games, though, with Mr. Driller, the King of All Cosmos, Pac-Man, and Klonoa making some of the most memorable cameos that we've seen thus far. You'll inevitably find that the same images start cropping up in multiple gameplay modes over time, but the differences that you're looking for aren't always the same, so there's no danger of QuickSpot simply becoming a test of your memory anytime soon.

In addition to the aforementioned single-player modes, QuickSpot features two multiplayer games titled time bomb and scramble. Time bomb is a hot potato-style game in which up to eight players pass around a single DS, taking it in turns to spot a difference and hoping that they're not left holding the console when the bomb that's bouncing around the screen explodes. Scramble, on the other hand, is played on multiple DS consoles, though it's still possible with only a single copy of the game. Each player attempts to find the only difference between the same two images, and whoever circles it first wins a point. Scramble is made more interesting by the fact that when you're losing you'll gain access to special abilities that can be used to make life more difficult for your opponents, such as throwing a number of animated frogs on their screens for a short time, or reversing all of the colors on one of the two images that they're looking at.

QuickSpot is certainly an accessible game that promises a decent challenge for players of all ages. How long the fun will last remains to be seen, though, so stay tuned for our full review next month.