GDC 2009: Miami Law Hands-On

If you think the world needs more crime games on the DS that feature oddly named anime characters and are set in Miami, then for the love of all that is holy, finish that time machine you've been working on and dial it in for late June of this year. That's when Hudson's upcoming adventure game, Miami Law, is set for release on the Nintendo DS. We had a chance to check it out today and came away impressed with its charmingly cheesy atmosphere and loads of quick and clever minigames.

Now, you might think that a game named "Miami Law" would be all about law enforcement in the sunny South Florida city. But you'd be only half right. While the game does take place in Miami and follows the exploits of the local police as they battle the drug trade, its main character--a feather-haired, loose-cannon cop on the edge--is named Law Martin. No, not Martin Law. Law Martin.

Law Martin might be the most preposterously named Miami-based fictional law officer since David Caruso's Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami, but the charm doesn't end there. Law's got a partner, you see--a beautiful blonde known as Sara Starling, who, unlike Martin, is as by the books as they come, straight-laced, and dubious of Law's "shoot first and ask questions of the corpses later" approach. The game will present you with plenty of opportunities to choose one character or the other, resulting in a divergent narrative path and, in many cases, a different minigame to choose from.

For instance, in one scenario, Sara and Law are in a car chasing down a suspect. If you choose to play as Sara, your goal will be to keep the car on the road, avoid other cars on the road, and get Law a clear shot at the criminal. If you play as Law, you'll control him as he fires, with the car steering being handled by Sara automatically. In another scenario, Law has run off to single-handedly invade a warehouse that's filled with drug runners. As Sara, you'll hack into the security cameras and identify the bad guys (by tapping them with the stylus) to give Law some advance notice before he goes in guns-blazing. This is just a small sampling of the minigames in Miami Law--most of which are quick and to the point. There are even a couple of games you can unlock once you complete the game as either Sara (who unlocks Sudoku) or Law (who unlocks Texas Hold 'Em Poker).

When you aren't playing minigames, you'll be investigating crime scenes, examining evidence, and uncovering a conspiracy throughout the game's unwinding narrative. The game plays very much like a Phoenix Wright or CSI game--you use the DS stylus and touch screen to closely examine objects or choose menu options that will let you do things like move to another location, speak with your partner or another character, or consult your PDA to get case clues.

The game's slightly tongue-in-cheek approach looks to make Miami Law an amusing take on the crime adventure game. The game doesn't seem to get too caught up in the minutiae of crime scene investigation, instead going for the wise approach of keeping you engaged with minigames that rarely seem to repeat themselves. While Miami Law is being developed in Japan and has a definite anime flair to its visuals, it will actually debut here in the US first when it arrives in June.