Empire Announces DS Detective Title Unsolved Crimes

UK-based Silverstar Empire Interactive (Big Mutha Truckers, Starsky & Hutch) has announced it will publish crime adventure Unsolved Crimes, in development by Japanese developer Now Production, for Nintendo DS. Empire says it will publish the title worldwide, excepting Asia, in the second half of 2008. Unsolved Crimes will incorporate action gameplay as well as 3D puzzle solving, and the company says it wants to appeal to the same audience that enjoys titles like Hotel Dusk: Room 215, CSI: Dark Motives and the Phoenix Wright series. In Unsolved Crimes, players take on the role of a rookie homicide detective in a stylized 1970's New York who, along with a partner, must solve the mysterious kidnapping of aspiring model Betsy Blake. Players must solve puzzles, answer questions, and use the DS stylus to trace routes and memos and mark suspicious items to advance the story. In addition to the game's cases, there are also five action games related to the main storyline. Empire CEO Ian Higgins commented, "Unsolved Crimes will be an exciting new release for Empire in 2008, and one we believe has huge potential. With the consistent popularity of crime based TV shows, similar crime themed gaming titles are showing up as chart winners on Nintendo DS. We look forward to similar success."