Sunday, March 24, 2013

999: It's like a book, but with puzzles!

March 24, 2013

By Kevin Shirley



Anyone here remember Nintendo Power? It was a magazine that was in print for over two decades. If you’re wondering what a magazine is, it’s basically a website made out of paper.
           
A couple years back, in an issue of that historic publication, I read an interview with a designer by the name of Kotaro Uchikoshi. He was talking about a piece of software for the Nintendo DS that he designed, called 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. He also made a couple of jokes poking fun at his wife. Usually, I would just read these interviews to extract facts about the games discussed and the design process. But, not only did I find solid information about this new game. I also found the interview in itself to be pretty entertaining.
           
Last summer, I finally decided to order 999 off of Amazon. I put the game into my 3DS. I found myself reading loads and loads of text punctuated by occasional puzzle segments, but mostly a bunch of text.
           
I absolutely loved it.