Hotel Dusk: Room 215

In 2007, studio Cing came up with an unusual experiment that remains one of the most distinctive adventure games on the Nintendo DS to this day. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 tells the story of former police officer and traveling salesman Kyle Hyde, who on a rainy night in 1979 stumbles into a run-down Los Angeles hotel and investigates both a missing partner and his own past. The game is played with the console turned on its side, so the screen resembles an open book, and the storytelling matches this format, full of dialogue, decisions, and gradually revealed secrets belonging to nearly every guest of the establishment, most of whom have their own carefully constructed side story.

The visuals consist of hand-drawn, rotoscoped characters who move with a peculiar, almost documentary-like fluidity – the developers actually filmed actors for the animations and then converted their movements into the game, so gestures and facial expressions feel unusually natural for the time. The player walks through hallways and rooms, gathers clues, examines objects with the stylus, and holds conversations where tone and timing of questions matter – a poorly chosen line can put a character off further cooperation for a while. The touch controls are also used for small puzzles, such as piecing together torn letters, turning a key in a lock, or lighting a cigarette, which makes the game feel more tangible than classic point-and-click titles. The atmosphere is rounded out by jazz music, restrained sound design, and the oppressive silence of the hotel corridors.

Although Hotel Dusk doesn't avoid slower passages and lengthy conversations, its melancholic atmosphere and sincerely written characters made it one of the most memorable narrative experiences on the platform among critics, even though it remained a rather niche commercial success. Studio Cing later followed it up with a spiritual sequel, Last Window, before closing down in 2010. Why play it: For its gripping noir story and the distinctive style of storytelling that makes perfect use of the sideways console format.