James Noir's Hollywood Crimes

by Ubisoft

Product Features

• The first ever interactive 3D movie
• Play the main character in a truly immersive experience using the 3DS camera
• 1960's realistic art using the power of the 3DS
• A variety of 150 puzzles, classic and 3D puzzles
• Player performance tracking for the puzzles

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B004RLL4XK
• Item Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 1, 2011
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,289 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Be the main character of a mind-twisting murder mystery in James Noir's Hollywood Crimes for Nintendo 3DS. In this unique release that harnesses the power and functionality of the 3DS, you must solve more than 150 puzzles to find a diabolical criminal mastermind. Additional features include: an interactive 3D movie game mechanic, 1960s era art direction, 40 fun mini-games and accelerometer integration into actions and puzzles.

A Murder Mystery Where You're the One Being Played

James Noir's Hollywood Crimes for the Nintendo 3DS system makes you the main character in a mind-twisting puzzle adventure in an interactive 3D world. Live the thrill of mastering tailor-made mind games as you solve over 150 intriguing puzzles to solve a deadly mystery. The game takes place inside a TV game show, where you are a participant. As you play, you discover a series of murders and a diabolical criminal mastermind that is manipulating and defying you at every turn. Everyone on the set of the show is in danger - especially you. Solving the puzzles left by the killer at every crime scene is the only way to clear your name and to uncover his identity before it's too late.

A unique 1960s era Hollywood environment.
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Interactive 3D movie format.
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Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo 3DS is a groundbreaking hardware release that brings 3D gaming to the handheld market for the first time. The fourth major release in the DS product line, the Nintendo 3DS utilizes 3D Slider functionality and an improved top LCD display to present a glasses-free 3D effect in compatible games, while giving players the option to moderate the effect as they see fit. Taken together with additional features including full analog control in 3D game environments, motion and gyro sensors that transfer the movements of the handheld into the game, 3D camera functionality, an adjustable stylus and full backwards compatibility to all Nintendo DS games and you have not only a must-have system, but a revolution in handheld gaming.

Key Game Features

• First ever interactive 3D movie
• Play the Main Character and Live a Real Immersion Through the Nintendo 3DS Camera
  • The criminal mastermind provokes you by using your own private details
  • The crime scene clues and the storyline are strangely familiar
• 1960s realistic art using the power of the Nintendo 3DS
  • Appealing and trend-worthy art direction that puts you back in the best of the 60s - luxurious settings and a dashing crime-busting partner
  • The game alternates between the 60s TV game show setting and the mystery investigation
• A variety of 150 puzzles, classic and 3D puzzles using the Top Screen
  • Puzzles cover a range of classic types: Images, Wordplay, Numbers, Drawing, Shapes and Colors, Tiling Puzzles, Grids, Problem solving, Labyrinth, Physics
  • Also play a range of 40 fun mini-games
  • Use the accelerometer through actions and puzzles
• Player performance tracking for the puzzles
  • All puzzles adapt to your ongoing performance through difficulty level
  • Make your selection of puzzles to solve at each crime scene
  • The killer will track your selection and performance so that as you progress the difficulty will adjust to challenge and entertain

Additional Screenshots

150 varied and fun puzzles. View larger.

Game show scenario. View larger.

Puzzles that adapt to your skill. View larger.

40 kinds of mini-games. View larger.

Product Description

James Noir's Hollywood Crimes for Nintendo 3DS makes you the main character in a mind-twisting puzzle adventure in an interactive 3D world! Live the thrill of mastering tailor-made mind games as you solve over 140 intriguing puzzles to solve a deadly mystery. The game takes place inside a TV game show, where you are a participant. As you play, you discover a series of murders and a diabolical criminal mastermind that is manipulating and defying you at every turn. Everyone on the set of the show is in danger - especially you! Solving the puzzles left by the killer at every crime scene is the only way to clear your name and to uncover his identity before it's too late!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent puzzles. Thin "3D Movie", November 1, 2011

By 

Ed Pegg "Math puzzler" (Champaign) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: James Noir's Hollywood Crimes (Video Game)

I run a famous puzzle site, and I've played Hotel Dusk, Again, 9 Hours, Trace Memory, Time Hollow, the Professor Layton series, and the Phoenix Wright series. A puzzle game will depend on both the puzzles and the presentation.

The Puzzles
In the opening scene, where you arrive at the studio, take your own picture, and fill out a contestant form, one 3D puzzle is given, where a plant with multicolored leaves must be twisted to find a particular viewpoint where a number can be seen. Shortly thereafter, a set of 12 puzzles is given to you in a Jeopardy format. Solve puzzles until 80 points is scored, with bonuses for not using hints. The Hint system is excellent, much like the Layton series. After the game show, host takes you out for a drink, but an FBI agent comes to ask for help with puzzles found at a murder scene. Then there is more back and forth -- gameshow puzzles, crime scene puzzles. These are good puzzles, and excellently presented. Puzzle creators include the best in the world: Oscar van Deventer, Andrea Gilbert (clickmazes, River Crossing), James Stephens (puzzlebeast, Anti-Virus), Tom Jolly, and the Grabarchuk family (Big, Big Book of Brainteasers). They get credit in the end titles.

The Presentation
I was reminded of the DS game Again. Live actors are filmed, and dropped into stylized sets which are made of 2D layers. The puzzles come about as fast as in the Layton series (and much faster than in 9 Hours). Each time a puzzle is solved in the Show, there is an applause scene, which gets old fast. But otherwise, I thought the stylized version of 1961 was done okay. The story is still on the thin side, and I finished it in 4 hours. But I've only needed to solve about a quarter of the puzzles to get to the end of the game -- I have about a hundred more puzzles to solve.

Highly Recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of puzzles, November 17, 2011

By 

W. McKinney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: James Noir's Hollywood Crimes (Video Game)

This games reminds me a great deal of the Professor Layton games, except the puzzles appear more frequently and you don't have to navigate through a lot of superfluous, boring content to get to them. Some of the games become a bit repetitive, but there's still a good variety. On the con side, the voices of the characters are completely unsynced with their mouths. After a while, it starts becoming really irritating. And the games mostly take place on the bottom, non-3D screen, so don't expect a lot of 3D-type games. Overall, I would recommend this game, but for the price, it could have been a little better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you can suffer through the acting the puzzles aren't bad., February 13, 2012

By 

Robert - See all my reviews

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: James Noir's Hollywood Crimes (Video Game)

I will admit that I haven't made it very far in this game, but that's probably due to how annoying it is. Let me first say that I *love* puzzle and mystery games. I have a pretty varied collection on the DS, so when I saw this title available for the 3DS I jumped on it. The premise is sound, but the way they went about it is terrible. The chintzy animation is just distracting. The developer seems to have used stop animation to save space on the cartridge (or something). When someone talks it looks like I'm watching South Park's interpretation of a Canadian with a flop-top head -- except South Park uses more than 3 frames of animation. The acting is pretty bad in general though, so maybe that's why it was done. Hire some convincing actors next time. The game also suffers from pretty lengthy load times. I found myself wanting to go do something else between puzzles just to avoid dealing with more bad cut-scenes and load times. The puzzles themselves were fun, but it felt like I was wading through a sea of terrible to find my reward.