Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a fresh, bold step in the evolution of the point-and-click adventure. It almost feels like an entry point to a whole new genre, but if it is, I'm not sure this new space can be occupied by anything else. It gets just about everything right that an adventure game should, though some awkward contrivances threaten the immersion factor. While Ghost Trick is hardly a game you'll find yourself returning to time and again, it's still very much worth the price of admission if you own a DS and long for something truly unique.

If I were to simply describe Ghost Trick as stunning, you'd probably do a double take at the screenshots -- and then you'd probably wonder what's wrong with me. It's one thing to see still images of this game and another thing entirely to see it in motion. There's almost a musicality to the way these characters move; it's like they took the (then) revolutionary animation work of Out of This World and replaced the blocky sterility with pure quirky magic. The first time you see Inspector Cabanela make his characteristically flashy entrance, you won't be able to keep yourself from laughing. Seriously, don't try to resist; you'll only end up hurting yourself. This game has a look that is entirely its own and has to be seen to be believed. Fantastic animation work aside, there's a subtle but brilliant color scheme shift between the real world and the ghost world. Since this is a text-heavy game, rest assured that the developers (the same people behind the Phoenix Wright franchise) certainly know how to handle text.

Ghost Trick sounds good enough, but it's obvious that most of its technical tricks are designed to appeal to the eyes. I'm not saying that the sound design is thoughtless; however, I am suggesting that not as much thought went into making the game aurally distinctive. If you closed your eyes and listened to the music, you could probably associate it with a Phoenix Wright game; this is especially true of the urgent loop that plays as you try to reverse a death. No voice acting means the game has to rely on more subtle tactics to relay what the characters are feeling at certain moments. Surprise is the most common emotional cue in Ghost Trick's story, and as a result, you'll hear a whole lot of chimes -- maybe too many of them. But let's not get ahead of ourselves; nothing about this game in particular sounds bad, but it knows what it's out to accomplish on that front and neither overshoots nor undershoots.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective literally opens with you in the dark. About completely everything. Well, except one thing. You're dead, and you have no idea why. (Make that two things.) And, being dead, you've lost all of the abilities that generally come with having a corporeal form. Worst of all (arguably), you have fallen prey to the most dastardly of Japanese narrative clichés: (wait for it...) amnesia. That's right: you have no idea who you were, what you did, and why you were shot. And this red-headed lady inspecting your fresh corpse is about to get blasted, too. But it isn't long before a talking headlamp informs you that you have the "Powers of the Dead," a set of special abilities that only a select few deceased possess. Soon, you learn your name (Sissel), only to find out that you're going to go all Marty McFly and disappear from existence completely by tomorrow morning. If you want answers, you'd better use what you've been left with and make it snappy!

Ghost Trick's gameplay is inextricably linked with its narrative, and it's a glorious partnership. The game spans several chapters, and has you doing all the things a ghost should do; you'll eavesdrop, collect clues, and use your Ghost Tricks to prevent terrible things from happening to undeserving innocents. Sissel's tale unfolds slowly, but the narrative's serial pacing allows you to delight in its surprises and not feel bad about taking a break every once in a while. Best of all, it's a story you'll want to see through to the end, if only to get all the answers. Those who persist will find themselves richly rewarded.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a game about trial-and-error, fast critical thinking, sheer dumb luck, spot-on timing, and more trial-and-error. There's always a solution hidden somewhere on the screen; you just have to make it appear. This can be more difficult than it sounds, but other times, it can mislead you into overthinking certain solutions.

Thankfully, Ghost Trick isn't content to simply show you what you have to work with and leave you to your thoughts. Thought and speech bubbles will appear at crucial moments, giving those who choose to read them critical hints regarding puzzle solutions.

Sissel's ghostly powers are as varied as they are bizarre -- and that's saying something. The most fundamental of Sissel's powers involves his ability to phase in and out of the Ghost World. In the Ghost World, time is frozen, allowing Sissel to take advantage of his surroundings without having to worry about fate marching onward. He can get around areas by jumping from inanimate object to inanimate object. And in some special cases, he can perform a "Trick" on the object after phasing back to the real world. These tricks involve canned animations that are almost always used to advance a puzzle or to allow Sissel to move further around the environment. Picture this: Sissel is in a van and he needs to possess an object in the back. However, his spirit doesn't have the range to make the jump. In the world of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, you might have to possess the lever that folds the seat back in order to get the back seat in range.

The situations are rarely that crude, however. In fact, several of the game's key moments involve interacting with a corpse to gain the weird (and convenient) power of time travel -- to four minutes before the deceased's exact point of termination. It's ridiculously satisfying to watch as your clever manipulation of the environment gives several of the game's interesting characters a new lease (or in one special case, several) on life.

If any of the above interests you, head to your local retailer and snag yourself a copy of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Yes, some of the gameplay and story details smack of contrivance, but games like this often require the gamer to relinquish a degree of control and just enjoy the ride for what it is. If you're a longtime fan of the adventure genre, this should be your next purchase. If you're an open-minded gamer who's looking for a unique experience on the Nintendo DS, this is it. Heck, if you can get past the idea that a video game can continue after all extra lives are gone, you need to play Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.