'Ghost Trick': Clever puzzle game for iPad

One of last year's highest-rated and most unique Nintendo DS games can now be played on Apple's iOS devices.

Averaging a review score of 85% (GameRankings.com), Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is now available at the App Store, and you can try before you buy to see if it's for you.

If you never played this strange puzzle game, you play as Sissel, the ghost of a murder victim determined to find out who killed you and why.

Problem is, you don't recall anything from your previous life, you're limited on what you can affect in the physical world and you've only got until dawn to solve the mystery of your untimely death.

By rewriting recent history to save other poor souls, you'll collect clues about your own demise.

One of your powers is the ability to rewind to the last four minutes leading up to someone's death, so you can try to change the outcome. For example, early on in the game you need to help a young girl (and her dog) escape a hitman. When you activate "ghost time" in her apartment, the scene stops, and your blue ball of energy can move around from one item to the next — as long as the items are close enough. You'll use your fingertip to draw a line from, say, the Christmas tree to a hanging mobile to a cupboard door on the other side of the room.

Once you un-pause the scene, perform a "ghost trick" to manipulate the object you're possessing at the time, such as causing that cupboard door to swing open, which in turn knocks food under the sofa. The dog follows, and so does her master, so when the hitman kicks open the apartment door he doesn't see anyone inside.

If you fail to accomplish the task at hand -- in this case, save the girl and her dog -- you'll be forced to restart the scene to get it right. There is a fair bit of trial and error in tougher scenarios, but all the puzzles are logical. On the right side of the iPad screen you'll see information such as what items you can possess, the actions you can perform and an hourglass timer or clock.

As you slowly begin to unravel the key players in the story and the reasons for your death, you zap from one scene to another through telephone lines.

Impatient gamers might grow tired of all the mandatory dialogue sequences and instructions during the first chapter, but those who stick it out will no doubt be happy they did.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is an entertaining and challenging game that fares very well on the iPad (and, presumably, on iPhone and iPod Touch, too).

If you're, ahem, dying to give it a spin, Chapters 1 (Tutorial) and 2 are free to play, but you can tap on "Buy More Chapters" to pay $4.99 for level packs (Chapters 3 to 7, 8 to 13 or 14 to End) or cough up $9.99 to unlock the entire game.

Category:	Games
Developer:	Capcom
Rated:	3.5 out of 4