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James Noir's Hollywood Crimes is a puzzle game that sees you taking part in a quiz show called the Incredible Puzzle Masters. After the first show, you're called aside to be told that there's a murderer going around killing former champions from the show - and it's up to you to help the police solve the puzzles the murderer leaves behind.
With a mixture of logic and observation based puzzles, James Noir's Hollywood Crimes isn't a game that's going to be suitable for younger children. Still, as most of the puzzles are logic based, it's also a game that doesn't require any deep knowledge of maths. If your child can handle the Professor Layton games, they should be more than at home here.
Puzzles on offer include "domino frame", where you have to place a domino on each side of a square, in order to make each side add up to ten; Hashiwokakero, where you need to connect a number of dots with the number of lines shown on each dot - only your lines can't cross over each other; solitaire (of the peg, not card variety); and an awkward one called 'Three stop railway', which asks you to get your train from a start point to an end point, when you can only move three stations at a time.
Although you can ask for hints at any time in any puzzle, there is a limit, so you'll be expected to answer at least some questions without using any hints - and as the hints aren't voiced, a strong reading ability is required.
Despite the fact James Noir's Hollywood Crimes' overarching storyline is about solving a series of murders, there's actually no blood, guts or gore on show. The worst murder scene sees someone swinging from a noose - although again, you can't actually see anything disturbing - just that there's a figure hanging from a noose. At the end, however, [SPOILERS] there is a rather awkward situation, where you have to take part in a puzzle off against the murderer, who's inexplicably hooked himself up to a battery, and is giving himself an electric shock every time you get a question right. It's very odd [/SPOILERS]. In terms of bad language, "ass" is as strong as it gets.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS
