It
is somewhat of a culture shock to see the Sega logo pop-up on the
screen followed by the Her Interactive logo. My, but times have sure
changed.

Yes, those ageless, perpetually
teen-aged brothers Joe & Frank Hardy have made the leap to the
small screen of the Nintendo DS. Last year was their first appearance
on the pc in The Adventure Company’s The
Hidden Theft. It seems though that the DS rights for these iconic
characters are owned by a different company – maybe this is
a case for the boys? – and so those talented Nancy Drew stalwarts
at Her Interactive (20 Nancy Drew games and counting!) have found
their expertise reduced in size, but not quality.

In
this new adventure, the boys have been invited aboard a royal Russian
train to help solve the mystery of the missing Romanov family treasure.
The secret to uncovering the location of the treasure is believed
to be intertwined among a series of paintings that were commissioned
by head of the Romanov family, but thus far no one has ever been able
to unravel the clues. The brothers will be required to snoop around
the train cars and private rooms, interrogate the few suspects aboard
and solve more than a few puzzles. The stylus also plays an important
role as it is used in a variety of situations. As the train clatters
along a predetermined route through Vienna, Paris, Prague, Warsaw
and St. Petersburg, each area is smartly utilized to incorporate some
local history into the story and also advance the plot. As the journey
progress and the boys come closer to solving the mystery, it seems
that someone aboard the train may have ulterior motives for finding
the treasure… If this sounds similar to Agatha Christie’s
Murder on the Orient Express, well it is, only minus the slashed,
murdered body. This game is rated E after all!

Though Treasure on the
Tracks is enjoyable, it suffers somewhat from its shortness. This
could be attributed to the limitations of the DS, but games such as
Professor
Layton & The Curious Village have succeeded in cramming
almost triple the playtime into the small DS cartridge.

As
there are only four other characters searching for the treasure, character
interaction is limited and the boys will have to rely mostly on logic
and searching for clues. While the game features the point-and-click
and inventory puzzles common to the adventure genre, it also utilizes
the stylus for some unique puzzles such as hiding in a trunk, turning
a key or escaping from approaching footsteps. There is one puzzle
involving a signature whose solution requires you to seriously think
outside the box and to be honest, I never would have solved it had
I not encountered it in another DS game. But overall the puzzles are
too easy mostly due to an overdependence on the in-game PDA and cell
phone calls (the new crowbar of adventure games) from a mysterious
friend.

You do eventually play
as both the brothers and also their mysterious helper, but it is not
a matter of choice as the game forces you into situations. There are
also some timed puzzles and circumstances that can cause your capture
and in one case even death, but fear not for the game is forgiving
and you will automatically return to the point before the deadly mistake.

As
there are no voice actors, the boy’s distinct personalities
need to be conveyed through their dialogue and the writers have done
a splendid job in that area. It is also interesting to note that care
and obviously research has been undertaken to recreate accurate newspaper
headlines from the era that the treasure was hidden. In fact, this
may be the first game I’ve every played that had running headlines
on Charlie Chaplin (which really brought the game to life for me).

It’s nice to have
games like The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks
available on the DS and hopefully they will be a recurring series
much as Nancy Drew is on the pc. Time should also bring more complicated
games as the developers get a better feel for the characters and pushing
the limits of the DS.

System Requirements:

• A Nintendo DS of course