Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files

To its credit, Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files offers a lot of value since it is three adventures games plus new DLC scenarios that were created for the iOS versions. These are milquetoast and boring adventure games where the humour probably landed better in Japanese. The hand-drawn backgrounds and character designs are appealing, but get used to seeing them be recycled across all three titles. The wait for the third Touch Detective does not seem like it was something gamers were begging for. Anyone who enjoyed the first two will likely be happy the with third entry since it is more of the same, but fans of the point-and-click adventure genre will probably find these to be uneventful and dull.

This jam-packed collection features Touch Detective 3, the biggest and best point-and-click adventure of junior detective Mackenzie and her faithful sidekick Funghi, playable in English for the first time. Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files also includes the entire original Touch Detective and Touch Detective 2½ games, plus two bonus cases starring Funghi and an extensive museum of artwork and music from the entire Touch Detective series. Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes. It’s great to finally get Touch Detective 3 in the west and the collection makes it easy to enjoy all three games, but it doesn’t feel fully optimized for the Switch.

This collection of 3 handheld titles, including one never released in the US, can be fun, even if a bit redundant

As a 15th anniversary celebration of an incredibly marginal series here in the west, but a far more popular one in Japan, the Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files collection is just blindingly good value. Each game combines classically entertaining and surrealistically funny point-and-click mechanics with memorable characters and some delightfully eccentric moments. This is in so many ways a perfect example of the heart and soul of Japanese game development.