''Miami Law'', known in Japan and Europe as , is an
adventure video game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
developed by
Hudson Soft
was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...
for the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
handheld system. Though produced by a Japanese company, the title was initially released in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
on June 9, 2009 and it was released in Europe on September 25, with the English localization being the first project by
Gaijinworks since its establishment in 2006. Hudson Soft worked closely with Gaijinworks founder and head translator Victor Ireland on the project, who sent a research team to
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
to aid in development of the title. The game features music by
hip hop group
Miami Beat Wave, who were licensed by Ireland to give the game's location an authentic feel.
Inspired by prime-time
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
television series, ''Miami Law'' follows the exploits of Miami Police Department Officer Law Martin and
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agent Sara Starling as they attempt to bring down a domestic terrorist organization. Gameplay for the title varies depending on which character a player chooses, with largely action sequences for Martin and puzzle-based scenarios for Starling.
Gameplay
''Miami Law'' is a point-and-click
adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
where players must gather clues, read text, and become involved in the story in order to solve mysteries and move the plot forward.
The game uses a mixture of three-dimensional computer graphics for action sequences and two-dimensional character images for story scenes. Players are given the choice of assuming the role of either Law Martin, whose scenarios largely involve action scenes such as car chases and shoot-outs, or Sara Starling, who primarily uses puzzle-based gameplay such as analyzing clues and compiling evidence.
A player is given the opportunity to switch between characters at certain points in the game's story, with the plot being affected by which character is used at different points in the narrative.
In addition to normal gameplay elements, ''Miami Law'' also includes minigames such as
Sudoku
Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row ...
and
Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, communit ...
that can be accessed after the player has fulfilled certain requirements during the main game.
Development
''Miami Law'' was first announced in a February 2009 press release by
Nintendo of America
is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...
outlining several games that were to be released for Nintendo consoles such as the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
.
The game was developed by
Hudson Soft
was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...
and was largely based on
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
crime dramas, and would contain "all of the ingredients of a prime-time TV show".
Despite being developed by a Japanese company, Victor Ireland, founder of
Gaijinworks, announced the following March that the title's first release would be in North America and that his company would be publishing it as their first project.
During development, Hudson Soft sent a research team to
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, where they were taken on a tour of the city by Ireland himself in order to give the developers a better idea of the game's setting.
Ireland would also serve as the game's head writer, which he likened to his involvement as former head translator for his first company
Working Designs
Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, i ...
, stating that "the philosophy is very similar, but the tone of the game demanded a much harder edge."
While his work at Working Designs was noted for its light-hearted and comical approach, Ireland remarked that ''Miami Law'' would require a more serious approach to storytelling, remarking that "there's definitely comedy and some fun wordplay, but it's a police drama so the localization reflects that... the tone of the game would be similar to something like what we did for
Arc the Lad
is a series of tactical role-playing games created by Toshiro Tsuchida and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Each ''Arc the Lad'' game often features recurring characters and locations, as well as a consistent timeline. Most of the s ...
."
For the game's music, Ireland enlisted the help of Miami-based
hip hop duo
Miami Beat Wave in order to give the game's setting a more authentic feel, who composed fifteen original songs for the title.
[ ]
In April 2009, a European release of the game was officially announced by Hudson Soft to be published by
Konami
, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...
under the title ''Miami Crisis'', and released on September 25.
Reception
The game received "mixed" reviews according to video game
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
In Japan, ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' gave it a score of two eights, one six, and one seven, for a total of 29 out of 40.
References
External links
*{{moby game, id=/nintendo-ds/miami-law
2009 video games
Adventure games
Hudson Soft games
Konami games
Video games about police officers
Nintendo DS games
Nintendo DS-only games
Single-player video games
Video games set in Miami
Video games developed in Japan
Gaijinworks games