Between the new and returning cast, BeeWorks has built quite a menagerie of quirky characters to inhabit the Touch Detective world. Unfortunately, they're largely interchangeable and none are interesting enough to carry a story. I mean, she's okay and all, but I never found myself thinking, "Yes! I get to go talk to the bakery lady again!" This raises an important point about the writing: it's just not very good. It's not really bad, either, in that there are no glaring grammatical errors or gross mistranslations, but it's pretty straightforward and bland. In a lighthearted game with such varied and bizarre characters, you'd expect at least a few laugh-out-loud performances, but all the dialogue has the same tone. It's a shame, because some good writing could take this not-so-great game and raise it up to something worth your time.

Some of the locations are reused from the last game, too: Mackenzie's office, the shopping plaza, and the condominium. Others are new, and only become accessible on the map as you progress through the game's five episodes. A couple of the cases in Touch Detective 2½ follow a different formula—most notably episode two, which takes place entirely on a moving train—but for the most part, the gameplay consists of making something happen, then visiting every location open to you and talking to every character you encounter to trigger the next thing that happens. The world is small, so triggering an event isn't too difficult, but it makes for choppy gameplay, particularly in the later episodes when more locations are available. I was left feeling like I wasn't really affecting anything, and more like the whole story was scripted and I was just clicking through it. Of course, in any game the story is scripted and you essentially are making the story move by clicking through it, but a good game hides this mechanic from the player. Touch Detective 2½ does not.

I found myself getting stuck less than I did in the first game, which either means the designers made an effort to provide more straightforward gameplay or I'm just better at predicting the logic this time around. Either way, there are no puzzles that had me baffled for long periods of time. Likewise, none of the puzzles really made me feel smart for figuring them out. The gameplay is all very simple point-and-click, with the stylus serving as your mouse would in a PC game. Although the stylus could have been used in more unique ways, such as in a puzzle where a screw needs to be turned using a specific method, Touch Detective 2½ never makes use of the touch screen for these activities like games such as Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk have. If the game were a PC or Game Boy port I'd understand it, but since Touch Detective 2½ was designed for the DS, this is a pretty big failing.

The "bonus episode" can be accessed at any time, and is comprised of 30 mini-quests that Mackenzie can complete by talking to and running errands for various people around town. As in the last game, the bonus episode gives you something more to do, but I wouldn't call it compelling gameplay. The mini-quests are painfully simple and are often solved by trial and error. The fifty-item touch list is also back, again serving as an incentive to crawl all over the locations looking for things to tap your stylus on, but in the end it's not a rewarding experience. If completing the bonus episode and touch list resulted in unlocking a really cool extra, like a cutscene that helped tie together the disjointed overarching story, then I'd recommend it, but as it stands, these tasks are really just time wasters.

The graphics, interface, and music are more or less identical to the first game. You control Mackenzie by tapping the stylus where you want her to go, or alternatively, by moving an on-screen cursor with the D-pad and then pressing A to make Mackenzie go where the cursor is pointing. (I wish the D-pad would allow for direct control instead, but c'est la vie.) The stylized graphics are reminiscent of the hand-painted adventure games of the 1990s, with big-eyed characters and cartoon-style cutscenes lending an anime flare. There's a fine amount of detail in spite of the small screen size, but more close-ups on items and on the faces of people you speak to would be appreciated. My biggest gripe with the graphics is that Mackenzie frequently walks through other people rather than walking around them. Not a huge deal, but it's sloppy.

The music hasn't changed much. The theme that plays at Mackenzie's house is still annoying, and the museum theme made me want to stab Mayor Tom in the eye with my stylus every time I went there. That said, I really liked the haunting melody that plays at the abandoned mansion. (I'm still humming it days later!) Touch Detective 2½ is text only, but when the characters "speak," a tone accompanies the appearance of the text on the screen that's fairly indicative of that character's personality. I liked this feature last time, and still do. It's a creative way to use sound to tell the player a little more about the character, while keeping within the DS's limitations.

The bulk of Touch Detective 2½'s action takes place on the DS's bottom screen. The top screen is mainly used to display a close-up picture of Mackenzie. Depending on what's happening, she'll react with a scared face or a giggle. Sometimes a thought bubble will show her inner monologue, which may or may not lend insight into what's happening on the bottom screen. I found myself ignoring the top screen most of the time and therefore missing most of these interjections, but missing them didn't have any impact on my ability to understand or complete a case. This non-essential use of the top screen is another waste of what the DS can do.

Okay, so: few improvements over the first game, a convoluted overarching storyline, painfully simplistic gameplay. What should I score such a mediocre title? Once again, I'm going to have to go with three stars. If you're the DS-owning, adventure-game-loving type who has already run through the new Phoenix Wright and are really hurting for another DS adventure, then yes, think about getting Touch Detective 2½ (but you might want to wait a few months and see if the price drops). Just know what you're getting into. I did—and I have to admit, there were points where I enjoyed myself. I only wish there had been more.