However you decide to play the game, you’ll be treated to a well written and emotionally engaging story. Neku and his cohorts are all interesting characters with their own reasons behind being in the game. The story will keep you guessing as you travel through the three chapters and the Reapers and Noise offer some of the most interesting enemy designs on the DS in recent memory. The game’s story is presented in crisp, anime inspired 2-d animation, using both the top and bottom screens for cut scenes. The art is gorgeous and used to great effect to move the narrative along. Equally impressive is the audio as the game sports various J-rock and J-pop songs during battle as well as an impressive amount of spoken dialog. This is definitely a game you’ll want to play with the music blasting over a pair of quality headphones.

For all the game does right, it does very little wrong. The multiplayer mode, a version of marbles played with pins instead of marbles, isn’t all that interesting, and is limited to only wireless play, rather than play over the Wi-Fi connection. The touch controls employed to fire off Neku’s attacks can be too similar, sometimes forcing the player to equip pins with varied enough motions, rather than the load out they really want, lest you inadvertently fire off the wrong pin, leaving Neku open for attack while the pins recharge. Also, the game won’t make you a pie, no matter how many times you ask it to. Bad, ungrateful game!

Once the single player story is completed, you can play any day of any chapter again, with any of the folks you’ve partnered up with, only this time with specific requirements for completing the chapters. Doing so further fleshes out the events seen in the single player game, as well as allows the player to get their hands on pins and items they missed the first time around. The bottom line is that you’ll be playing this game for quite some time.

When playing The World Ends With You it’s hard not to be impressed. The game hits the mark on virtually every point and its unique blend of fashion savvy, fast paced combat, OCD inspiring item management and audiovisual presentation should not be missed. Square Enix adds another feather to its fully plumed hat and provides those holding out on buying a DS one more reason to hold out no longer.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .