Two and a half years ago, American gamers were finally given the chance to play the hit Japanese PSP title, Exit. A year and a half later it made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade. Now, nearly three years after its original PSP American release and a full year after it joined the ranks of other XBLA remakes, Exit is finally here on the DS.

Exit DS labels itself as an action puzzler, a combination rarely seen outside of its own previous releases. Players take control of the red scarfed yellow fedora wearing action hero escape artist known as Mr. Esc., and are charged to – you got it – escape! Of course, Mr. Esc wouldn’t be a very good action hero if he only strived to save himself through the 100 levels of the game, so the real purpose isn’t to guide Mr. Esc to safety, but rather save the companions (aka civilians) in each of the levels.

To rescue companions and reach safety together, Mr. Esc must traverse obstacle-ridden levels of an increasingly difficult variety. You’ll be forced to jump, hang, shimmy, climb, and push your way toward freedom, and along the way chances are you’ll end up utilizing a few strategically placed items on each stage. Companions also play a large role in puzzle solving (despite their inherent helplessness and inability to even walk out of a door until Mr. Esc is on the scene), as each type offers their own unique ability which you can exploit in order to clear the path for Mr. Esc to do his thing.

If you have played the game on the PSP or Xbox 360, this is exactly the same game but in a differently sized physical package. The levels are the same, the noir-comic cutscenes are the same, and the challenges are the same. The only thing that’s different is the default control setting, and that’s also the game’s biggest weakness.

Since this game is a port to the DS, I believe it goes without saying that the developers are required to make use of the stylus and touch screen. While most games get around this by putting maps on the top and letting players go through menus with the stylus, Taito tried to one-up the competition by relinquishing full control of Mr. Esc and the companions to the touch screen system, a move which made an already frustrating game exponentially more frustrating.

If the controls were already clunky in the original release, playing Exit with the touch screen is nigh impossible. Instead of moving Mr. Esc with the d-pad and jumping with a button, he instead moves by touching him with the stylus, and then touching where you want him to go. Want him to climb a ledge? Touch him, move him to the bottom of the wall by touching the ground by it, touch him again, and then touch the top where you want him to climb. (If you hold L you can queue up moves for Mr. Esc ahead of time to avoid having to re-touch him, but then you’re giving even more control to the poor decision-making AI, and half the time he’ll wind up confused or doing the wrong thing.) All moving, item-using, and obstacle dodging is pulled off by tapping and then tapping again.

In a game where the tiniest mistake can force you to retry, and where levels can take 10 minutes to clear at the higher stages, the touch controls just aren’t intricate enough. I tried to keep count of how many times a mis-touch led to Mr. Esc’s sad demise, but I gave up when I realized it was just making me angrier. Thankfully controls can be changed to the “classic” d-pad/button combination in the options menu, but sadly many DS owners who buy this game wouldn’t even think twice to check for that, especially since nowhere during the tutorial stages does the game hint at other possible control options.

Exit DS is a puzzling game. On one hand, you have a game which was originally envisioned for handheld audiences making its debut on the most popular handheld in the world. On the other, you have a game which was heralded for its uniqueness and willingness to think outside the box lessening itself by succumbing to the forced-gimmick fate which claims so many otherwise great DS titles. I suppose even a professional escapologist can’t find a way around poorly implemented touch screen controls.

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