These days it is very rare for a game to hold my attention for more than a few hours, spread over a number of days. Whether this is a reflection of a change in me, or a change in the quality of games being released these days, I'm not sure. What I am sure of, is that any game which can capture my attention and hold me through till completion, is a game worth pushing onto everyone else.

The game is The World Ends With You, which you are probably already aware of, since you click the link saying that. The game was developed for the Nintendo DS by RPG veterans Square-Enix, specifically the team that developed the popular Kingdom Hearts titles. Now I'd like to take a second to praise Square Enix, as they are one of the few companies who have the balls to step away from their time honored series, and produce original titles. Too many companies are content to play it safe with sequels to best-sellers, but Square-Enix have a history of releasing stand-alone titles which garner critical acclaim, and often spawn their own sequels. Whether or not The World Ends With You continues as a series is not known, however it's certain this is a title will be remembered as something special.

You play as a troubled teen named Neku, living in the perpetually bustling Shibuya ward of Tokyo. When the game begins, Neku awakes in the middle of a crossing, to find no-one can see or hear him. With no memories of his past, and only a strange skull-embossed pin and mysterious message on his phone threatening erasure at the hands of a mysterious group called The Reapers, Neku sets out to find answers. Joining with Shiki, a girl in the same strange situation as himself, Neku has no choice but to fight to survive, and play the Reapers twisted game. The game itself follows the adventures of Neku and Shiki through Shibuya over The Reapers' seven day game and beyond, and at a guess, clocks in at about 15-20 hours depending on the difficulty you play on.

There are so many parts of this game which stand out, that it's hard to pick a place to start. This is a game that awards and penalizes you depending on how trendy you are, and makes you think seriously about whether you eat Ramen for the bravery bonus, or a Burger for the HP bonus, so you can see how it might be difficult to explain it to those who have not already been enlightened. I suppose the combat system is at the heart of the gameplay, and would be a good place to begin.

The first thing to know about the game, is that it emphasizes teamwork. You cannot survive in the Reapers' Game without your partner, and so you do battle using both Neku and Shiki at the same time, split over two screens. The main enemies in the game are Noise - creatures created and controlled by the Reapers for the purpose of erasing you, and other players like you. To defeat noise, you must make use of the hundreds of different Pins scattered through the game. Each pin has a number of stats, which make explaining them all the more difficult. Pins have a base damage number, as well as a boot and reboot time, which determine how quickly the pin becomes active once a battle starts, and how long before it is usable again. Some pins will also have a limit on the number of times you can use them in one battle. As well as the basic stats, each pin has a brand, damage type, elemental alignment and effectiveness, and an activation method.

Branding is something I will explain next, but pins can receive damage increases or decreases depending on its brand. Damage types can range from Earthquakes which stun enemies and lightning bolts that strike Noise for damage, to explosions which do AoE damage and Psychokinesis for lifting objects and throwing them at noise.  Damage pins have elemental alignments of Positive, Negative or Neutral, which correspond to a Noise type's Elemental Resistance; hence positive pins will deal more damage to Noise with low resistances to positive damage. Finally, pins have different methods of activation. There are 10 different activation types for pins, including slashing across Neku or tapping an empty space to shoot projectiles, dragging the stylus along the ground to create a wall of flame, or blowing on the mic to summon a gust of wind. There are 304 pins, and 96 different types of noise, each with their own unique stats.

As I mentioned earlier, brands are an extremely important aspect of the game. Just like in the real ward of Shibuya, the area in the game acts as a nexus for all the hottest brands of clothes, accessories and pins. There are 18 districts of Shibuya, and any one of 13 brands may be popular in each one. All clothes and most pins are aligned to a brand, and will confer bonuses to your stats depending on what is hot, and what is not in each district. Brand popularity changes from day to day, and can also be manipulated by Neku. Using pins of one brand in a district will slowly increase its popularity, until it hits the number one spot, increasing the damage done by the pin. Clothes will also award you bonuses, depending on the popularity of brands in a district. Each character you control can wear four pieces of clothing, but not more than one article on the same area. For example you could choose to wear a hat, shirt, pants and accessory, or perhaps a shirt, pants, accessory and shoes. Clothes will also carry their own bonus stats which are independent of brands. These stats can include increasing your bravery rating (necessary for wearing higher level clothes) or your HP.

Now that I’ve explained a number of the elements that impact on the combat, it’s time to explain the combat system itself. When a battle begins, Neku will appear on the bottom screen, surrounded by Noise, and Shiki will appear on the top screen – also surrounded by Noise. The Noise are shared between the screens, so that if one dies on the top screen, the same will die on the bottom screen, and visa versa. Neku’s combat is controlled through the use of the Pins you have collected. Prior to battle, you will have equipped the pins you’ll do battle with. The number of pins you can equip increases over time, however to begin with you only have four slots. Two of these slots will be your main Pins, and two will be sub-slot pins, only usable in combat when holding down one of the shoulder buttons. By choosing the right pins in the right locations, you will maximize your damage, and increase your chances of victory, however choosing them based on brand, damage, boot and reboot time, element, class and activation method can be a tricky business.

In contrast to Neku, whose combat is controlled entirely with the bottom screen and the stylus, Shiki is controlled using the top screen and the D-Pad or XYBA buttons. While you are slashing, poking, drawing and blowing on the DS to battle with Neku, you will also be attempting to link Shiki’s combos together, by inputting the correct button sequence. At the bottom of Shiki’s screen, there are three strings of around four arrows, and at top there are three blank cards. Each string of arrows corresponds to a symbol, and by inputting one of these symbols, one of the blank cards is revealed. If the card is the first of the three, it is locked in, however if it is not, it flips back over. By locking in the three symbols in the correct order, you gain access to a powerful Sync attack performed by both Neku and Shiki, which damages all Noise on the screen and restores a little of your health.

It takes a while to get used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll love the fast-paced constant action the dual-screen combat provides. The game even provides you with a green aura called ‘the puck’ which travels between your two characters, conferring a damage bonus to the character it is on. This is done as a helpful suggestion as to what screen you should be focusing most of your attention on, and it seems to work quite well.

Overall it’s a brilliant game that breaks the mold at every turn. There are multiple aspects of the game that I haven’t even touched on, but I’ve run overtime and hey, I don’t want to spoil it all for you. If you’ve got a DS that hasn’t seen much action in a while, pop down to the shop and pick this one up, and if you don’t – get one, you’re going to love it.