The best DS RPG hands down.
The game The World Ends With You has one of the most engaging and original stories found on the DS and possibly has one of the greatest stories in a Video game ever. The game starts with Neku the games main character telling you about how much he hates his life and the world around him. He then finds a pin in his pocket giving him the ability to read others thoughts. Scared he starts yelling for help but no one can hear him. Then he gets a text message from a group calling themselves the reapers telling him to find a partner and reach the 104 building or face erasure. Neku deletes the message but it reappears. The next thing Neku new Demon frogs started attacking him and killing people around him so he starts to run. A girl named Shiki stops him and asked to make a pack with him. Neku, reluctantly agreed and the next thing he knew he glowing with the girl then he stopped. The girl threw him a pin which produced flames to ward off the noise. Together they battled the frog noise and won. Shiki explained to Neku that they were both dead and need to play a game run by a group known as the reapers. If they survive the noise (mutant animals) all week they could come back to life. Neku doesn't believe her and tries to escape but he learns that fighting pins could only be used with a partner so he accepts Shiki's story. The Team makes it to the 104 building on time and survive day one of the 7 day game but Neku's adventure was only beginning. Fir the next 21 days you make friends, enemies and get stuck playing not only for your life but for the world around you. The World Ends With You has countless twists and turns and will keep you on your toes right until the shocking end. But it is not perfect because a few slow areas.
Gameplay 165/175
The most important aspect of any video game is the gameplay. Square Enix and Jupiter's gem has top notch gameplay. The game takes advantages of all of the DS' unique functions. When navigating the virtual Shibuya you have a choice off using the directional keys, ABXY if you're left handed, or the touch screen. Multiple mini games take advantage of the touch screen also, but the gameplay is truly revolutionary when you're in battles. After chaining together a few noise to face you'll enter a 2D arena with many noise. Neku is on the bottom screen with up to 6 attack pins (there are 236 pins in the game so choosing you're pins is very difficult) and you're partner is on the top screen. You control Neku with the microphone and touch screen and you're partner with the directional arrows. This makes for confusing game play at first with a steep learning curve but once mastered the game play controls are unbeaten by any other DS game.
Graphics 82/100
The World Ends With You has quite unique graphics, 2-D character sprites in a 3-D environment. The graphics in cut scenes are quite polished. The graphics in conversations are also quite nice but in battle and on the over world it's a different story. The 2-D sprites usually clash with their 3-D environment. Also when a character gets close to the bottom of the screen he grows and becomes very noticeably pixleated. The graphics aren't great but decent for the DS.
Replay Value 70/75
When the credits roll at the end of the World Ends With You the game is anything but over. The next time you start up you're game you will be brought to a chapter selection screen with all 21 days you just beat and a 22nd day called Another Day. In all 22 days you will see up to 4 stars indicating the number of challenges. You need to fill up the stars by completing the challenges. If you complete all the challenges on any given day you get a secret report explaining the plot (If you get all 22 secret reports you get a secret ending). But the single thing that makes The World Ends With You so fun to replay is Another Day. You could play Another Day for hours and still find new challenges (but those are for you to find on your own). Because of this The World Ends with You has one of the best replay values on the DS.
Overall: 461/500= 92.2%