Benoît Sokal's Sinking Island Also Drifting To Nintendo DS

Whereas adventure games have been "dying" on the PC for years, the classic genre is slowly finding new life on Nintendo's DS handheld platform. A coupe of weeks ago, dtp's Anaconda division announced plans for a DS prequel to their recently released Undercover: Operation Wintersun PC game, and now we learn that Benoît Sokal's studio, White Birds is also planning a handheld adventure title of their own.

As revealed by Adventure Gamers, the DS version of Sinking Island has entered the pre-production phase over at White Birds, and they even have a mock-up image of how the game will look on the Nintendo DS.

"White Birds will retain the same storyline, characters, and gameplay of the PC version, and adapt the controls and presentation to the unique features of the DS. The main screen will be the lower one, while various secondary interface features such as the inventory, map, and notes will be shown on the top screen."

The PC version of Sinking Island was featured this year at E3, where it was introduced as the first game in what Benoît's studio hopes to become a series of detective adventures. The game is set to take place on a private tropical island that is sinking under the weight of a colossal hotel built upon it. The plot revolves around the murder of the hotel's billionaire owner, but the interesting thing is that, as the island is sinking, so is the evidence found in the lower level areas! So you will only have a simulated three day period (around six-seven hours of play) to solve the case, before all the evidence is lost forever to the sea and the "Game Over" screen sinks in.

Benoît Sokal's team plans to finalize Sinking Island for the PC in Spring 2007, but there's still no word on when to expect the DS version. We have, however, some screenshots from the PC version in our gallery today, courtesy of Adventure Gamers.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)