Play Emily the Strange - Strangerous (DSi Enhanced) (E) Online

Emily the Strange: Strangerous came out for the Nintendo DS in 2011, developed and published by Gameloft. It was part of that wave of quirky, stylized games that felt right at home on the handheld, offering something a little different from the usual platformers or RPGs. The DSi Enhanced version just sharpened up some of the visuals and made use of the camera, but the core of it was still this strange, hand-drawn adventure.

You control Emily, navigating through a series of interconnected screens, interacting with odd characters and solving environmental puzzles. The main goal is to gather her four lost black cats, but along the way you mess with the townsfolk using her dry humor and a handful of special items. Signature mechanics include using the touchscreen to combine objects for pranks, and the DSi camera lets you take in-game photos to complete certain tasks. The pacing is deliberate, more about exploration and cleverness than speed, and the difficulty stays pretty manageable. It feels like stepping into a weird, slightly spooky comic book where your main job is to cause a little trouble and soak up the atmosphere.