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''Touch Detective'' (''Mystery Detective'' in most of Europe) and its sequel, ''Touch Detective 2½'', are games made by Creator/{{Success}}, and released for the Platform/NintendoDS in 2006 and 2007. In both titles, the player takes control of a young girl named Mackenzie, who inherited a detective agency from her father and wants to become a world-famous sleuth. Now add in {{Funny Animal}}s, walking fungi, [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies that act like normal people]] and just plain old wackiness, and you have ''Touch Detective'' in a nutshell.

The first game's plot is comprised of Mackenzie solving four separate mysteries in order to apply to the Great Detective Society. The second has a more connected plot, with Mackenzie constantly coming up against the GentlemanThief known as the Cornstalker and trying to unravel a side mystery involving an ancient race of aliens.

In November 2012, both ''Touch Detective'' and ''Touch Detective 2½'' were ported to the Platform/{{iOS}}, with new bonus episodes added to both games.

In addition to puzzle game spin-offs starring Mackenzie's assistant Funghi, a third game in the main series was released in May 2014 (only in Japan) on the Platform/Nintendo3DS, titled ''Touch Detective Rising 3: Does Funghi Dream of Bananas?''

In the fall of 2022, a CompilationRerelease for the Platform/NintendoSwitch, ''Touch Detective Touch Detective: Rina and the Funghi Case Files'', which features all three of the mainline games and two Funghi spin-offs with various content from the mobile version, was released for the system in Japan. It was localized in March 2024 under the title ''Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files'', finally bringing the third game outside of Japan.
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!!The series contains examples of:
* AllMythsAreTrue: Chloe subscribes to this. Dream trouble? [[Literature/TheNutcracker It's the Mouse King.]] (Note that even Penelope, the resident CloudCuckooLander, knew better than this.) Need everyone to go to sleep earlier so the [[ItMakesSenseInContext Dream World's not empty when you visit it?]] Call The Sandman, he'll take care of it. Note that this universe isn't exactly a stranger to fantastical elements she just happens to be, well, ''wrong'' most of the time. This mentality pays off, though, when [[spoiler: in the third case of the first game she successfully completes an Angel summoning ritual. Even better, Katrina, the Fortune Teller explains that rituals in this universe are powered by ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, meaning that '''if she didn't have this mindset the ritual would have failed.''' Mackenzie helped, but Chloe was the one who actually came up with the solution for that case.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: The Web sites provide more information on the characters with Mackenzie's "character interviews," learning each character's motto, their favorite foods, occupation, etc.
* CloudCuckoolander: Penelope. Even her ''hair'' is cloud-like (it has floating balls on the sides...).
** While Penelope is the ultimate example, the whole cast (minus [[OnlySaneMan Mackenzie]]) could qualify.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Mackenzie, Chloe, and Penelope.
* CordonBleughChef:
** Antoinette. She can actually make normal pastry, but her fondness for 'experiments' push her into this territory. ''Eel'' shortcake? ''Mushroom'' cookies?
** Shorty may also count. He does fine with hotdogs, but his ideas for his choco bananas are pretty weird.
* CutenessProximity: Mackenzie is very fond of Funghi, and just loves to pinch [[CreepyChild Linsey's]] cheek.
* TheDitz: Penelope tends to be a bit more scatterbrained than her other friends.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: It's a series about a detective that likes to touch things, who is controlled by a touch screen.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Combined with TitleDrop. Mackenzie ''hates'' being called "Touch Detective," even though [[spoiler:it's her official title due to Cromwell accidentally sending in her Touch List to the Great Detective Society at the end of the first game instead of her Investigation Report.]]
* FirstPersonSmartass: Mackenzie
* FortuneTeller: Katrina, the [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation oddly purple-skinned]] fortune teller. She serves as a sort of go-to expert of the strange that Mackenzie often makes use of during her cases.
* FunnyAnimal: Beatrice is an anthropomorphic bird, Dover's a man-shark, the ringmaster is a fat man-eagle, and the skating ring owner is a walrus.
* GadgeteerGenius: Cromwell, who managed to identify a futuristic anti-gravity device and power source ''which he has never seen before'' at a glance, and turned what's basically a small theme park ride into a working re-entry vehicle.
%%* GuideDangIt
* {{Hammerspace}}: Where ''does'' Mackenzie and Fungi store things such as large masks and broken briefcases?
* ImpossiblePickleJar: One of the bonus cases tasks Mackenzie to help open a bottle of tea that has the cap screwed on too tight. The one who is able to open it? Penelope, much to Mackenzie's surprise. Presenting it to anyone else will have them try, struggle, and quickly admit defeat.
* InnerMonologue: Mackenzie has her inner monologue shown on the second screen--[[AttentionDeficitOohShiny sometimes the things she thinks about don't quite sync up to what's going on in front of her.]]
* InspectorLestrade: Chloe in the first game. And Inspector Daria in ''Touch Detective 2½''.
* KidDetective: Mackenzie is one, and by the end of the first game it's official.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The three main girls each have one.
* LittleBitBeastly: Daisy has cat eyes and generally has catlike features.
* MediumAwareness: Mostly in the second game, though Cromwell remarks on the credits that appear halfway through the first game's fourth case.
** A businessman says that there's advantages to living under 'a glass ceiling'.
** The Cornstalker says he'll "see you in the next episode" after Case #3.
** During Case #5, Mackenzie makes reference to Japanese popularity polls, and identifies something from Case #2 as being from "Episode #2". [[spoiler:She can also challenge the player to a mini-game during the Bonus Episode if you click on the drawers in the main office]].
* OldRetainer: Cromwell
* OnlySaneMan: Mackenzie.
* ParentalAbandonment: Mackenzie inherited her detective agency from her father, and it's never mentioned in-game what happened to her mom.
* PerkyGoth: Daisy in the first game, and [[spoiler:Daisy again]] in the sequel.
%%* RedHerring
* RoomEscapeGame: The tutorials for each game involve Cromwell putting Mackenzie through one of these as a test. This is also the main objective in the "Funghi Breaks Out" episodes in the iPhone version of the first game.
* SeriesMascot: Fungi
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Nearly all the characters have one, but Penelope's is bananas, the peels of which come in handy more than once.
* UpdatedRerelease: Both games, originally released in 2006 and 2007, received ports to the iPhone in 2012 with new bonus content added to them.
* TheVoice: Most of the girls living in the Condominium, as well as Shorty the hot dog/chocolate banana salesman.
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!!''Touch Detective'' contains examples of:

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Downplayed. Mackenzie's thoughts are shown to the player via the top screen of the DS. Sometimes it shows that she was actually contemplating turning her now cold tea into Iced Tea while she's supposed to be discussing a case with a client or worrying about the phone Chloe landed on top of while Chloe and Penelope are talking about a snow fairy Penelope met.
** Played straight with Penelope at times as she has a tendency to break into strange tangents and song & dance routines.
* {{Brainwashed}}: [[spoiler:Penelope was brainwashed by The Astronomer into acting like a doll named Lynette.]]
* CeilingBanger: In the first case, Daisy tries to get her downstairs neighbor, Penelope, to pipe down by banging on her floor. [[CloudCuckoolander Penelope]], [[SarcasmMode naturally]], assumes she's trying to communicate with her using Morse Code and she replies using this trope. Daisy assumes she's doing this out of spite at first, resulting in her thinking of Penelope as a brat. Once Mackenzie clears the air her and Penelope are on much better terms.
* ConsultingMisterPuppet: Lynsey, with her hand puppet.
* CreepyChild: Lynsey, who is taken care of by The Astronomer. She's actually not too harmful [[spoiler: as long as The Astronomer does not give her people-dolls.]]
* DreamLand: They can be stolen, apparently.
* GRatedDrug: The Sweet Dreams cake, which is extremely delicious and which even has some characters addicted.
* TheIgor: Lugol might count to The Astronomer, though all he ever does is play music.
* {{Jerkass}}: The Circus Master.
* KillerRabbit: [[spoiler:The dreaded Karbanov was actually this.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The fortune teller, who very often gives excuses for not being helpful, has this to say in case three.
-->'''Fortuneteller:''' "I can't [help you] right now. The flag's not set on 1. Flags are the road signs that guide the gods of fate. None of us can escape from this binding curse."
* MadScientist: The Astronomer could be called one, as he has an unhealthy obsession over stars. [[spoiler:He also turns people into life-sized dolls for Lynsey.]]
* MayflyDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:The snow fairy]] had a crush on Chloe in the second case.
* MysteryMagnet: Penelope is either the client, victim, or simply the first person to witness the events for each case.
* SeriousBusiness: Hide-and-Seek, as seen in the extra episodes. Cromwell goes so far as to give him and his team members codenames in an effort to improve their performance. [[spoiler:In the second trial, he somehow ropes the ''entire town'' into participating.]]
* XRaySparks: In the second case, after [[spoiler:Mackenzie]] plays with an electrical socket.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: At the end of part 1 of the fourth case. Not spoilered, as the previous cases all had two parts, and there's at least one item you haven't found a use for...
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!!''Touch Detective 2½'' contains examples of:
* AdventureArchaeologist: The Fossil Hunter and Harrison, focal characters from the third case, travel across the world to find artifacts.
* AliensAreBastards: [[spoiler:Well as it turns out they have plans to destroy all the beef on the planet.]]
* AlienInvasion: [[spoiler:Part 1 of Case 5 ends with an accidental summoning of a UFO. Part 2 involves stopping the aliens before they destroy all beef on the planet.]]
* TheArtfulDodger: Friday, the freeloading mouse.
%%* BaitAndSwitchCredits
* BerserkButton: If you're riding a train with Jack the Conductor, you'd better have your ticket...
* ConMan: [[spoiler:Eric, the red-headed Wallaby's employee. Over the course of the game, he tricks his employers, Beatrice, an alien, and even Cromwell.]]
* ContinuityNod: Two of the sidequests in the Bonus Mission.
** One is to help the antique shop owner open a jewelry box he received. This is done in the exact same manner as in the tutorial from the previous game. As a bonus, the dragon teapot and snow machine from the previous game are also seen, but they have no purpose.
** The other involves recreating an early puzzle from the first game's fourth case, where you must find a stamp and place it on a card in order to recieve the same prize as in the first game.
* CuteGhostGirl: Colette.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: [[spoiler:In Case 3, ask Connor the antique shop owner about Mayor Tom. He'll say that the mayor is very quirky, which makes him hard to impersonate. Thankfully for Connor, though Mackenzie thinks it's an odd thing to say, she doesn't connect this slip-of-the-tongue to the events of Case 1.]]
* GainaxEnding: The end of Case 3. [[spoiler:The Fossil Hunter turns out to be a living fossil from another dimension, who is only able to live in the normal dimension thanks to his eye. His tears are connected to the Cambrian ocean, and he uses them to raise extinct fossils. When he cried in reverse back when he heard about the Noodle Festival, the Seabottom Dwellers, a group from an ancient race who it turns out are not extinct and live in the mountains, took it as a sign of impending peril, so removed his eye, which turned him into a fossil. The weird pink thing that showed up at the three-quarters point that almost poked out Mackenzie's eye? Turns out to be one of the member of the ancient Sea Dweller race, going around poking out left eyes from things at the museum because they can't speak human language and were trying to primitively communicate to the humans about the doom they were sensing. This is all explained in one long explanation from the Fossil Hunter after he's turned back from a fossil thanks to Mackenzie putting his eye back in, in the midst of the arch villain, the Cornstalker, trying to steal his eye, which everyone thought was a rare ancient pearl, and being fooled into taking a fake one.]] The entire thing even makes Mackenzie's confused, which is saying something given all the other stuff she's already seen before.
* GentlemanThief: The Cornstalker, who's good-looking and leaves calling cards ''before'' committing the crimes.
* {{Gonk}}: Miss Yvonne.
* InTheNameOfTheMoon: Daria attempts this repeatedly, usually ending in self-injury somehow.
* MasterOfDisguise: The Cornstalker.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:In the final case, the Cornstalker's attempts at stealing the treasure end up helping Mackenzie protect it.]]
* PaperThinDisguise: [[spoiler:Ironically, the Cornstalker. Compare his jawline, basic build, and voice to that of the antique shop owner's. To be fair, he does cover his face and body in a ridiculous costume, which may make this an example of RefugeInAudacity. He's pretty good at impersonating people's appearances, however, and can even fool you, the player, at times.]]
* PrecociousCrush: Mackenzie has one on Connor, the antique shop owner. [[spoiler: Thankfully, she shows no signs of this while he's in his Cornstalker costume.]]
* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: [[spoiler:Silver, a singing doll, is this rather than the cursed sleeping boy the girls thought he was at first.]]
* ShoutOut: In Case 3, while trying to convince Chloe to help move a large statue, the following is said:
--> '''Chloe:''' O RLY?
--> '''Mackenzie:''' Yes, really...
--> '''Chloe:''' NO WAI!
** Also, in the final case, the Salesman's favourite shows include ''[[Series/{{Lost}} Found]]'' and ''[[Series/TwentyFour 365]]''.
* SleazyPolitician: Mayor Tom, who built a museum for two purposes: to brag about his accomplishments, and to sell actual artifacts to the highest bidder.
* StringyHairedGhostGirl: Collette, the Haunted Mansion's caretaker, is a particularly cute TokenMiniMoe example.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Antoinette used a giant 3-pronged electric egg-beater to make some pastry. It's as big as an electric jackhammer and Dover used it to ''dig a fish pond in minutes''.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: The first time Mackenzie stops the Cornstalker, he gleefully declares her as someone worthy enough to be his rival... much to Daria's chagrin, as she sees the Cornstalker as ''her'' nemesis.
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!!''Touch Detective Rising 3'' contains examples of:

* TheRival: Shiro desires to be the best detective in the world. In addition to directly rivaling Mackenzie, this also make her professional detective assistant Kinako a rival to Funghi.
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