Professor Layton and the Curious Village is unique among the games focusing on puzzles for Nintendo DS. Most of these games offer one type of puzzle only, with multiple levels and little if any theme or back story. The main attraction in Professor Layton is the story. There’s a mystery to be solved, but in order to find clues you need to work your way through brain-teaser type puzzles. This is an engaging, challenging game that will give you hours upon hours of enjoyment.
The mystery at the heart of Professor Layton involves the death of a rich man whose legacy, “The Golden Apple,” is missing. Professor Layton and his assistant, Luke, arrive in the village that was his home and meet his family, his servants and his neighbors. The game is very well animated, with a combination of moving video and still-scenes. It also features a musical background that, for a change, adds to the atmosphere rather than detracting from it.
The game gives you helpful advice on how to get around and what you have to do in order to solve the mystery. You will talk to some very unique characters along the way who will help with the main mystery, but first they’ll ask you to solve puzzles for them.
Some of the puzzles are hidden, so you can play the game more than once and still have challenges. There’s another mechanism in the game that helps, because the puzzles themselves can be quite difficult—hint coins. They’re hidden throughout the village, both inside and out, and you can purchase three hints for every puzzle as long as you have enough coins. The first hint is usually very slight; the second hint gives a bit more information, and the third hint will go a long way towards helping you solve the puzzle.
The game features well over one hundred puzzles of different varieties. Some are logical problems, some are riddles, some are math problems, some involve chess, and others involve spatial skills. They are very challenging, sometimes frustratingly so, but the sense of achievement that comes when you solve a puzzle on your own (even if you’ve used the hints) can’t be beat. Some of the puzzles need to be solved in order to get the necessary clues to move forward with the mystery, but others are more bonuses for your enjoyment. Even if you get to the end you can go back and find more to play with.
The story in Professor Layton keeps you engrossed in the game, so it’s not uncommon to put aside all other games once you’re wrapped up in it in order to finish. Even better, the online version of the game lets you download a new puzzle each and every week. Anyone who plays Professor Layton will be avidly waiting for its sequel to come out, so this feature helps make the wait bearable.
