Professor Layton and the curious village, for the Nintendo DS, is a strange one. . Players must discover the secrets of the village to find the mysterious treasure awaiting them. Or rather, use this excuse to begin playing mind puzzles to progress. You see, despite the advertising and billing, this is not a mystery game, or a detective puzzler. It is a series of mini puzzle games, with number puzzles, matchstick game, logic and written into the overall mix. Now don't mistake me, I'm not against this game, it's just if you're looking for a detective game you'd be better on the fantastic Phoenix Wright series instead. That aside, the story line threaded through the game (you remember, the treasure, the secrets etc) is very well done, and you really do want to push on through the puzzles to see the next part of the story. Even though at times the dialogue used to crowbar the puzzles in can be a little silly, you can forgive it the little slips. There are a few fully animated and voiced cut scenes, but most of it is text based, all of it with a special kind of feel, that keeps it working all the way through. I could have imagined that the story script was written by Jules Vern, with Philias Fogg as the protagonist instead of the Professor. I do admit that his young sidekick can be annoying at times, but then what would a great game be without the annoying sidekick. The whole look and sound of the game fits together like a good quality jigsaw, so much that I could see them on Cartoon Network next week without surprise. But the meat of the game is puzzles, and there comes the sticking point of the game. I loved it, because I love puzzles and riddles. My friend hated it, for the same point. It is all about solving the puzzles, and if you don't enjoy that, then there isn't anything in this game for you. Each puzzle earns you points, and the more points a game is worth, the harder it is. When you get a puzzle wrong, the amount you win goes down too. So from the relatively simple levels of move 2 matchsticks' you move up to harder and harder puzzles, (I spent hours trying to work out the make 7 squares on a pegboard puzzle'). To help, as you move round the village you can find hint coins, that you can spend on up to 3 clues for each puzzle, and believe me you will need them on some of the mind bending games. If you get stuck, you can leave the puzzle and come back to it later, very few a requirement to pass to the next area, but for replay value when a puzzle has been completed you can go back to it again at anytime to try and improve your score. In addition, there are in the game itself 3 carrots' in the form of the jigsaw puzzle, the component puzzle and the room puzzle, to get you to complete as many puzzles as you can find, as to complete these you need items you find around town, which , as you can guess, you find by completing..puzzles. Overall, I loved this game, and the collection of puzzles built up is great for passing around at gatherings to see who can solve them. It has a strong storyline, which is well thought out and carried through, the style of the game is excellent, with visuals and sounds working well together. The puzzles themselves are well made, demonstrating a great use of the DS touch screen, and range from the head slapping simple, to the hair pulling frustrating, and will seem familiar to everyone. Presentation 7/10 Graphics 8/10 Sound 9/10 Gameplay 9/10 Lasting Appeal 7/10 Overall Score 40/50, but it's not for everyone
this game is harder then it is. the puzzles are like those brain teaser questions and activities. there are 3 professor layton games released so far in japan and hopefully nintendo decides to release them outside of japan.
better than 40/50 in my opinion.. This game gives you over 10 hours of joy It's quite addicting actually, the combination of solving puzzles and solving a mystery makes it a realy good game.... And some puzzles (like 3-5) are too hard , i had to look them up on a walktrough to solve them
I absolutely loved this game, and im not easily impressed. although some puzzles were hard i had fun figuring them out with my friends.
