Professor Layton and the Curious Village
- 130 puzzles
- Touch Screen controls
- New puzzles are available weekly for download via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
- Fully voiced animated scenes
In Professor Layton and the Curious Village, you’ll tackle over 130 puzzles as you unravel the mysteries of the village. Puzzles range from mazes and riddles to logic and sliding puzzles. Touch Screen controls make working through puzzles fun for players of all skill levels, and new puzzles are available weekly for download via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Fully voiced animated scenes bring the story to life, while the eccentric villagers and the hand-drawn art provide a charm that appeals
List Price: $ 29.99
Price: $ 21.98
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Review by N. Durham for Professor Layton and the Curious Village
No matter how the game’s cover may look to you, make no mistake that Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of the best original puzzle games you’ll play on the DS yet. A combination of adventure storytelling and traditional puzzle gaming, Professor Layton never fails to entertain while providing some challenging puzzles. The game revolves around said Professor Layton traveling to a small village with his young assistant Luke. Both of whom are on a search for something called The Golden Apple. To search the town, you move from one area to another by tapping the touch screen, and along the way, you can discover hidden puzzles, hint coins, and secrets, as well as interacting with the townspeople and solving more puzzles. The game’s graphics are incredibly charming, and the FMV sequences are very well done to boot. The best part about Professor Layton and the Curious Village is that once you do beat the game and unlock the game’s 120 plus puzzles, you can download weekly puzzles for absolutely free! The only real flaw of Professor Layton and the Curious Village is that the game’s music is repetitive and even kind of annoying, but you can always turn the volume of the DS down, which you might want to do. That aside, don’t let the box art fool you into thinking that this is a game just for kids. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an absolute must own for every puzzle loving DS owner.
Review by AreYouKidding? for Professor Layton and the Curious Village
This game is challenging and a lot of fun. The storyline is interesting and easy to follow, but for me it’s all about the puzzles. The brainteasers in the game are form Puzzle Master Akira Tago, a retired professor from Chiba University, who wrote “Head Gymnastics.” Many of them are classics and they will bring back instant memories of your early education. Some puzzles are pretty tough and hint coins can be found to help with these. Remember, many of the puzzles need to be solved before you can advance to the next part of the story; use your hint coins wisely.
(Small Spoiler: The hint coins are scattered throughout the village. Click everywhere, you’ll uncover them.)
Pros:
- The touch screen/stylus controls are simple and easy to learn.
- You can save your progress at any time.
- Animated scenes and voice acting are very good.
- Your “Puzzle Index” keeps track of all the puzzles you’ve solved. You can even tag your favorites in your “Picks” section.
- You can download more puzzles from WFC every week.
Cons:
- I’ve needed a pen and paper a few times when the puzzles were a bit more challenging and there wasn’t enough room on the DS screen for notes.
- Only the animated scenes are “fully voiced”. During game-play, all the conversations are text/subtitles. No biggie really as it doesn’t detract from the experience.
More to come later; I gotta get back to playing.
Review by J. Kocan for Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village is basically a series of logic puzzles wrapped around a lighthearted mystery. The story portions and basic point-and-click adventure aspects keep things moving along, but the real meat here is the puzzle selection (there are 130 in total, although not all are necessary to finish the game).
Many of the puzzles are difficult, but none are “cheap” – like a great Zelda dungeon, you always know the solution to your problem is in reach. No time limits are imposed, so you can play around and try to tease out the answer for as long as you like. I’m keeping a pad and paper next to me at all times to sketch out ideas and diagrams (and occasionally some light math). If you love that sort of thing, grab this game as soon as you can.
The Professor has a nice pedigree – the game was developed by Level 5, who have been behind some great epic RPGs: Dragon Quest VII (and the upcoming IX), Rogue Galaxy, the Dark Cloud series, and the upcoming PS3 title White Knight Story. They’re one of my favorite developers, and it’s great to see them branching out into something like this.
Between the constant and varied “quest” puzzles, the larger meta-puzzles, and some nice surprises thrown in along the way, there’s plenty here to keep you occupied. Even better, new downloadable puzzles will be made available regularly. Add a charming art style and a great soundtrack (think whimsical French street music), and you’ve got an early contender for the DS game of the year.
Review by Miss Mausie for Professor Layton and the Curious Village
I love most of this game — the story, the translation, the music and voice acting, the artwork, the fact that if you can read and hold the stylus, you can play it. If I love it, why do I only give it an overall 3 stars? Because the puzzles themselves are deeply unbalanced.
The game has a difficulty-rating system (called picarats) which purports to tell you how hard the various puzzles are, ranging from 10/90 to 90/90. There’s also a hint-coin system, where you collect coins with which you can purchase hints. Unfortunately, both systems are broken.
The puzzles gives you instructions, then when you break down and buy the first hint, it either A) restates the instructions or B) gives you a suggestion that is either singularly unhelpful or something that you’ve already tried. (Example: Puzzle Sez: Three people have placed identical umbrellas in an umbrella-stand. What’s the probability that one of them will grab an umbrella that isn’t theirs? First Hint: You don’t have to do any complicated math to figure this out! Er, excuse me? How is that a hint!?) The second and third hints are not usually much better, though they have a higher rate of helpfulness to lack thereof.
The other problem with the game is that the puzzles do not start out easy and increase in difficulty as you get closer to the end. They’re randomly sprinkled throughout the town of St. Mystere, and if you get stuck on one you may not be able to advance the story. (Fortunately, there’s at least one excellent walkthrough at GameFAQs.com — it’s the only reason I beat the game.)
To be fair, the rating of the difficulty of puzzles is probably one of the harder things to do — being a very visual person with an emphasis on kinesthetics, I have a better time with puzzles that can be solved by drawing pictures or moving pieces. Logic puzzles, on the other hand, I hate hate hate with a burning passion.
So if you like, or are not bothered by, randomly-difficult puzzle and not-so-helpful hints, then this game is for you. If you’d rather play something that’s less-frustrating, you may wish to look elsewhere.
Review by Simone Farber for Professor Layton and the Curious Village
A wonderful game! I agree with those who say this would be too hard for younger kids. The puzzles are quite tough. (But then I’m an old fart of 40 who wasn’t all that great with logic puzzles as a kid) Hint coins? I need them desperately. Scrap paper? I use a lot. But the story is told with such charm that I keep going. It’s a true “just one more before I turn it off” game. The art direction, with its old-timey look is wonderful. (It reminds me of the Tintin books, and I suspect Luke’s blue sweater is a direct homage.)
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