A game that all puzzle lovers should definately purchase!
First of all... the storyline. This game has a great storyline that will keep you wanting more and more as the story unfolds. You control Professor Layton and his young apprentic Luke as they travel thru a small village trying to solve a mystery for one of the local residents. As you make your journey from shop to shop and person to person... you will be asked to solve puzzles... in which if you are successful... the story will unfold before you. Between the puzzles and the investigation mystery... this game will keep you comming back for more. In fact I found it very hard not to want to play this game everyday after I started... it is simply that good!
The graphics... WOW! For being a Nintendo DS Lite game... one would probably not think that the graphics would be that awesome... think again! The graphics remind me of the old shows I watched when I was young. Rikki Tikki Tavi, Jungle Book, but with even a better look to them! The artists spared nothing in making this game and mind you it is a very large game. There are many scenes that had to be drawn (backgrounds and objects to interact with) that make up the graphics in this game. I was just so impressed by the quality of them and know others would be as well. There is also quite a few mini-movie cut scenes and those as well are just so impressive. When one happened I felt like I was at the movies because the quality is just that good. Those were in fact my most favorite parts of the graphics. It just amazed me that they could put all of this into one tiny little cartrige on this game system.
The puzzles were alot of fun as well. Some of them were very easy for me... but I do like to do puzzles alot. Some were quite difficult to solve. As you play the game... you can obtain hint coins. These become very useful on puzzles that are super tough. If you get stuck on a puzzle you can use up to 3 hint coins on each puzzle to obtain 3 hints to help you solve it. The hints are not a direct solve either... but are quite useful. The only thing is that there is 135 puzzles in the game and only 200 hint coins avaliable for use (if you can find them all, being they are hidden) so you have to choose to use them wisely! You also get points or as they call them in the game Picarats for solving each puzzle. You can tell just how difficult the puzzle will be by how many Picarats it is worth. If you are unsuccessful at the puzzle the first time... you will then be given another try (well over and over until you get it) but the amount of picarats it is worth will drop. Picarats are your overall score for the game so if you are like me you like to obtain the highest you can get.
The sound in this game is so very nice as well. They have music that plays as you travel thru the town to keep the mood going. I found it quite pleasant to the overall feel for the game. The mini-movies also had great sound to them just like you were watching an actual movie. I really did like the voice acting as well. There is not alot of it but for the amount they had in the game it was very well done. The only time I didn't care for the music was when I was solving a puzzle. I found it to be somewhat of a distraction to me so I would just turn the sound down. Aside from that... it was very well done.
Also there is a Wi-Fi connection thru the cartridge to let you download additional weekly puzzles so the game just keeps getting better! I usually look for the Wi-Fi logo on all my Nintendo DS Lite games that I purchase because of the bonuses that you can get from having that.
In conclusion... this game is worth every penny it cost and more. It is avaliable for $29.95 at most stores but I really feel that it was worth so much more being it has so much to offer. Great storyline along with awesome graphics and sound and then the puzzles to keep you occupied for hours... this game just is #1 in my book. This game also has probably one of the best replay values in my opinion! If you are a puzzle lover... this game is a must purchase!