Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Instant classic"

If you're like one of my cousins, then don't judge this game by it's cover, or by the game's title (that same cousin keeps referring to it as 'Professor Layton's Curious Village', making it sound a lot worse than it actually does). Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a innovative game that combines old point-and-clickesque gameplay, a lot (and I really do mean a lot) of brain teasers, great production values, to make a very fun video game.

There is exactly 135 puzzles to solve in this game (and more to download via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection). They have you solve them with either logic, math, and other types of stuff to figure them out. Many of them will make you think you have to use some overly complicated form of deduction to solve them, but if you spend a while thinking about them, do a little trial-and-error, or look at them differently, then you can usually solve them without too much trouble. And that's what makes Professor Layton so fun. Whenever you figure out a puzzle, either easy or hard, you will always be satisfied like every game that can be hard. (just to let you know, there may be some puzzles where you think about the answer a vastly different way, but still get it correct, which still makes the game fun). But while most of the puzzles are fun, many of them aren't. These ones will make you spend a long time thinking about the answers, while answering them with what you think is correct just to find out they're wrong. Even with the hints this game provides, they can sometimes be unclear.

But while the puzzles may get boring, I guarantee that this game's story will keep you interested. Professor Layton 1 has one of the most intruiging video game story I've ever come across. It's about the title character and his apprentice Luke going to this mysterious village coincidentally named St. Mystere. They've been called been a woman named Lady Daliha to find this object called the Golden Apple, which was only mentioned once before by the late Baron Augustus Reinhold: in his will right before he died. And While Layton and Luke are at the village, a lot of bad things start to happen. For instance, the drawbridge that lets people access the world outside St. Mystere is up and its crank disappears, leaving them trapped inside. There is also someone who gets murdered, and there have been reports about people getting kidnapped at night. There is also a secret about the village, which should only be revealed to people who play this game. Even though I've heard some of this stuff already revealed, it was still a fantastic story.

Now lets get on to the production values. The game has some great looking hand-drawn graphics, with a lot of goofy looking characters. The areas has great attention to detail. The sounds and music are convincing, and fit well into the game's european atmosphere. One of the best parts of this game is that it has many fully animated and fully voiced cutscenes that are reminiscent to some of Hayao Miyazaki's films (though I wouldn't know about this, because I've never seen any of his films). They all look great (though sometimes a little scaled down to fit a DS), and though the voice-acting could have been better in some cases, they work they way they are, and these scenes are step in the right direction for DS.

While this game is good, it kind of doesn't have very much replay value, since once you solve these puzzles, you probably won't forget the answers. But no matter about that. If you like a great mystery story or lots and lots of mind-bending puzzles, then Professor Layton and the Curios Village is the game for you. I hope that the Diabolical Box is good, since it doesn't look too different from this game.