Layton's latest continues to deliver with an enchanting tale and more stupendously designed puzzles than ever.

User Rating: 8 | Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou DS
Time travel: one of the most tired tropes in entertainment media, and also the latest subject for the dapper professor/detective Professor Layton and his young apprentice. "Tired" isn't an adjective I'd use to describe the professor's foray into the matter, however. Rather, the series' endearing cast and engrossing narratives and puzzles make Professor Layton and the Unwound Future another swell, puzzling adventure.

Our story begins when Layton and his apprentice, Luke, receive a mysterious letter that claims to have come from the future, with Luke's future self being credited as the sender, that requests their assistance urgently. Naturally the two are skeptical -- the concept of time travel is simply preposterous -- but decide it best to look into the matter. What they discover is worrying to say the least: it appears that 10 years in the future, London is in complete disarray. A local crime syndicate now reigns over the city, carefully watching its citizens through numerous men in black positioned about. Even worse, their leader has some sinister plans in store involving a time machine of his own. Fearing the possible consequences, the duo, along with the help of future Luke, sets out to put a stop to all this madness and prevent their bleak future from becoming realized.

Unlike the previous entry, the Diabolical Box, which took place over a variety of locales, Unwound Future sticks primarily to a single environment -- London, of both present and future. There isn't a whole lot of swapping of time-lines going on here, though, as the majority of the adventure takes place in the future London -- and that's because it has much more to explore and uncover. The differences between time-lines are incredibly stark. While the present is bright, cheery and and full of color and vibrancy, the future is drab and bleak, with an atmosphere of fear lingering about. It's an excellent contrast that really illustrates how drastically the city's changed in 10 years. The return of characters from previous entries, such as Inspector Chemley and his partner Barton, also provide a nice sense of familiarity to the mix.

Moving about the streets of London is similar to that of an old-school adventure game. You're presented with a static picture of the surroundings that may be lightly interacted with by tapping on the touch screen to reveal hidden puzzles, hint coins, or various observations by Layton and company. Movement is initiated by selecting the shoe icon in the bottom-right corner of the touch screen, which brings up arrows on-screen that show where you may head off to. You can also tap on any doors in the vicinity to enter buildings. The illustrations used are all exquisitely designed with surprising attention to detail packed in despite being on such small screens. In fact, the presentation as a whole is quite excellent. Though I don't have any solid numbers to back the following claim up, I believe Unwound Future has far more animated cut scenes and voiced dialog than the previous titles (or is at least on par with Diabolical Box), bringing some extra life to the characters.

Supporting the story is a multitude of excellently designed and often devious puzzles. Almost every inhabitant of London has a puzzle for Layton and co. to solve. Most of them have no sort of actual relevance to the story -- except for those that appear along the main story branch, such as unlocking a door via a puzzle lock of sorts -- presenting scenarios that are entirely separate from the story. The puzzles are brilliantly designed and plenty challenging presenting a nice balance of logic, math, and block sliding puzzles. A good number of them pride themselves on deviousness, too, by inserting "traps" into the puzzle's set-up and rules. That clever nature makes up a sizable portion of why the puzzles great. Frustration can easily set in because of their devious tactics, but really all it does is make solving them that much more gratifying. Besides, if you really are clueless as to a puzzle's solution, there's always the helpful but oh-so-vague hints to fall back on. These do cost hint coins, however -- more of which can be found by tapping various items in the environment -- so as to keep you from becoming too reliant upon them. With the new presence of "Super Hints," which provide very strong clues that may or may not practically give away the answer, it can be hard to resist temptation. It's a nice option to have, though.

Apart from the usual sort, there are also some side activities that are equally puzzling. On display this time are mini-games that task you with laying down directional pads to lead a toy car round a track to collect items lain about and reach the finish; a delivery service that sees you stringing up ropes to allow a parrot to deliver items to a recipient at a rather difficult to reach location; and a series of storybooks whose characters must be replaced through placing them at certain points of the story. They're fun diversions and provide a nice change from the usual brain-teasers.

Unwound Future, like previous installments, is absolutely packed with content. Containing over 150 puzzles with plenty extra available via download over Nintendo Wi-Fi, Professor Layton can easily satisfy for many, many hours. Combine that with an excellent story that alone can last around 12-15 hours, and you've got yourself plenty of entertainment to last you a long while.

The only problem with Unwound Future would be its lack of evolution. Aside from a couple minute additions (the memo function from the second game and the aforementioned Super Hint), the entire structure and such all remains identical to that of the original. While there's certainly a case to be made for not fixing something that ain't broke, at least some sort of innovation (maybe greater, more clever use of the touch screen?) would have been a pleasant surprise. Still, lamentable of an omission as that is, it's hardly something to hold against the game too harshly; it's still plenty entertaining. And it's for that reason that Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is another quality entry in the series that's sure to delight fans of the professor and/or brain-teasers in general.