Review Of Professor Layton And The Curious Village

From the onset, Professor Layton may well trick you - with its cartoony art style, and the fact that it's on a DS - into thinking it is a child's game, made for those with simple minds and a 4-word vocabulary. But surprisingly, this game can present a challenge for the gamer not used to the brain-aching nature of Layton.

While it's mostly marketed as a simple puzzle-solving game, there's a surprising amount of story to it. While this can be engaging at times, with surprising twists for a game with such a simple theme, it can tend to be a bit text-heavy. Which, unfortunately, is the price that must be payed for plot. It's just a shame that so much has to be read and forwarded through to get to half of the puzzles.

Adventuring the town of Mystere seems to be presented similary to a simple "press the arrow to go to that separate background frame", unfortunately, and doesn't allow for much freedom in exploring the town fully. Which is a shame, because at times I've found many places that seem ripe for exploration, but have been closed off. One such example is a clock tower, presented dominantly in the game. Surely, one should be able to freely explore to see what easter eggs lie at the top? But alas, that is not the case, but instead allows for rabid random pressing for "hint coins" that help you (though, admittedly not much) solve the devilishly tricky puzzles you come across.

The puzzles themselves, however, will be the part of the game that consumes the most time. Devilishly tricky, you can't be fooled into thinking these are something that any 6 year old can solve. Most have given me trouble in solving them without the use of Hint Coins, and some will be unsolvable to all without some serious concentration. In that sense, they can be much like the XBLA game Braid, in that not being able to do them will break your soul into a thousand shards, but figuring one out correctly will make it all seem worth it.

All in all, I think that this game is surprisingly addictive in its simple gameplay, and will be a must-buy for all those that want to have a break from the dull, repetitive Brain Training games that seem to be saturating the market nowadays.

4 out of 5.