Review - Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Nintendo DS
2008 by Level-5

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a perfect example of what the Nintendo DS needs to see in order to show what the handheld has to offer. Professor Layton and the Curious Village would not be the same on one of the consoles or on the PlayStation Portable. This is a game that is designed for and exemplifies the strengths of the Nintendo DS.

The game mixes the usual adventure game conventions of puzzles and point-and-click, here touch-and-tap, with a European styled animated story reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. The difference between Professor Layton and other classic adventure games such as the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango is that these are the types of brain teasers that are usually seen in collections of logic puzzles and optical illusions rather than the inventory and environment puzzles seen in Lucasarts and Sierra classics. Puzzles in Professor Layton are the sort of word play, logic, and visual puzzles that many of have dealt with in our lives exemplified by the classic "bring 'x' wolves and sheep over the river puzzle" that everyone has worked on.

The difficulty in the puzzles can vary wildly though it is undoubtedly the sort of difficulty that depends greatly on the person playing the game. While logic puzzles may stump some the visual puzzles may stump others. One problem with the puzzles is that you'll often be angry when you find out the answer which seemed to be too obvious, and once you see how certain puzzles are done it becomes rather simple to answer similar puzzles. Also, since many of the puzzles are multiple choice it isn't difficult to find the correct answer simply through trail-and-error even if you were working on the problem one or two incorrect answers will lead to the answer.

The visual style is quite unique and is well executed. The music is adequate though there aren't very many tracks which is probably due to the limitations of the DS carts. The animation is well done, but sparse which is also probably due to the DS cart memory and the game certainly could have used a few more animated scenes between all the puzzle solving. Although the game is short, I finished it in about 10 hours, there are downloadable and hidden puzzles to extend the life of the game and unless the animation and story were extended more puzzles in the story section of the game would have probably been too many.

Since there are sequels in the pipeline, one already finished and one in the works, there is hope that the pacing issues and a more dynamic story will be found in the future, but for the time being Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a unique and great experience that is perfectly suited to the Nintendo DS.

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5.