"The first DS game to REALLY make me think"

Forget Brain Age, Big Brain Academy and the many brain training knock-offs that claim to enhance your brain power - because frankly, they don't. Sure, you'll be able to dish out the correct change faster than Mr. Joe Bloggs, but those training programs are tailored to enhance mental alertness and hence, productivity - via repetition. They don't boost your IQ - the internationally recognised measure of intelligence - and because the exercises are a walk in the park (purposely intended so as to not alienate the typical "non-gamer") the only benefit you'll get out of them is proving that you are smarter than your mates - which shouldn't really require a DS in the first place. Right?

But I digress. The point of my spiel was to illustrate the fact that there isn't any DS game available on the market that truly serves to test your grey matter (Sudoku games aside). That is, there wasn't one... until now.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village. A curious title. A curious game, too.

Level-5 - a renowned RPG development studio famous for Dark Chronicle, Dragon Quest VIII and Jeanne d'Arc among others - introduced Professor Layton to Japanese audiences this time last year. It wasn't an RPG, but rather a logic-based puzzle game with point-and-click overtones. Long story short: it was immensely successful, and it followed up with a sequel not too long after.

Now we finally have a chance to see what all the fuss was about. Professor Layton and the Curious Village has been masterfully localised, keeping intact the mysterious mood to match the equally mysterious setting of the curious village - where Layton and his apprentice have set foot upon to solve one of the greatest mysteries never solved. The artistic, hand-drawn style is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli's anime and the Old English, mellow brown colour palette bears a striking resemblance to the art style used in the popular children's book series: A Series of Unfortunate Events. A strong cast of voice actors also lend their heavy English accents to further draw us into Layton's many puzzling exploits.

The Curious Village has a bit of light point-and-click adventuring, not unlike Ace Attorney's investigation scenes or the two Touch Detective games. You move about from scene to scene as you interact with the local townspeople and piece together the unexpected circumstances you find yourselves in. It isn't as text-heavy as the two aforementioned games, but that's a good thing as it leaves more room for what Professor Layton excels at - the puzzles.

Certain events occurring during the story's natural progression, or triggered by your own touch screen investigations, lead to a myriad of intellectually testing pictorial conundrums. There range from matchstick moving puzzles to riddles that require you to think outside the square, geometric reasoning to spatial deduction. If you don't know what I'm on about - in laymen's terms, Professor Layton is all some fiendishly tricky puzzle-solving.

Remember those logic puzzles your teacher gave you in middle or high school? Like asking you to tell him/her the number of times identical consecutive triple digits occur on a digital clock within a 24 hour time frame. Where the obvious answer is OBVIOUSLY WRONG and the correct answer requires more thought than required for the average science class. Dealing with scenarios whereby several wolves and chickens must be rafted across a river with difficult conditions such as "there can never be more wolves than chickens on one side at any time" (because the latter will get eaten if so) and "one animal must always be ferried across for each trip". (This puzzle is actually a modification of quite a famous one.) Most of the puzzles are very challenging, even for me - and I'm no slacker. If the going gets too hard you can purchase up to three hints (the third will pretty much reveal all), or else simply read a walkthrough which is highly NOT recommended; proving to yourself that you can crack the tough puzzles Layton throws your way is very rewarding indeed.

There are 120 story puzzles in all and a couple of extra bonus ones for the keenest of keen. By that I mean those who dare to search for such devilish puzzles. You won't find everything on your first playthrough. Many puzzles are obscurely hidden within the environment, triggered by touching specific hot spots; others are ongoing mysteries solved only by collecting many jigsaw pieces or invention parts which you'll need to piece together smartly.

When all is said and done you have even more to look forward to - weekly downloadable puzzles courtesy of Nintendo's Wi-Fi service. These were generally much tougher puzzles than those seen in the main game for the Japanese version; I expect the English edition to have equally devious content, too.

There isn't much to fault Professor Layton for. The mellow art style may not appeal to everyone and the haunting, music box style melodies do become quite repetitive - especially when there are only a handful of them and they all sound oh-so the same. The enigmatic atmosphere is nailed perfectly by both the art style and audio, though, so I have no complaints whatsoever. What it all boils down to are the puzzles, and all of them perplexing, yet entirely possible so long as you have the patience to tackle them with grace. It'll chew you up at times, but you can always take a break and come back to it later. Professor Layton epitomises what handheld gaming is all about. You can stop at any time and resume from where you left off without a hitch - you are even treated to a review of events that recently transpired to bring you back up to speed).

Clearly it's not for everyone. But a little critical thinking can go a long way. And it's fun. And I can almost guarantee that you will become a better, smarter person because of it. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of the most original concepts I have seen, and there's nothing else quite like it on the DS. It's a near-flawless blend of text-based adventuring and mentally stimulating puzzles. For those that want a fully-fledged "smart" game, you can't go wrong with The Curious Village.

And yes, the sequel has already been confirmed!

VERDICT - 9.0/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/12/08, Updated 02/20/08

Game Release: Professor Layton and the Curious Village (US, 02/10/08)