Professor Layton and the Curious Village

"Mr. Layton, when did the next game come out?"

Professor Layton is an addictive, surprisingly great NDS puzzle game that had the feature and the potential to become a Film (And it actually is becoming a film). When I first play the game, I didn't expect much except some math question and stupid point and click Nancy Drew style adventure that require you to look Stupidly for items ( I didn't meant to said that Nancy drew is THAT bad) and solve the murder. In Fact, the game astonishes me in a great way that leaves me to ask Layton next game's release date.

Game play:
The game is a great Puzzle collection that features a total of 135 puzzles which include Math Problem (No hard one, thought), Logical deduction, Word puzzle, and all sorts of puzzle that you may think of. Now, you may say that is very boring to consistence play puzzle for a total of 5 hours. The game introduce you with investigation for treasure and some dead “People” as your secondary objective, as you interact with people you will have puzzles. In case you are stuck (which I always), the game provide you a series of hint coin that allows you to exchange one for a hint when need. This puts the player to have a fair fight without constituency of checking guides for answer. The question are not difficult and are suitable if you are 6th grade or above.

When mentioned investigation, you must immediately think of how does the walking system works. The game is a point-and-click adventures that allowing Layton and Luke to explore the town of St. Mystere without too much trouble. You can click and search for the areas without zoom in and zoom out by using you touch Screen, and the upper one display the map of the Village. The game had a fluent and great system that goes along with the game very well.

Plot
Professor Layton had been known as an “Adventure” Game, and the plot certainly live up to his reputation. The game starts out with a Professor that study History and also his assistance Luke to investigate a Mystery at the town of St. Mystere. The Professor who is called Layton is a British Gentleman that always with his top Hat (I like to call him Top Hat Layton) and surprisingly that his hat never felt away even he is running. Luke is a like a Pseudo Watson that follows the Top Hat Layton as an apprentice. While the top hat Layton was trying to investigated in the town, the game feature a lot of turns and Plotting that seems to be entirely Fictional and impossible , but all comes along with a Reasonable explanation at the game's final moment of truth. The character interacts with Layton as they give out puzzles, clues for the mystery, or just Talk around. I really can't explain the whole plot very much, but I can ensure you that you will not be disappointed and had a great surprise at the end of the game.

Graphics:
The game has Spectacular graphic and a lot of greatly matched cut scenes. The cut scene is beautifully drawn and meets the standard of some high quality animation series showing on TV. In NDS platform, there are not many games that can bring it on with some high quality graphics and animation, but Layton did it. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful games that I ever played. It even surprises me when I see that so many cut scenes are displayed after the credit is played and I check the database of the game. In my opinion, I think the best feature of the game is the High quality cut scene, which people even compare the experience of playing professor Layton as watching a film that interacts with you.

Sound:
The sound Tracks and voice acting does little wrong on their show. The voice acting of Professor Layton is nicely paired with a British Accent, while Luke acts like a Boy that shouts and scream. All of those people really paid great effort to play a great role in the character. Also, the game has a suitable music and atmosphere. The Puzzle music is not very tense to make you sweat, but great enough to make you relax. The game's sound effect is realistic enough for you to adapt to the environment and play you game.

Replay Ability:
Being an Adventure game and a puzzle base one, the game would really have low replay ability. The game contains a lot of puzzle, but once you know a puzzle's answer and the theory behind, it is officially over. With a game that highly relies on such ideas, it is not hard to see why professor Layton's Fans had been shouting for the next one of the trilogy to be properly translate into English. (The second one is “Professor Layton and the diabolical box” planning to translate and release at Q3 of 2009 and the last one is “Professor Layton and the Last time travel”) It leave people asking for More and more because the highly satisfaction of finishing the puzzle with a hard thought ideas.

Layton, Should I go with you?
When encounter with the above “Puzzle”, I would rather say rent it. The game is too good to pass on as being one of the most shining games in the adventure and NDS games, but the total game time is below 20 hours, which makes it rather non-economical to buy a game with low replay ability like this.

Overall Comments?
May be I was mesmerize about the game, but I am very glad that NDS finally had something that sticky on the platform with an adventure game. I love the game and found it to be interesting, addictive and greatly satisfying when finishing the puzzles. As you play, you will just play and continuously ask for more and more (I play the first two of the trilogy, as this in English and the other one in Japanese, and planning to play the third one in Japanese), and I can tell you that Layton is a series that live up to his name and therefore leaving people asking for more and more when they complete the game. I would score this for 8.4/10, as this should be called and referred as a true classic that's live up to the legacy Professor Layton and the Curious Village brings us.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/09

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