Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Something is fishy in the tucked away village of St. Mystere. The wealthy Baron Reinhold has died and in his will, he has revealed that there is a mysterious object known as the Golden Apple hidden somewhere in the burg. Lady Dahlia has called Professor Layton and his lovable apprentice Luke to the hamlet to find the treasured item, but while there, someone is murdered. Numerous mysteries plague the village, such as the history behind an abandoned amusement park, and a bumbling investigator insists on getting in your way. And why are all of the village’s inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what is arguably the most intriguing attraction of their lovely town: the clock tower that rises above all other buildings?
The game has you playing as the great Professor Layton and Luke as they trek around St. Mystere solving the varying mysteries that have called you there and occur after your arrival. You move by directing yourself by clicking on arrows and clicking in the background where secrets may be hidden. The citizens of this quaint little town love puzzles and before they confess any information over, you’re going to have to solve their riddles. Often deceptively simple, the puzzles range from variations on classic logic challenges to clever geometry tricks. Often the touch screen comes into play as you use it to drag pieces of puzzles around or write directly onto the puzzle.
The puzzles, as I said, are deceptively simple, but begin to ramp up in difficulty along the way. Often, stepping away from the puzzle and looking at it from a different perspective isn’t enough and you may have to use a hint token, which you can find in St. Mystere. Unfortunately, you have a limited amount of hint tokens, so it’s best to really look and think about a puzzle before unlocking one of three hints and subsequently smacking your head because of how obvious the solution is. Additionally, downloadable puzzles will be coming from WiFi each and every week so you can continually access new and unique puzzles to keep you playing for a long time.
One of the more appealing aspects to Professor Layton is the art style. The game has a very European style to it, both it its color pallet and the buildings’ architecture. The music itself sounds extremely beautiful itself with a very distinctive style. The characters all look very unique and as if they live in a hidden village somewhere in the hills of France. When I first saw some of the characters’ designs, I immediately had flashbacks to a unique film called The Triplets of Belleville (picture below). In movement, the style looks similar to Studio Ghibli’s work. Believe me, the fact that a game conjures up such memories of these prestigious movies is extremely good and can’t mean anything but good for the game.
This game comes from Japanese developer Factor 5 and is extremely successful in Japan, with a sequel already out and a third entry on its way. With any luck, the other two will make their way over here in due time. Nintendo Power, with an advanced review, scored the game as an 8.5, explaining that you always want to solve just one more puzzle.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village launches February 10th, 2008 for the Nintendo DS. This game is perfect if you’re looking for something to spend 28 days on before Brawl comes out. Below is the official trailer of the game, which shows off some of the puzzles and especially the art style and make sure you visit the official website to hear some of that amazing music.
