Nintendo DS

Now that all of us have the brain age of a 22-year-old student finishing university, it’s about time we turned off Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training and picked ourselves another puzzle game… Professor Layton to the Rescue! The popular puzzle adventure title has created a storm since it’s release, known for its unavailability in stores, so locating the game is the first puzzle, and finally I’ve managed to get my hands on a copy.

Firstly the story, it’s told through beautiful full-motion video and still screens. The Professor and Luke originally are called to the village to solve the mystery of ‘The Golden Apple’ although along the way you are side tracked with lots of other mysteries that you are required to solve. In order to complete the storyline it is mandatory for you to visit different characters around the village, gathering information and helping them solve their own mysteries. A mix of an intriguing story and its presentation is enough to encourage you to play through the game to the end where for once in a puzzle game there’s a satisfying ending.

The game is comparable to a 2D point and click adventure, you travel around the village by tapping the directional arrows, you can find coins which are used to pay for hints to help solve puzzles by tapping on random objects like barrels, flags windows and any other object you can think of. Random collectables are found in the same way and occasionally you tap an object that contains a secret puzzle to add to your already HUGE collection.

The controls are very simple and easily picked up. Whilst traveling thorough the village of St Mystere you often find yourself roaming around aimlessly, this does become very tedious and is one of the few faults the game contains, finding your way around the village can become quite troublesome especially during one certain quest when trying to track down a cat that doesn’t appear on the map, you find yourself using the trial and error technique by traveling on different paths until you finally find the cat, even then it escapes and your back to square one. Even though this is a negative part of the game it does have a silver lining in the shape of meeting new and unique characters that set you puzzles, some of which are very rewarding.

The game starts of with easy puzzles in order to ease you into the game but the difficulty is soon ramped up. Whilst the puzzles are fun some can become tedious as the solution isn’t always immediately clear, you do often find yourself reverting to the trial and error technique. Overall though there are lots of fun puzzles and some real brain racking situations, with over 150 total puzzles you can’t complain about the choice. To coincide with the huge number of puzzles there is a new one released every week via an online wifi connection.

There are a huge number of characters in the storyline, but two key figures that you play as. The first is of course Professor Layton himself, Professor Layton is a renowned archaeologist with an uncanny mind for puzzles, the professor is never seen without his trademark silk top hat, an article of clothing that he would argue no proper gentleman should be seen without. The professor is a very assuring character with a huge presence in the game, as you would have suspected after reading the title. Also you play as his young assistant Luke. Luke is the professors assistant, admirer and self confessed apprentice and lives up to this title by completing his share of the puzzles, Luke can get a little irritating at times but overall he is a fun character that offers a few giggles with his enthusiasm and witty comments. In general the characters are charming, enigmatic and fun. As you progress through the story you do meet different significant characters all of which are very different, some likeable, some not so.

The man behind the game’s puzzles is an actual puzzle master from Japan, Akira Tago. Professor Tago has stamped his mark on the game with some puzzles from his best selling puzzle books. Tago has had many best selling books and now still continues to write them, he has created original puzzles for this game, some of which are light but others very tough which can get frustrating depending on how long you spend on them. Professor Tago is renowned for his ability to create brainteasers and riddles for even the most seasoned of puzzle solvers.

There are many animated scenes or cut scenes in this game which are very enjoyable, entertaining and well done. It seems that the developers created lots of entertaining dialogue, most of which are tongue in cheek, though there are some cut scenes that are serious and integral to the storyline while others raise a smile. They art style in the cut scenes are very pleasant and pleasing on the eye, the music in the animated scenes compliment them well with peaceful jingles playing in the background.

The visuals of the game are good considering this is a DS title, the animated movies have quite are excellent. General game play visuals are comparable with other top DS titles but don’t be mistaken, its still a DS title and the graphics are stunning. Whilst the gameplay graphics are acceptable it is inferior to the experience and art style of the cut scenes. The animated movies are complimented by lush music and good character voice-overs, all combining to create an excellent overall experience.

On the puzzles side, I could ramble on forever here so I’m going to try and keep it short. A completing a puzzle, its added to your ‘Puzzle Index’ where you can visit and play any of the puzzles you have unlocked to pick you wits again and improve your scores. There are a very large number of puzzles in this game (around 130) to go along with this there is a weekly puzzle distributed via the Nintendo WiFi connection, thus far there are 25 weekly puzzles.

As you progress through the game there are a number of collectables to get your ands on like helpful gizmo’s and hidden paintings. Searching for these paintings can be fun and fairly rewarding, as some are informative and hold secrets that can be revealed by collecting scraps of old paintings throughout the village and reassembling them.

All of the different aspects of the game provides the perfect recipe to serve up the best puzzle action game on the DS and indeed on any handheld device. Professor Layton is highly recommended. It’s well-designed, polished, fun and offers a sense of accomplishment which is suitable for all ages. For this reason Professor Layton and the Curious Village receives a fantastic score of 9.4 out of 10.