Nintendo DS Review: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Review by: Pierst179

Every once in a while a game that creates no hype appears and turns out to be one of the most likable gaming experiences you could have ever imagined. What's really rewarding in playing games like that is that you can clearly see that despite the whooping amount of shooters that dominate the industry nowadays there are still some developers bold enough to try to produce titles that explore unknown realms, with no assurance that their product will succeed and be accepted by the gaming community. It is a huge leap to be taken, but if performed correctly you can instantly gain lots of fans.

And that's what happens with Professor Layton and The Curious Village is. While it may seems like a polished Brain Age – a puzzle game with a better presentation and characters – once you try it for the first time you will notice that it goes beyond the puzzle genre, sucking you into one of the most well-written adventures that videogames have ever seen.



On this adventure your hero doesn't showcase any clear superpowers, all he has is his endless curiosity, his willingness to help people and his uncanny ability to solve puzzles that are constantly thrown at him. Because of those famous abilities, Professor Layton ends up invited by a wealthy family to visit a strange village. What looked like a simple trip to find the treasure that was hidden by a rick baron will quickly become a mysterious journey filled with surprises and quirky villagers that for some reason will give you a puzzle to solve whenever you want to get some information.

The exploration is quite simple. The scenario will appear on your DS screen and by touching it you will interact with objects and people from the village. If you want to move to another location all you need to do is press the "shoe" icon on the bottom of the screen and pick the direction that you want to move.

When it comes to games like Professor Layton – where the most fun part lies on solving the puzzles and where there is lots of exploration to be done by talking to people and gathering information – developers need to be extremely careful not to bore gamers. On some games the huge amount of text eventually turns out to be boring since the player will only want to enjoy the game, not read a bunch of nonsense.

Professor Layton could have easily gone towards this path, but the storyline is so deep and entertaining that you will be compelled to talk to every character in the village and read carefully what they have to say to you. Reading the text won't be simply a compliment or an addition to solving the puzzles, it will be an important part of the experience, you will deeply enjoy it.

The puzzles are brilliantly crafted and well-thought. There are 120 of them hidden in the village and another 15 that are unlocked once you perform certain actions. Some of them are already famous, but it doesn't mean that you will cruise through the game. Every single one of the puzzles is very entertaining and while some are easy, once you approach the end of the game you should be mentally prepared to be stuck for almost thirty minutes, trying to figure some of them out. If you think that 135 puzzles are already enough to make you happy, then you should know that Nintendo is releasing a new puzzle per week that can be downloaded using your Wi-Fi connection.



The presentation of the game is absolutely spectacular. There are over ten cutscenes throughout the adventure and you will be impressed with what the Nintendo DS can do, you will feel like you are watching a cartoon. Due to its graphics and unique style the game has a European feeling that is quite charming and different from anything you may have seem before.

Perhaps, another factor that adds to the European feel is that all of the characters have a British accent – yeah, you heard it, this game has voice acting and it is awesome, as the actor's voices perfectly fit the characters. It is really nice to see how much the developers cared about the whole presentation of this title.

However, the voice acting doesn't prevent the game's sound from being annoying. The songs that are played during the adventure and the puzzles are overly repetitive and boring, once you reach the halfway mark of the adventure you will probably feel like turning the volume down to avoid getting crazy. But there are some nice exceptions such as the songs that play during more tense parts of the storyline or when something mysterious is about to happen.

Depending on how good you are with puzzles this game may last between 10 and fifteen hours which is quite a good length for a Nintendo DS game. The replay value may not be too high since we are talking about game based on puzzles, but the 135 riddles plus the ones available for download are sure to keep you busy even after you are finished with the game.

Overall, Professor Layton is one of those games that is hard to put down, you won't be able to stop playing it until you have discovered all the mysteries hidden within this peculiar village, get ready for some serious surprises along the way. It is a must-buy for everyone who has a Nintendo DS and is into some puzzle solving.