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Can you crack the case?

Professor Layton has sold remarkably well in Japan, selling over 1 million copies and spawning a sequel. It took a little over a year for it to be released in the U.S. and it remains to be seen whether or not this audience will latch on as easily. The premise is universal: solving mysteries. With its touch-screen controls, varied puzzles, and fantastic art direction it's not hard to see the appeal with Professor Layton And The Curious Village. The question is, are you up to the challenge?

Professor Layton is a world-renowned archaeologist who specializes in puzzles and riddles. As the game begins he is driving to the secluded village of St. Mystere with his apprentice, Luke, in tow. Together, the two are on a mission to locate the Golden Apple, the Reinhold family treasure. If they can find it they will be rewarded with the entire Reinhold estate. Standing in their way are a host of eccentric townsfolk who seemingly have nothing better to do than to challenge people to puzzles before divulging important clues needed to drive the narrative forward.

The game features tons of puzzles and riddles to solve. Some of these will be familiar to ones you may have worked on before, whether in school or in a puzzle book. Akira Tago created a variety of the puzzles used in the game. He is a Professor of psychology who has written some of the best-selling puzzle books, called Head Gymnastics. The puzzles in the game will vary wildly and have different degrees of difficulty. For example, the very first puzzle in the game is a rather simple exercise. You are shown a map with roads and houses. You simply must circle the village that is on a road that leads to no other towns. After you solve this doozy, the pair arrive in St. Mystere, the game takes allows you to explore the village by tapping on the bottom screen. Be sure to tap everywhere as you may find hidden items, like hint coins. These coins allow you to look at up to 3 hints per puzzle if you ever find yourself stumped. In addition, tapping your stylus on various objects will often find a hidden puzzle. These can often yield secret items, like puzzle pieces and mysterious parts that will yield surprises to those that are successful in finding all of them.

The brainteasers and puzzles are the meat of the game. Before each puzzle the bottom screen will show how many picarats it is worth. Normally the higher the number, the more difficult the puzzle will be. If you attempt to solve it and get it wrong, the number of picarats will drop for your subsequent tries. Since the player wants as many picarats as possible (it's hinted early on in the game that something great will be rewarded if you collect enough of them), there's a bit of pressure to get the puzzle right on the first try. You can quit out of a puzzle and come back to it later if you just can't solve it, or you could cheat, which is an unfortunate oversight in the development of the game. Since you can save your game at any time outside of puzzles, simply save your progress before entering a puzzle, view all 3 hints and you most likely will be able to figure it out. Check to see if you're right. If you are, simply turn the power off on the DS, restart the game right where you left off and solve it again, this time without using the hint coins and you'll be successful. Nintendo could have easily prevented this type of cheating by using the same programming used in Animal Crossing, where if you turn of your DS without saving, the game knows this and assumes you're cheating and gives you a lecture about it for minutes and minutes, thus deterring gamers from doing so. Of course, none of our readers would cheat in the first place, right?

As I mentioned above, some of the puzzles can be somewhat difficult and take many minutes to figure out. One of the unique results of this, at least in my experience, is players often get help from others. I was visiting my parents when I first received the game last week, and got somewhat stuck so I went and showed the puzzle to my Dad who found it intriguing and we worked together and solved it. Showing no interest in the DS before (not even with Brain Age), I could tell he was intrigued by the game as he kept asking throughout the day how I was doing and if I needed more help. I ended up filling him in on the story and what was going on in the game and he wanted to solve a few more puzzles. In this way, the game sort of takes on a multiplayer aspect, and I can see it drawing in a whole slew of new gamers, if they're exposed to the game that is.

I absolutely love the presentation of Professor Layton. The artwork is wonderful, the character designs are hilariously distinct, and the music has a very European sound to it. The puzzles are extremely minimalist when it comes to graphics, but the rest of the game is exquisitely detailed. Each house has been carefully drawn and its interiors are loaded with objects to tap to try and find secrets. Other games, like Phoenix Wright have adequate background graphics, but this game takes detail to a whole new level. Hats off to Level 5 for delivering a host of interesting characters and a believable world for them to live in.

I've always been a huge fan of mysteries. Growing up, I had my daily intake of Scooby Doo and loved to play the board game Clue. Puzzles were never my forte, but I quite enjoyed myself with Professor Layton And The Curious Village. The game constantly rewards players with secret items to find and an intriguing story that captivates from beginning to end. Nintendo is promising new weekly puzzles that can be downloaded through its Wi-Fi Connection right to the DS, so even after you're done with the game there should be new content available. It's a no-brainer, definitely check it out.