Every Puzzle has an Answer

Since the my blatant biases have mostly been about awesome Wii games, I thought it was time to review some DS games. And what better place to start than at the Curious Village, with Professor Layton.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a point-and-click adventure/puzzle game. You follow the Professor and his apprentice Luke as they travel to St. Mystere, a strange village where the late Baron Reinhold left a Golden Apple, which the Baron's widow has sent Professor Layton to find.

Along the way, you meet many villagers, each with a unique personality. Also unique about St. Mystere is the villagers' love for puzzles. Many times along the way, a villager will withhold information from you until you can help them solve the puzzle they are working on. As strange as it sounds, the puzzles are fun and engaging, and for the most part, not too difficult. For example, you will see a few puzzles where matchsticks are arranged in a certain shape, and you need to make a different shape in as few moves as possible. Some puzzles require you to find your way out of a maze, or identify a thief with a very limited number of clues. In any case, the puzzles are great in number and high in fun.

As you make your way through the village, you will gather clues about the Golden Apple, plus solve many other strange cases that happen while you are there. It's an engaging story, and one that makes you want to keep playing into the wee hours of the morning.

Not only does the game play great, it looks great. It has the style you might imagine from an old mystery novel. There are even several Fully Animated cut scenes spread throughout the game.

As with any good story, the game has good characters. The Professor is one classy, smart, and just plain cool character. I can't say as much for his apprentice, but he's ok too. All the villagers are decidedly unique, each with a different attitude and style of speaking.

In short, the game is pure fun. With the exception of a few, the puzzles can be solved in a minute or two, which is good considering there are over 150 puzzles in all. Plus, if you have WiFi, you can download a new puzzle every week! What fun!

While Professor Layton took a long time to come to the US (there are already 3 of them in Japan), it was worth the wait. It's a game you can keep playing over and over and still have fun. And it may even help you refine that silly English accent of yours, too.

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased