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Hallo, Undertoads! Looks like we’re gonna solve some bloody puzzles today, aren’t
we? Why, it’s Professor Layton and the Curious Village, isn’t it? God save the queen!
That’s my British accent. Don’t be offended, British people. As you well know, I like Iron
Maiden and Emma Watson to unnatural and potentially legally debatable degrees. Plus, you know...some
of my favorite things are fish, chips and Monty Python.
I’ll tell you what Professor Layton loves—freaking puzzles. And based on sales figures, it seems
DS owners love Professor Layton. This series has spawned a bunch of games on Nintendo’s
handheld, and this is actually the first of them.
It’s his debut, isn’t it?
On the most basic level, The Curious Village is a puzzle game. You follow renowned puzzle
solver Professor Layton and his young apprentice on a mysterious story full of mystery...and
puzzles. As you meet certain people and interact with certain objects, you’ll be prompted
to solve a puzzle...of which there are a freaking ton.
It’s like a point-and-click adventure in the sense that you’re walking around the
game world and exploring things, and puzzles come about as a result of that. Some of them
are required to progress the story, but a lot of them are optional. A lot of them are
also hidden, so there’s definitely some incentive to look around and meet people.
And of course, one of the advantages of doing so in Professor Layton is that your surroundings
are so rich with character. Unlike a lot of other puzzle games, this one really has fantastic
presentation. It feels like more than just another puzzler. It feels bigger and more
engrossing than that, and it is.
As for the puzzles themselves, they range from genuinely tricky puzzles to riddles,
shape games and all the above. There are well over 100 puzzles, and although we certainly
haven’t seen them all, we never encountered one that outright sucked.
I think that says a lot for any puzzler.
Professor Layton games were a huge hit on the DS, and for good reason. On a system rife
with puzzle games, these were among the very best...and the Curious Village is the one
that started it all. We wanted to keep this short to prevent too many puzzle spoilers,
so suffice to say Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a must-have game on the
Nintendo DS. If you can find a copy, don’t hesitate to pick it up.
And make sure your evening is clear, because you won’t be able to put it down.