First of all, I'll say that I haven't actually finished this game just yet as my DS has run out of battery and I can't find my charger :( - however, I think I'm nearly finished, as most of the mysteries have been solved.
"Professor Layton and the Curious Village" (NDS, Level-5, 2008) is a very interesting game. Combining the point-and-click style adventure game (eg "Secret of Monkey Island" (various, LucasFilm, 1990)) with a new puzzle/lateral thinking riddle-genre (ie "a man works on the 83rd floor..." etc), Professor Layton is a whole new style of game.
First off, the graphics are beautiful. The cartoon-y style works perfectly, and the animated cutscenes, complete with full voice acting, are simply pleasures to watch. It's all the more impressive when you remember that it's on the DS.
The story is superb, too. Full of twists, you'll be hooked to this game after the first cutscene. I played for hours on my first sitting. Did I mention the twists? They don't stop, and there's one towards the end of the game that left me speechless for more than a minute. The gameplay is fun as well, completely addictive, and, although it's made up of "over 120" puzzles, never repetitive. You'll find yourself up till 2, rubbing your eyes trying to get a ball from one side of a puzzle to the other. The simple setting helps the player learn about the locations etc of the buildings, making it seem more like a real town. The puzzles are all assorted - the game includes classic "last year, the brother was double his sister's age, now he's..", lateral-thinking riddles, matchstick and card puzzles, and heeeeaps more. In addition, you find 'hint coins' by touching suspicious areas in the map screen, which you can use to purchase hints on each puzzle. This helps to prevent from becoming completely stuck on any one puzzle. The vast majority of the puzzles are unnecessary to complete as soon as you encounter them - although you need to complete certain numbers of puzzles to pass certain points, you can always save them for later, so you can solve them at 'Granny Riddleton's Shack'. This building hosts all the puzzles you couldn't solve or overlooked.
And then we have the negatives. While the game is absolutely amazing, it has next to nothing in replay value - I won't let that detract from it's overall score but, as, for a game that gets its amazingness from plot twists and riddles, it's kinda hard to give it replay value. As well as that, while it's our first, Japan has already got 4 Layton games within the space of 2 and a half years; our second is due on September 25 (I think it's already out in the US). This means that us fans won't be left out in the cold waiting for 4 years for the next installment, like console Zelda fans. In addition to all this, the sound is great and suits the game perfectly, but can get reeeeally annoying from time to time, as it's the same. Constantly.
All in all, "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" is fucking brilliant. You must try it, even if only to experience one of the greatest twists I've encountered in gaming, especially handheld. And some perfect puzzles.
10/10
Matt
Now listening to "Richard D. James Album" (1996) by Aphex Twin
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