Professor Layton is simply amazing. It takes the puzzle genre, perfects it, and then adds on extra features to create an all-around package worthy of everyone's attention. This is a game that excels in all aspects and exceeds all expectations. Professor Layton is an absolutely fantastic game, and one that should be experienced by almost every DS owner.
The game follows the story of the esteemed gentlemen Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke. It opens with the first of many beautiful cut-scenes, and shows Layton and Luke rumbling along a dusty country road in an old car. The premise and story are framed by Layton and Luke's conversation. It seems that a rich man, the Baron Reinhold has passed away, and has left all his fortune to the person who can find a mysterious treasure, known only as the Golden Apple. Layton plans to tackle this mystery. You'll find that the duo is travelling to St. Mystere, the village in which Baron Reinhold lived. The car eventually rumbles into the village, and you are summoned to the manor in which the Baron lived. This is where the adventure truly begins.
What is unique about this game is that it effectively combines the puzzle and adventure genres. As the car rumbles through the barren country, Layton consults a map, and this is where your first puzzle is introduced. It's relatively easy. Several villages are shown, but only one of them has a private road. All the others share a road with another village. Your job is to find that village that stands alone. It's not entirely relevant to the story, but it makes sure that you feel engaged in the action. You're not just watching a cut-scene, you are advancing it.
The game doesn't take place in a car, however. The action almost exclusively takes place in the village of St. Mystere. For most of the game, you are entirely unrestrained. Each main area of the village has multiple paths leading to and from it, and you can choose your own path. St. Mystere has many nooks and crannies, and finding them all takes a lot of exploration. Most of the time, these secret areas contain tantalizing rewards, and the promise of such bonuses keep the searches from becoming tedious.
The rewards are often puzzles. The game is classified as a puzzle game, and fortunately puzzling is what it does best. The puzzles are clever, challenging, and varied. They hardly ever feel redundant, which is a major plus, because with over 100 puzzles this was a major concern of mine. I mean, there are only so many times I can re-arrange matchsticks to form a new picture before it gets boring. Granted there is a slight amount of repetition, but in moderation its fine. For example, there are several matchstick puzzles, but with a hint of humour and a definite variation in difficulty, I hardly noticed.
Professor Layton is a very addictive game. Once you've picked it up, the interesting story and addictive gameplay will keep your hands glued to your DS. The main story is a bit on the short side, but thankfully there is a lot more than just the story. Around St Mystere, bits and pieces of a contraption, scraps of a painting, and furniture for Luke and Professor Layton's hotel rooms are hidden. Once you've collected a full set of these items (i.e. enough to build the contraption or finish the painting), you'll unlock a set of incredibly hard puzzles, known as challenge puzzles. In addition, there are many hidden puzzles. You need only complete 2/3 of the puzzles to finish the game, so you can spend some time after the fact locating and solving the remaining puzzles. As if this weren't enough, each week a new puzzle is announced, so theoretically you can come back to this game for many more months.
Professor Layton's presentation is absolutely top-notch. It's one of the most impressive games on the DS visually, and includes some absolutely beautiful CGI animations. During important plot-points, the game will often cut to a fully-rendered, 3-D cut-scene. They look absolutely amazing, especially considering the DS's limited power. As for the art, a very warm colour palette is present here, with many yellows, oranges, and reds. The characters have a hand-drawn feel, and all have unique features and distinct personalities. It's easy to become attached to the eccentric inhabitants of St. Mystere. The audio is pretty solid, apart from repetitive music. The music is actually pretty good, but there isn't enough variety to keep it from becoming monotonous and annoying. Otherwise, the voice-acting is perfect, and the actual sound quality is arguably the best on the DS.
Overall, Professor Layton delivers one of the best packages on the DS. It's a little on the short-side and the music can get repetitive, but those are truly my only gripes. Otherwise, the game is practically flawless. It's very addictive, so you will probably be able to truck through it in only a couple sittings, but with many collectables and extras to explore, you'll get more than a dozen hours here. There is a lot of crap when it comes to puzzle games on the DS, but Professor Layton and the Curious Village is certainly not a part of it. It's great story, gameplay and presentation vault it to the very top of the DS's library. If you have any interest in puzzle games at all, this game should be in your library. If you don't have an interest in puzzle games, well, Professor Layton might just spark one.
