Professor Layton & The Curious Village (DS)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $69.95     Save $7.00 $62.95
Availability
Genre	Role Playing Game
Platform	Nintendo DS
Release Date	10/04/2008
Rated

Professor Layton & The Curious Village (DS) Product Information

In the curious village of St. Mystere, townsfolk speak to each other in riddles, lock their doors with sliding puzzles and hide their secrets within brainteasers. When a wealthy baron passes away, his will reveals an elusive treasure hidden someplace inside the village. Now it's up to Professor Layton to untangle St. Mystere's riddles and puzzles, find the hidden treasure, and crack the case.

As Professor Layton,  tackle more than 130 puzzles as you unravel the mysteries of the village. Challenges range from mazes and riddles to logic and sliding puzzles. Touch-screen controls make working through puzzles a snap for players of all skill levels, and new puzzles are available weekly for download via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Unlike other puzzle-driven titles, Professor Layton is the first to offer a story, cast of characters and style that are just as strong as the game play. Fully voiced animated scenes bring the story to life, while the funny and eccentric villagers and the classic, hand-drawn art provide a stylish charm that will appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.

When the wealthy Baron Augustus Reinhold passes away, his will reveals a hidden treasure in the village of St. Mystere. Unable to locate the treasure themselves, the baron's family calls upon renowned puzzle expert Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, for help. Upon the pair's arrival, their search for the treasure is interrupted by the suspicious death of another member of the Reinhold family. Now with two mysteries on their hands, Professor Layton and Luke must work their way through the village's many puzzles, riddles and brainteasers to find the truth.

Professor Layton & The Curious Village (DS) Review

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an interesting take on the puzzle game craze that is currently sweeping the Nintendo DS thanks to the enormous success of games such as Brain Training.

While it is full of heaps of puzzles and mini-games, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a little bit different from the other puzzle games that you see on the shelf. You see, as well as being full of lots of fun puzzles, Professor Layton and the Curious Village also contains a great story for you to follow as you try to find a secret object hidden in the village and solve the game's central mystery.

The game starts off with Professor Layton and his assistant Luke arriving in the curious village of St. Mystere. The townspeople of this village are very curious about solving tricky puzzles, and Professor Layton will need to solve these puzzles that the villagers give him in order to discover the treasure which has been secretly hidden within the village.

There are lots of different puzzles to play in Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Sometimes you will need to complete a maze, or help the animals cross the river. Other puzzles include answering riddles or completing the math sums. With over one hundred and twenty brain teasers to complete, you'll have plenty of puzzles to keep you occupied. If you do manage to race through all of the puzzles that the game comes with, you can simply download more off the Nintendo Wi-Fi service and best of all, it won't cost you any money.

If you like to work out complicated puzzles and solving mysteries like the characters of TV cartoons like Scooby Doo, you'll find that Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a game that will keep your brain working for a very long time.

Information for parents:

While there is no detailed violence for children to view within Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the game's story does contain typical scenarios which can be found amongst classic mystery novels such as Sherlock Holmes - specifically dealing with the subject matter of kidnapping and murder - although the murderous plot within this title is not actually graphic, allowing for the game to be classified under the G rating.

Full review PALGN