Welcome to a brand new weekly feaure here at nWaffle, A Closer Look. We all have our most anticipated games, the heavy hitters that get all the hype and sell millions of copies. Well, this feature is for the other guys. The games that look like they’re going to be fantastic, but aren’t getting any press or any hype. The games you might not know about, but might end up being a new favorite. This week, I’ll take a closer look at Professor Layton and the Curious Village for DS.

 

Admittedly, the title doesn’t inspire. ‘Professor Layton and the Curious Village’. Huh? Sounds like some lame kids game. That’s what I thought at first, at least. The game was released almost a full year ago in Japan and enjoyed solid reviews and sales. So what’s it all about? At the most basic level, Professor Layton takes the brain teasing puzzles of something like Brain Age and combines them with the story and style of a classic adventure game. The game has you travel to different parts of the village and solve puzzles with the touch screen in order to solve a mystery. There is a ton of variety in the puzzles, and there’s 130 of them in all.

The title is being developed by RPG juggernaut Level 5, the same team behind such hits as Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy, so you know the story is going to be pretty good. What really sets the title apart from other games is it’s gorgeous artwork. All the cutscenes are hand drawn and hand animated, giving it a beautiful and completely unique look. The character design is fantastic as well. Level 5 has also included full voice work, an impressive feat for any DS game. The soundtrack also sounds very nice, as you can tell from the trailer below. Though the trailer is in Japanese, you really get a feel for the characters and gameplay.

Nintendo also makes new puzzles available for free over their Wi-Fi connection every week. You could essentially play it forever, or at least until the sequel comes out. Professor Layton received numerous Japanese game awards last year and could easily have the same strong reception here in North America.

One part Brain Age, one part classic adventure title, Professor Layton and the Curious Village looks like an amazing game. The story will be able to hook you into playing through all its brain twisting puzzles, and if you can’t get enough of it, there’s new puzzles available every week for free. Mix in very high presentation values and this is definitely a title to keep an eye on. Professor Layton is due out on February 10th, so you’ll have something to play in your DS between Smash Bros. sessions.