An original IP is a rare thing to come across. A good original IP is even rarer. So it was with some apprehension that I picked up Nintendo and Level-5’s adventure puzzle game Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I did a very positive preview of the game about a month before it came out, but a verdict can’t be made until I play it for myself. Good news folks: Professor Layton is an amazing game that every DS owner needs to play.

Professor Layton is a very intelligent person, as well as the ultimate gentleman. In fact, he’s probably one of the coolest new characters in ages. Being so smart and courteous, he gets called in to the village of St. Mystere to solve an inheritance issue. However, when one of the potential inheritors gets murdered, a full on investigation into the mysteries of this curious little village begins. Layton also has a young apprentice named Luke, but he’s really quite irritating and silly. I guess they needed someone to offset the total awesomeness of Layton, or just give him a reason to spout off philosophical greatness. The story has plenty of twists and turns, and I’m not going to spoil a single one.

The real meat of the game is the puzzles. Level-5 has thrown in over 130 puzzles to stimulate (and sometimes frustrate) your lovely brain cells. In general, the puzzles are incredibly well designed and clever. Every now and then you’ll run into one that doesn’t make sense and makes you guess, but this is only a small percentage of the massive amount of brain teasers. All of them use the touch screen to do various things, such as sliding blocks, connecting lines, and writing in numbers. It’s all very similar to something you’d find in a title like Brain Age, except they are made a lot more interesting by the artwork and the fact that you are advancing a story. You are also rewarded with things like painting scraps and strange gizmos. Collect enough and you’ll open up a bonus area with the most challenging puzzles in the game. One complaint I have is about the picarats. Each puzzle is worth a number of picarats based on how difficult they are, and the worth goes down the number of times you guess a wrong answer. However, the purpose of the picarats is never really defined. I thought you’d be able to use them to buy puzzles, or at least be put on a high score table when you beat the game. I finished the title though and no dice – over 3000 picarats and nothing to do with them.

The presentation in Professor Layton is excellent. Beautiful hand drawn backgrounds and wonderfully unique characters make up the town of St. Mystere. Occasional animated cut scenes pop up too, and they are very well done. Unfortunately there’s quite a bit of compression in the cut scenes, but they are still cool additions to an already great game. The artwork in the puzzles is simple, but effective. The music is amazing. It’s incredible that they were able to make a looping track that plays in every single puzzle that never seems to get on your nerves. An annoying track for the puzzles literally could’ve ruined the game by driving you insane. The rest of the music is stellar too. It’s folksy and unique, difficult to properly describe – trust me, you just need to hear it and you’ll fall in love with it. There is a minute amount of voice acting as well, and it’s a mixed bag. Layton sounds alright, but you’ll want to kill Luke. There isn’t enough of the voice acting to really complain about it though.

It’s also lengthy for a puzzle game as well. I beat it with 107/120 puzzles solved and it took me over thirteen hours. There’s also the ridiculously difficult bonus puzzles, and Nintendo releases a new downloadable puzzle every week on the Wi-Fi connection. There isn’t a ton of incentive to go back through the title a second time, as a lot of puzzles are riddles that wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding when repeated. However, it’s long enough to remain entertaining through it’s length, and while not as lasting as traditional puzzlers, it’ll leave a more of an impression. And hey, we’re already guaranteed of a sequel, as the ‘To Be Continued’ screen would tell us. Also, there’s a secret password in the sequel that unlocks something in Curious Village. That’s in the instruction book, kids. Sequel is coming.

What makes Professor Layton and the Curious Village the best puzzler on the DS? Incentive to actually do the puzzles. It’s not designed to train your brain or make you smarter (though it will), it’s designed to tell a story. The excellent presentation and well designed puzzles make it a joy to play, and until you beat it you’ll have a hard time putting it down. Professor Layton is a must-own for every DS owner, as it’s the perfect portable game. Just remember… every puzzle has an answer.

Gameplay

An intriguing story gives you extra incentive to play through the well designed puzzles.

Visuals

Wonderful hand drawn backgrounds and characters. Not a lot of animation outside of the sporadic cut scenes, though.

Sound

Incredible and unique soundtrack that never grows old. Voice acting could be better.

Stuff

Main story should take anywhere from 12-15 hours, depending on how good you are at puzzles. Downloadable content and bonus puzzles push the length even further

Waffle Factor

Love it! Awesome new IP and great new character. A puzzle game with a purpose.

SCORE: 9.2/10