Skip over navigation

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Format: DS
Publisher: Nintendo

Casual games may have lined Nintendo’s pockets with gold, but the extra weight hasn’t been entirely without consequence. The wealth of Wii and DS games now designed specifically for families, parents, women and youngsters have blown to pieces stereotypes about socially nervous teenage boys in dimly lit bedrooms staring open-mouthed into windows depicting immoral virtual worlds. However, they have also made seasoned gamers feel a little like they have been left out in the cold.

The solution to this problem of course, is to design titles that offer newcomers to gaming welcoming and enthralling experiences that also satisfy the standards of those a little more familiar with hammering buttons. Professor Layton And The Curious Village is a wonderful example of just how successful that kind of approach can be, offering DS owners one of the most charismatic and relaxing adventures in the handheld’s history.

The village of St. Mystere is a delightfully strange place on the boundaries of reality, where daytime detective TV shows meet with quaint rural townsfolk and strangely cheery problems. Imagine Dick Van Dyke starring in animated feature film Belleville Rendez-Vous and you might be on the verge of conjuring up a feel for Professor Layton’s universe. But a better starting point is to think of a glorious compendium of all kinds of puzzles.

For that is exactly what this delightful game is. The Curious Village is a place inhabited by townsfolk obsessed by conundrums, riddles and brainteasers. Lateral thinking challenges locked doors and conversations with neighbours focus on optical illusions. The enigmas on offer range from the observational and mathematical, to the conceptual and classic, and are sometimes painfully involving. Taken alone, a straightforward collection of puzzles of this size and range would be a worthy, if rather ordinary addition to the DS’s back catalogue, but Professor Layton offers so much more than that by tying each and every challenge in with an engrossing and slightly eccentric storyline that, while slightly meandering at times, is well conceived to the point of making for a highly engrossing mystery yarn.

The titular academic pays a visit to St. Mystere to investigate a relatively simple case, but quickly the mystery deepens and, with the help of a slightly irritating boy-wonder accomplice, the Professor is quickly embroiled in a deepening quest to hunt for the elusive Golden Apple, whatever that may be. The Curious Village and its inhabitants are brought to life with one of the DS’s most distinct, captivating visual styles. Like the script writing, the twee characters that tread the winding cobbled streets of this fantastical settlement are vivid and charismatic. Graphically, the game is a delight, and with a wealth of extras and downloadable weekly puzzles this unique adventure game offers ample longevity.

For anybody with a love of chewing the end of a pencil and wrinkling their brow in contented confusion, Professor Layton should be essential. With all the hallmarks of quality and attention to detail that hardcore gamers expect, this is still something the new casual crowd can enjoy. The Curious Village is sure to stand the test of time, and measures up to some hugely respected traditional games.

Titles related to this article

Related/similar articles