Review: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Level 5
Available on the Nintendo DS



Nintendo seems to have produced another classic title with their newest casual gaming title, Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Meant to test you and maybe even frustrate you, the Professor is packed full of a 100+ plus mind puzzles to activate every piece of your brain as well as a wonderful storyline that will have you loving every minute of the Professor’s wit and charm.

You’ll follow Professor Layton and his assistant, Luke to the tiny town of St. Mystere where you will have to unravel the mystery surrounding the town, its inhabitants and the location of the Reinhold family fortune. At every turn, you’ll find puzzles waiting for you to solve, in order for you to find more clues to solve the many mysteries in town.

Puzzles ranged from math problems to cryptograms and, each puzzle will challenge you and possible even haunt you while you sleep. The puzzles in the game will generally be posed to you by the local village people as a test to gain the information you need to proceed. Missed puzzles will turn up in a villager’s house after each chapter, so you‘ll never lose a chance to solve them later.



The graphics and animation sequences remind me of the old Rin Tin Tin cartoons with its older European style. The music is straight out of an Agatha Christine movie on PBS and fits in with the atmosphere of the mysterious village perfectly. The cut scenes are a little blocking at times, but still look pretty good on the Nintendo DS screen.

The length of the main storyline depends on how fast you solve the puzzles, but luckily for you geniuses, completing all the puzzles in the village will unlock more puzzles and there’s also a weekly puzzle that can be downloaded via Wifi.

Professor Layton is most charming, addictive and perfect for puzzle fans and I highly recommend that anyone who loved Brain Age on the Nintendo DS, go out and buy this game. The village is waiting.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy It!