Review
Release Date: 02.10.2008
Platform:
Nintendo DSDeveloper:
Level-5Publisher:
Nintendo of America, Inc.Reviewed by
Richard Brownell on 1.25.2010
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 8/10 |
Professor Layton and the Curious Village came out at a time when the Nintendo DS was four years old. Most types of games that designers could come up with were on the system. But developer Level-5 had an ingenious idea that would make the DS feel fresh again. Instead of coming up with a new genre, they combined two existing genres in a way we haven't seen before.
Combining traditional puzzles with adventure gameplay is ingenious. Puzzle games are typically firmly set in the "casual" games space. Not casual in the sense that everybody buys them (Madden, Halo, Mario, etc.), but casual in the sense that they are geared towards an average person, not an average gamer. At their most interesting, they are like Brain Age and have many types of puzzles and even a gimmick to say how smart you are. Much of the time they are simply collections of sudoku puzzles or crosswords. Professor Layton takes many of the traditional puzzle types you can think of, adds a few more, and tosses them on top of a fun adventure story.
Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke come to St. Mystere to settle an inheritance problem. Rather than your average family dispute, this issue is that a wealthy man has left his estate to anybody who can find a Golden Apple he hid somewhere in the village. The Professor and Luke must travel throughout the village talking to villagers, solving puzzles, and unlocking St. Mystere's secrets.
Though done in a point-and-click adventure way, you find yourself solving puzzles after only seconds of adventuring. If you need something from the innkeeper, she will make you solve a puzzle first. Click on a strange looking part of a building and you'll have to solve a puzzle. The nice thing is that even though puzzles are presented to you at every turn, you aren't forced to solve most of them. Only a few dozen are required as key story characters present them to you.
If you get stuck on any of the puzzles, the hint coins that can be found all over the city will help you out. Each puzzle has three hints that can be purchased at a coin per hint. The first hint is generally something you have figured out on your own. The second is usually very helpful. For many of the puzzles, the third hint is close to just giving you the answer.
The puzzles themselves are great. There are several classics that I remember from my school days years ago. One is the puzzle where you must get three wolves and three sheep across a river. The only problem is that only two animals can fit on the raft at a time. Leave too many wolves with too few sheep and you're done. In addition to the classics, there are some puzzles I've never seen before and even some I'd wager you'll only find in a Professor Layton game.
Only a few of the puzzles were displeasing. While some puzzles I spent many minutes struggling over left me fulfilled, other puzzles were just tricks. Classic trick questions didn't bother me too much as seasoned puzzlers will spot them quick. But some puzzles that come down to language tricks are annoying and are more like bad riddles than good puzzles. They also make you second guess the legitimate puzzles. If a legitimate clue hint from Stan says "I didn't see Bob eat the pizza," is that clue meant to mean that Stan is saying Bob didn't eat the pizza or that Bob could have eaten the pizza but Stan didn't see it happen? In Curious Village, it could be either one.
The adventure side of Curious Village is probably not going to remembered as Oscar-worthy storytelling. However, it really works. Professor Layton and Luke are a great team and the villagers are a varied memorable cast of puzzlers. The style of the game is what truly makes Curious Village stand out. It has a very European vibe to it. All the characters look like they were pulled out of a European animation. The cutscenes that occur sporadically throughout the game were done by Japanese animation production house, Production I.G, and are some of the best I've seen on the system. For those who don't like most anime, these scenes look nothing like most anime.
Solving puzzles gives players multiple rewards. Besides the points earned, there are little goodies you get every 2-3 puzzles. There are gadgets, pieces of a painting, and furnishings. Getting all of each of them earns rewards such as bonus puzzles. And if the adventure puzzles and bonus puzzles aren't enough, there are dozens of puzzles that were posted each week following the game's release.
Curious Village is a fantastic change of pace for anybody playing...well, almost any type of game. By combining puzzle and adventure elements, Curious Village has created a new genre that can best be called "Professor Layton" and it is definitely worth playing.
