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This thread has been linked to the game 'Professor Layton and the Curious Village'.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a curious (pun very much intended) blend of old-school point and click adventure with the influence of the modern trend for 'Brain Training' as well as the mini-game collections such as 'Wario Ware' and Sega's 'Rub Rabbits', which involved micro-bites of gaming.
The reference to old point and click adventures may have some people running for cover while setting the pulses of others racing – however the former should come from out behind the sofa and the latter probably shouldn't get over-excited. The point and click influence is most obvious when navigating the game world rather than in the actual puzzle-solving. There's no comic dialogue choices or obscure combinations of items to be found (in fact there's very little item collecting or direct interaction with the environment at all).
But before we delve too far into game mechanics, lets set the scene. The game starts with the eponymous Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke heading for St. Mystere (the 'Curious Village' of the title) to hunt for the Golden Apple. However, not all is as it at first seems, and soon the pair are trapped in St. Mystere and on the hunt for a killer in true Murder Mystery fashion.
You'll progress the story by searching out and talking to various people who live in St. Mystere. Given it's billed as a puzzle game, there are surprisingly few puzzles that relate directly to the main story. Instead the game sidesteps this by having the village populated by obsessive locals who will often require you to solve a brain teaser before telling you what you need to know, and occasionally you'll come up against a door which won't let you through until you've found and solved a certain number of puzzles. So while you're required to solve puzzles to progress through the story, the puzzles themselves don't often bear much relevance to the story itself.
Getting around St. Mystere and investigating its various nooks and crannies is easy – the bottom screen of your DS shows the area of the village that Layton and Luke are currently in, and you can investigate anywhere on screen by tapping the location. Tapping on doors may open them and move you onto another location, tapping people will talk to them, and tapping anything else will likely do nothing, but may reveal a hidden puzzle, a hint coin (used to buy hints if you get stuck during a tough puzzle), or just give you some commentary about the item you tapped. It's a simple mechanic and easy for anyone to get the hang of, but unfortunately it can mean that hunting for puzzles and coins degenerates into tapping every millimetre of on screen scenery before moving onto the next location.
So lets delve into the main bulk of the game, which consists of the puzzles themselves. Well, there are over 120 puzzles to solve of varying difficultly and they are very varied. Take the first puzzle you're handed while driving towards St. Mystere. You are shown a map and the Professor asks Luke to find the village they need to head for, giving you the clue that the village is not on the same road as any other village. So it's a simple case of examining the different villages to find the one which isn't connected to any others by a road. This is the kind of thing you'd find on the back of a kids cereal box, but it gets much more challenging from there on in. There are some 'classic' puzzles such as using a couple of water containers of specific volume to measure out a specific amount of water (eg. Using a 5 and 3 quarts jug to get 4 quarts), something made famous by a scene in Die Hard 3. Then there's the queen problem (placing a number of queens on a chess board so none of them can take another in one move), something I remember from University. And of course there's a take on the classic 'getting three animals across the river without them eating each other'. But there's also logic puzzles (like working out which of a number of people is telling the truth, assuming only one can be telling the truth), maths puzzles (using all digits 1-9 find numbers so that xxxxx-yyyy=33333), image puzzles (find hidden monsters in paintings), compound interest puzzles (yes, seriously...), cryptographic puzzles (decoding secret messages) and even tessellation puzzles (cut the sandwich so it'll fit into the lunch box).
So yes, a huge variety in the types of puzzle on offer, which is a good thing as it prevents you getting bored when you get stuck. There's also some other bits to do, such as building an invention out of “gizmos” you collect, re-creating a painting from scraps and arranging furniture between Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local B&B. If you hadn't guessed already, all these items are obtained by solving puzzles, but unfortunately building your invention consists of tapping each gizmo in turn so it flies into place. It would've been nice to actually have to place the components yourself and work out how they should be put together. Fortunately you're left to arrange the painting scraps yourself, essentially like a jigsaw. It's not very taxing, but provides some light relief. Arranging furniture is simply a case of choosing who gets each bit, Layton or Luke and gauging their reaction to try to build up their perfect residence. Again, it's a bit of light relief.
Despite some of the plot twists being rather obvious, the game will keep you coming back for more as long as brain teasers are your cup of tea. If the thought of a Sudoku has you snoring, then this probably isn't for you. The main game will probably last you in the region of 15 hours, but obviously it depends how quickly you solve the puzzles, as these form the main bulk of the game. After the main game though there are some bonus' to play with, and there's also some downloadable content to get hold of, so if you're left wanting more there is some extra longevity to be had.
Overall it's a pretty good distraction,and it's quite well polished too. The sequel “Professor Layton and Pandora's Box” is out soon, and I'd wager we'll be seeing quite a bit more of the Professor and Luke in the future, which is certainly a good thing for anyone who enjoys games that engage their grey matter.
The reference to old point and click adventures may have some people running for cover while setting the pulses of others racing – however the former should come from out behind the sofa and the latter probably shouldn't get over-excited. The point and click influence is most obvious when navigating the game world rather than in the actual puzzle-solving. There's no comic dialogue choices or obscure combinations of items to be found (in fact there's very little item collecting or direct interaction with the environment at all).
But before we delve too far into game mechanics, lets set the scene. The game starts with the eponymous Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke heading for St. Mystere (the 'Curious Village' of the title) to hunt for the Golden Apple. However, not all is as it at first seems, and soon the pair are trapped in St. Mystere and on the hunt for a killer in true Murder Mystery fashion.
You'll progress the story by searching out and talking to various people who live in St. Mystere. Given it's billed as a puzzle game, there are surprisingly few puzzles that relate directly to the main story. Instead the game sidesteps this by having the village populated by obsessive locals who will often require you to solve a brain teaser before telling you what you need to know, and occasionally you'll come up against a door which won't let you through until you've found and solved a certain number of puzzles. So while you're required to solve puzzles to progress through the story, the puzzles themselves don't often bear much relevance to the story itself.
Getting around St. Mystere and investigating its various nooks and crannies is easy – the bottom screen of your DS shows the area of the village that Layton and Luke are currently in, and you can investigate anywhere on screen by tapping the location. Tapping on doors may open them and move you onto another location, tapping people will talk to them, and tapping anything else will likely do nothing, but may reveal a hidden puzzle, a hint coin (used to buy hints if you get stuck during a tough puzzle), or just give you some commentary about the item you tapped. It's a simple mechanic and easy for anyone to get the hang of, but unfortunately it can mean that hunting for puzzles and coins degenerates into tapping every millimetre of on screen scenery before moving onto the next location.
So lets delve into the main bulk of the game, which consists of the puzzles themselves. Well, there are over 120 puzzles to solve of varying difficultly and they are very varied. Take the first puzzle you're handed while driving towards St. Mystere. You are shown a map and the Professor asks Luke to find the village they need to head for, giving you the clue that the village is not on the same road as any other village. So it's a simple case of examining the different villages to find the one which isn't connected to any others by a road. This is the kind of thing you'd find on the back of a kids cereal box, but it gets much more challenging from there on in. There are some 'classic' puzzles such as using a couple of water containers of specific volume to measure out a specific amount of water (eg. Using a 5 and 3 quarts jug to get 4 quarts), something made famous by a scene in Die Hard 3. Then there's the queen problem (placing a number of queens on a chess board so none of them can take another in one move), something I remember from University. And of course there's a take on the classic 'getting three animals across the river without them eating each other'. But there's also logic puzzles (like working out which of a number of people is telling the truth, assuming only one can be telling the truth), maths puzzles (using all digits 1-9 find numbers so that xxxxx-yyyy=33333), image puzzles (find hidden monsters in paintings), compound interest puzzles (yes, seriously...), cryptographic puzzles (decoding secret messages) and even tessellation puzzles (cut the sandwich so it'll fit into the lunch box).
So yes, a huge variety in the types of puzzle on offer, which is a good thing as it prevents you getting bored when you get stuck. There's also some other bits to do, such as building an invention out of “gizmos” you collect, re-creating a painting from scraps and arranging furniture between Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local B&B. If you hadn't guessed already, all these items are obtained by solving puzzles, but unfortunately building your invention consists of tapping each gizmo in turn so it flies into place. It would've been nice to actually have to place the components yourself and work out how they should be put together. Fortunately you're left to arrange the painting scraps yourself, essentially like a jigsaw. It's not very taxing, but provides some light relief. Arranging furniture is simply a case of choosing who gets each bit, Layton or Luke and gauging their reaction to try to build up their perfect residence. Again, it's a bit of light relief.
Despite some of the plot twists being rather obvious, the game will keep you coming back for more as long as brain teasers are your cup of tea. If the thought of a Sudoku has you snoring, then this probably isn't for you. The main game will probably last you in the region of 15 hours, but obviously it depends how quickly you solve the puzzles, as these form the main bulk of the game. After the main game though there are some bonus' to play with, and there's also some downloadable content to get hold of, so if you're left wanting more there is some extra longevity to be had.
Overall it's a pretty good distraction,and it's quite well polished too. The sequel “Professor Layton and Pandora's Box” is out soon, and I'd wager we'll be seeing quite a bit more of the Professor and Luke in the future, which is certainly a good thing for anyone who enjoys games that engage their grey matter.
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Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a curious (pun very much intended) blend of old-school point and click adventure with the influence of the modern trend for 'Brain Training' as well as the mini-game collections such as 'Wario Ware' and Sega's 'Rub Rabbits', which involved micro-bites of gaming.
The reference to old point and click adventures may have some people running for cover while setting the pulses of others racing – however the former should come from out behind the sofa and the latter probably shouldn't get over-excited. The point and click influence is most obvious when navigating the game world rather than in the actual puzzle-solving. There's no comic dialogue choices or obscure combinations of items to be found (in fact there's very little item collecting or direct interaction with the environment at all).
But before we delve too far into game mechanics, lets set the scene. The game starts with the eponymous Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke heading for St. Mystere (the 'Curious Village' of the title) to hunt for the Golden Apple. However, not all is as it at first seems, and soon the pair are trapped in St. Mystere and on the hunt for a killer in true Murder Mystery fashion.
You'll progress the story by searching out and talking to various people who live in St. Mystere. Given it's billed as a puzzle game, there are surprisingly few puzzles that relate directly to the main story. Instead the game sidesteps this by having the village populated by obsessive locals who will often require you to solve a brain teaser before telling you what you need to know, and occasionally you'll come up against a door which won't let you through until you've found and solved a certain number of puzzles. So while you're required to solve puzzles to progress through the story, the puzzles themselves don't often bear much relevance to the story itself.
Getting around St. Mystere and investigating its various nooks and crannies is easy – the bottom screen of your DS shows the area of the village that Layton and Luke are currently in, and you can investigate anywhere on screen by tapping the location. Tapping on doors may open them and move you onto another location, tapping people will talk to them, and tapping anything else will likely do nothing, but may reveal a hidden puzzle, a hint coin (used to buy hints if you get stuck during a tough puzzle), or just give you some commentary about the item you tapped. It's a simple mechanic and easy for anyone to get the hang of, but unfortunately it can mean that hunting for puzzles and coins degenerates into tapping every millimetre of on screen scenery before moving onto the next location.
So lets delve into the main bulk of the game, which consists of the puzzles themselves. Well, there are over 120 puzzles to solve of varying difficultly and they are very varied. Take the first puzzle you're handed while driving towards St. Mystere. You are shown a map and the Professor asks Luke to find the village they need to head for, giving you the clue that the village is not on the same road as any other village. So it's a simple case of examining the different villages to find the one which isn't connected to any others by a road. This is the kind of thing you'd find on the back of a kids cereal box, but it gets much more challenging from there on in. There are some 'classic' puzzles such as using a couple of water containers of specific volume to measure out a specific amount of water (eg. Using a 5 and 3 quarts jug to get 4 quarts), something made famous by a scene in Die Hard 3. Then there's the queen problem (placing a number of queens on a chess board so none of them can take another in one move), something I remember from University. And of course there's a take on the classic 'getting three animals across the river without them eating each other'. But there's also logic puzzles (like working out which of a number of people is telling the truth, assuming only one can be telling the truth), maths puzzles (using all digits 1-9 find numbers so that xxxxx-yyyy=33333), image puzzles (find hidden monsters in paintings), compound interest puzzles (yes, seriously...), cryptographic puzzles (decoding secret messages) and even tessellation puzzles (cut the sandwich so it'll fit into the lunch box).
So yes, a huge variety in the types of puzzle on offer, which is a good thing as it prevents you getting bored when you get stuck. There's also some other bits to do, such as building an invention out of “gizmos” you collect, re-creating a painting from scraps and arranging furniture between Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local B&B. If you hadn't guessed already, all these items are obtained by solving puzzles, but unfortunately building your invention consists of tapping each gizmo in turn so it flies into place. It would've been nice to actually have to place the components yourself and work out how they should be put together. Fortunately you're left to arrange the painting scraps yourself, essentially like a jigsaw. It's not very taxing, but provides some light relief. Arranging furniture is simply a case of choosing who gets each bit, Layton or Luke and gauging their reaction to try to build up their perfect residence. Again, it's a bit of light relief.
Despite some of the plot twists being rather obvious, the game will keep you coming back for more as long as brain teasers are your cup of tea. If the thought of a Sudoku has you snoring, then this probably isn't for you. The main game will probably last you in the region of 15 hours, but obviously it depends how quickly you solve the puzzles, as these form the main bulk of the game. After the main game though there are some bonus' to play with, and there's also some downloadable content to get hold of, so if you're left wanting more there is some extra longevity to be had.
Overall it's a pretty good distraction,and it's quite well polished too. The sequel “Professor Layton and Pandora's Box” is out soon, and I'd wager we'll be seeing quite a bit more of the Professor and Luke in the future, which is certainly a good thing for anyone who enjoys games that engage their grey matter.
The reference to old point and click adventures may have some people running for cover while setting the pulses of others racing – however the former should come from out behind the sofa and the latter probably shouldn't get over-excited. The point and click influence is most obvious when navigating the game world rather than in the actual puzzle-solving. There's no comic dialogue choices or obscure combinations of items to be found (in fact there's very little item collecting or direct interaction with the environment at all).
But before we delve too far into game mechanics, lets set the scene. The game starts with the eponymous Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke heading for St. Mystere (the 'Curious Village' of the title) to hunt for the Golden Apple. However, not all is as it at first seems, and soon the pair are trapped in St. Mystere and on the hunt for a killer in true Murder Mystery fashion.
You'll progress the story by searching out and talking to various people who live in St. Mystere. Given it's billed as a puzzle game, there are surprisingly few puzzles that relate directly to the main story. Instead the game sidesteps this by having the village populated by obsessive locals who will often require you to solve a brain teaser before telling you what you need to know, and occasionally you'll come up against a door which won't let you through until you've found and solved a certain number of puzzles. So while you're required to solve puzzles to progress through the story, the puzzles themselves don't often bear much relevance to the story itself.
Getting around St. Mystere and investigating its various nooks and crannies is easy – the bottom screen of your DS shows the area of the village that Layton and Luke are currently in, and you can investigate anywhere on screen by tapping the location. Tapping on doors may open them and move you onto another location, tapping people will talk to them, and tapping anything else will likely do nothing, but may reveal a hidden puzzle, a hint coin (used to buy hints if you get stuck during a tough puzzle), or just give you some commentary about the item you tapped. It's a simple mechanic and easy for anyone to get the hang of, but unfortunately it can mean that hunting for puzzles and coins degenerates into tapping every millimetre of on screen scenery before moving onto the next location.
So lets delve into the main bulk of the game, which consists of the puzzles themselves. Well, there are over 120 puzzles to solve of varying difficultly and they are very varied. Take the first puzzle you're handed while driving towards St. Mystere. You are shown a map and the Professor asks Luke to find the village they need to head for, giving you the clue that the village is not on the same road as any other village. So it's a simple case of examining the different villages to find the one which isn't connected to any others by a road. This is the kind of thing you'd find on the back of a kids cereal box, but it gets much more challenging from there on in. There are some 'classic' puzzles such as using a couple of water containers of specific volume to measure out a specific amount of water (eg. Using a 5 and 3 quarts jug to get 4 quarts), something made famous by a scene in Die Hard 3. Then there's the queen problem (placing a number of queens on a chess board so none of them can take another in one move), something I remember from University. And of course there's a take on the classic 'getting three animals across the river without them eating each other'. But there's also logic puzzles (like working out which of a number of people is telling the truth, assuming only one can be telling the truth), maths puzzles (using all digits 1-9 find numbers so that xxxxx-yyyy=33333), image puzzles (find hidden monsters in paintings), compound interest puzzles (yes, seriously...), cryptographic puzzles (decoding secret messages) and even tessellation puzzles (cut the sandwich so it'll fit into the lunch box).
So yes, a huge variety in the types of puzzle on offer, which is a good thing as it prevents you getting bored when you get stuck. There's also some other bits to do, such as building an invention out of “gizmos” you collect, re-creating a painting from scraps and arranging furniture between Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local B&B. If you hadn't guessed already, all these items are obtained by solving puzzles, but unfortunately building your invention consists of tapping each gizmo in turn so it flies into place. It would've been nice to actually have to place the components yourself and work out how they should be put together. Fortunately you're left to arrange the painting scraps yourself, essentially like a jigsaw. It's not very taxing, but provides some light relief. Arranging furniture is simply a case of choosing who gets each bit, Layton or Luke and gauging their reaction to try to build up their perfect residence. Again, it's a bit of light relief.
Despite some of the plot twists being rather obvious, the game will keep you coming back for more as long as brain teasers are your cup of tea. If the thought of a Sudoku has you snoring, then this probably isn't for you. The main game will probably last you in the region of 15 hours, but obviously it depends how quickly you solve the puzzles, as these form the main bulk of the game. After the main game though there are some bonus' to play with, and there's also some downloadable content to get hold of, so if you're left wanting more there is some extra longevity to be had.
Overall it's a pretty good distraction,and it's quite well polished too. The sequel “Professor Layton and Pandora's Box” is out soon, and I'd wager we'll be seeing quite a bit more of the Professor and Luke in the future, which is certainly a good thing for anyone who enjoys games that engage their grey matter.