BEST PUZZLE GAME EVER?

User Rating: 9 | Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS
By Smiley_76 | Review Date:
What a treat it is to have no expectations for a game and then find you can't put it down for a week! I'm going to date myself a little here, but one of my favorite games from back in the 80's was a puzzle game called "Fools Errand." Professor Layton, while likely not directly derivative of that classic game, shares the concept of progressing through an entertaining story, via completion of dozens of seemingly unrelated puzzles. Both games excel at making you really work for it and feel brilliant at the same time.

The puzzles in Layton are very challenging, but the progressive hint system doles out help in small doses, so you still feel a sense of accomplishment even when "cheating" a little. While it might be too challenging for young kids (and many adults!) as a parent, it was fun to play this game with my 8 year old son; when he wasn't prying the DS out of my hands that is. ;)

The animated cut scenes are high quality and if you are a fan of great anime films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, you'll feel right at home. The only thing lacking is a varied musical score. Not that the provided music isn't great, but it just gets stale after awhile.

If (when) you finish the included puzzles, you can download more directly through your DS, assuming you have an available Wi-Fi connection. New puzzles every week!

This is definitely my favorite game of 2009. Give it a try if you love great games, especially if you appreciate anime and the occasional brain-bending puzzle. Have fun!

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