It can be hard not to put this game down on its addicting puzzles and good story telling.
After recovering the case in the Curious Village Professor Layton and Luke visit Layton's mentor, Dr. Schrader, who claims to have found the Elysian Box that is fabled to kill anyone that opens it. When the pair arrives at Schrader's home, they find him unresponsive on the floor, and the Box is missing, with only a ticket stub for the Molentary Express as a clue to its disappearance. Layton and Luke are now on the case to find out more information and where about on the Elysian Box.
Gameplay: Plays just like the first game where you'll be solving puzzles throughout the entire game and chatting to people to find clues. It does feel more of a point and click game when you are heading to where you need to go or by tapping the arrow button where to go next. Each puzzle you'll have the question/riddle on top of the screen and the bottom touch screen for solving puzzles by writing the answer down or tapping on the answer you think is right.
Each puzzle you'll get picarats which are like points which can unlock various stuff on Bonuses the more you have the likely you'll unlock the extras. But however if you fail to guess correctly for each puzzle the picarats will decrease but if you have trouble solving a puzzle you can come back to it any time. Throughout the main story half of your adventure is being stuck on train and of course exploring various towns as well.
There are hint coins which can be used to spend on giving you hints on how to solve the puzzle straight away but some hints on certain puzzles don't really give you any help at all. Another thing that may annoy a few DS owners out there or anyone new to gaming that if you are writing a number down it might not recognise your handwriting.
Graphics and Sound: Nothing has really changed much since the first Layton game, the animated cutscenes and visuals are still pretty impressive and stunning to look at. Its characters are also cute and charming making most of the characters look like something out of an old British cartoon but with a mix of Japanese Anime putted together.
Its environments from the towns you visit and the train you're stuck do look impressive to look at just like you would on a canvas painting it's also the same with puzzles as well they look well detailed to look at.
For those who did play the first Layton game you've still got the same English voice actors who played Layton and Luke, some of the new characters you meet in the game do a nice job too. You've still got the same text-dialog when speaking to any of the local people or getting through the main story, so there's much voicing but lots of dialog. Soundtrack does a nice job too making you more focused on its puzzle and hearing a few odd tunes once again making it feel you welcome back to the series.
Overall: More than 150 puzzles to solve you'll be coming back to this game a lot which can be quite addictive; there were times I wanted to keep coming back for more. Not only that there are also puzzles which you can download from the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, there are a few mini games like make your own brew tea which can make different flavours and help other people with their worries. You'll get a large hamster which you'll have to look after and try and to make it lose some weight by making it exercise in the hamster box. When completing certain puzzles you'll get various bits of junk which can be used to repair a camera.
Plenty to see and do in Diabolical Box this would keep its fans busy quite a while with a fast amount of puzzles and a good story which makes this sequel highly worth checking out.