The Unwound Future is the biggest and most heartfelt Layton game yet.
Off the cusp of their last grand revelation, world-renowned puzzle master Hershel Layton and his apprentice Luke Triton are among the privileged guests of a live demonstration of Dr. Alain Stahngun's Time Machine. When the unwilling Prime Minister Bill Hawks is volunteered to take part in the demonstration, things go awry and the time machine explodes, leaving no trace of Stahngun, his machine, or Bill Hawks. With London reeling over the loss of its Prime Minister, the police investigation into the incident heightens, but ultimately comes up empty. It's not until a week later when Layton receives a letter that could potentially solve the mystery and return the Prime Minister back to his home. The only problem is, the letter is signed from Luke - ten years into the future.
Puzzles are rarely looked at as a genre worth admiring for their remarkable or complex stories. That will likely never change. But what Professor Layton has managed to do with each consecutive game is wrap its clever puzzle-solving gameplay with a quirky and endearing story, and characters that, while potentially one-dimensional, still provide excellent and smartly-written dialogue. The Unwound Future is no exception, and is, by all means, an evolution to the format. Story plays a much larger role, and while it won't contend with something the likes of Deus Ex or Planescape: Torment, it manages to portray a truly compelling tale: this is certainly the most emotional story in the franchise yet.
More Puzzles, More Fun
The concept is the same: Solve puzzles to solve the mystery. More often than not the puzzles you are faced with will have very little, if anything at all, to do with the actual story. Conversations with a character on the street will remind that person of a puzzle, and he or she will ask you to solve it. It's as simple as that. Other times, certain areas of the game will be "locked" by some intricate puzzle that needs solving before you can proceed. Quite simply, if you are not a fan of puzzles, riddles, or brainteasers, stay clear of any Professor Layton game. But if you do enjoy yourself a nice hearty meal of puzzles - and I'm talking about true-blue, grab-a-piece-of-paper-because-you're-going-to-need-to-write-this-down puzzles, not the kind of things you'll find in a Brain Age game - then you will fall head over heels for Professor Layton.
Puzzles range from traditional visual (rearranging blocks to fit the right way), riddles (number riddles, etc.) and more. The hint coins return from the previous games and as always serve as your best friend during tough times. A new feature has been added to the actual Hint system, however; in addition to the three regular "Hints" you may purchase with the hint coins on any given puzzle, a fourth available hint - entitled the "Super Hint" - can be requested. The benefit of this one is that it will, on almost every occasion, blatantly tell you the answer. It's not something to be abused often, as the cost to reap its rewards is two hint coins, one more than the normal. So if you put that in perspective, you will be spending five hint coins total (three for the normal, two for the Super) just to have the answer told to you rather than solving it yourself. It's a good system, and can be very helpful under those stressful situations where you just have absolutely no idea, or if you come across a type of puzzle you hate to solve, but it's not something to be used in excess.
To break up the pace of solving ordinary puzzles, each Layton game has introduced mini-activities that usually span the length of the title. The newest iterations of these activities comes in the form of an RC car, a parrot, and a picture book. The former is an elaborate maze-like game where the player must guide the car along a track using only a limited number of arrow pieces to make it turn, have it collect all of the items on the stage, and then make it to the exit. As you solve puzzles in the actual story, you'll receive different and harder tracks. The second can be a little more frustrating. It follows a similar concept: guide the parrot to the exit. The trick involved here is that the parrot flies along a set, arched path. Using a limited number of ropes, you can connect them to various pegs across the map and guide the parrot from one side to the other. Where the trick comes into play is that in angled slopes, the parrot will bounce against them. If it's angled to the downward right, he'll jump on it and bounce forward. If it's angled back, he'll bounce backwards. The benefit of playing and completing this mini-game allows your parrot to find hint coins throughout the area, much like the robotic dog of the second game. The third and final mini-game, the picture book, is a simple child's story where you fill in the blanks with various stickers you receive as rewards for solving puzzles. There's only one way to tell the story, so make sure you put the stickers in the right spot. You'll discover three different stories throughout the game, each with its own set of exclusive stickers.
Lastly, the memo function has received a bit of an upgrade, allowing you to manually erase certain things drawn, use a different line-length, or even change colors. It can be helpful, but rarely is it the saving grace that the Super Hint can be. If anything, it seems a bit too convoluted now than helpful. Keep to the basics, it always works the best.
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix it
I'd do myself and my writing a disservice if I just copied and pasted this section of the Professor Layton and the Curious Village review, but not much has changed in the way of sound and design since then. That's by no means a bad thing. What makes Professor Layton so charming is its smooth colors, entertaining and eccentric characters, and its wonderful sound. The voice acting is still as good as always, the music is an improvement over the first two games, and they've even added a fair bit more full-motion scenes into the mix. All of this combines as well now as it did three years ago when the first game came out.
And The Verdict Is
If you're a Layton fan, you don't need me to tell you to get this game. You're already knee-deep in puzzles that you don't know what to do with yourself. The Professor Layton name is one of the most consistent franchises on the DS market right now; each iteration offers new, more exciting puzzles to solve, maintains that enjoyable level of whimsical storytelling, and never outstays its welcome. The story should last you roughly 15 hours if you opt only to solve the bare minimum requirement of puzzles needed to progress, but stick around for all 165+ and you'll be at it for more than 20 hours.
Pros: A larger sum and greater variety of puzzles; new mini-games are clever and entertaining; sound and art design are charming; the best Layton story yet
Cons: Memo function is not always helpful
The Final Verdict: 9/10
The Unwound Future is the biggest and most heartfelt Layton game yet.