And now, here we are: Nintendo of America has localized the first Professor Layton game, titled Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and is readying the game for its February 10th street date in the US. The publisher recently handed over a final version of the game so that I can see for myself what the hubbub is all about, and so far in my short hands-on with the game I really like what I've played.
The game opens up with an extremely well-produced video complete with equally quality voice acting. The animation is almost theatrical quality with an almost French-inspired art style, something that might remind people of The Triplets of Bellville. The characters, the puzzle hungry intellect Professor Layton and his eager young apprentice Luke are traversing the backroads of a European country towards St. Mystere. The duo is intrigued with a Golden Apple, a treasure that has sprouted up in the late Baron Augustus Reinhold's will.
For those that miss the point-and-click genre from the days of the PC, you'll find a lot to like in this Nintendo DS game. The game focused both on exploration as well as puzzle solving, though – at least in the early part of the game – many of the puzzles are more detached from the adventure than incorporated into their environments. What I mean is, in these early puzzles, you're not running around finding different pieces to a puzzle and trying to use these items in some fashion to move on in the adventure. Instead, you're given brain teasing challenges that revolve around a certain object that you find
All this could change as I get deeper into the game, but it definitely seems like all puzzles you discover are stand-alone challenges based upon the location you happen to be in. The first puzzle the player's given is to circle the village on the map based upon the clue that's given on the top screen. In another, you have to pick the proper slot to put the crank based upon the crank's shape. And in another, when you click on a clock you're tasked to figure out how many times a non-military, 12-hour digital clock will display three or more of the same numbers in a row during a 24 hour day.
Each puzzle has a specific value and every time you answer a puzzle incorrectly that value goes down, lowering the amount of points you can earn. However, you can use hint coins to help you solve particularly tricky puzzles, coins that are earned by poking at specific areas in the environment. The game warns that there are only a finite amount of coins to be used in the adventure, so it's best to only use them when you need to.
Though the game's challenging, it's easy to cheat the system by guessing, getting the right answer, then turning off the system and restarting at the last save point to answer the question without the guesses. But you're not going to do that, right?
And even when the adventure's over, it's not. Nintendo plans on putting one puzzle a week on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. In my playtest there was already one on the server: a puzzle where you have to rearrange matchsticks in such a way that turns five squares into four.
The game looks to be extremely extensive with several dozen puzzles in the adventure, and then the extra puzzles that'll only be available when you hop online with the system. In all, there seems to be several hours of gameplay in Professor Layton's first adventure in the US. Watch for my full review when the game ships in just a few short weeks.
Source: ign