The Nintendo DS has had a string of success with its huge titles such as the latest Pokemon era, its own Mario series and even spin-offs of Metroid and Zelda. Apart from those series however, the DS has also featured countless unique titles including the surprisingly successful Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training, seen as one of the first “must-have” titles. It wasn’t long before the DS started to rake in the quirky and fantastic IPs. Another sub-genre that has created an impact on the handheld is the detective/mystery genre, one which was most associated with the general string of poorly made bargain PC games. Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright set the bar for the genre soon after the console was released, and of course it was certain that another similar game would try and find its own fame, Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

          Of course, you will be playing the role of Professor Layton himself, a very well spoken adventurer stroke puzzle man. Alongside him will be his young apprentice, Luke, who possesses the same traits as Layton but fails to strike players as an iconic Nintendo character. The story begins when Layton and Luke receive a message about a mysterious Golden Apple, a relic of untold value tucked secretly away somewhere in the small village of St. Mystere. As the two adventurers try to get to the bottom of the case, they run into the numerous strange inhabitants of the village, including the Reinholds, Baron Reinhold being the man who created the Golden Apple. The actual plot is slow-starting; you will basically get a brush in with the main cast of the game along with the hundreds of villagers. Things only start to pick up when one of the main characters is murdered within Reinhold mansion, Simon Reinhold, which is only the first of a string of mysterious events to unfold. People start to disappear and return unaware of their absence, creating a typical yet satisfying narrative to the game with many strange and mysterious set pieces to tie-in.

          Just like previous detective-style video games, the game plays out by navigating various screens with the Stylus and questioning villagers for information. However, aside from finding clues to the many mysteries which you store in your journal, you will notice that almost every mystery has a little puzzle which they request that you complete for them. These puzzles are measured in difficulty by Picarats (usually ten to fifty), a sort of in-game counter of how many points you have gained from the many puzzles. As you progress through the game, other rewards will also be granted for completing puzzles including gizmos to construct a strange object, painting scraps to fit a frame, and furniture to fill in Layton and Luke’s inn rooms. The puzzles are pretty quirky and not too demanding at first, but some will have you rolling around in frustration to only realise that it was the fault of the question and not your own. That’s right; most of the in-game questions are worded so awkwardly that trying to understand the question is in fact a puzzle within itself. Small collectables called Hint Coins can also be obtained frequently, which will unlock one of the three unlock able hints available for each puzzle, which you will find to be pretty useless most of the time. Most gamers will often just resort to game guides or forum boards for most of the answers, and regretfully, sometimes doing so is unavoidable as some questions are devilishly mindboggling. It may also strike players as odd that every villager wants you to do a puzzle for them, there is no sense why they do so, which makes you sometimes chuckle at the reasons why they want you to solve their problems. Also, there is no point in simply skipping all of the puzzles that you are confronted with, at intervals you will be required to have solved a certain amount of puzzles to progress, but if you missed out on a puzzle you can always find them in Granny Riddleton’s shack.

          The overall quirky theme of the game is emphasised both by its

design and cartoon-graphic choice. Whilst Luke and the Professor look like an average pair, the in-game villagers will come in all shapes and sizes; big noses, boggling eyes, or even just damn creepy which all adds to how the game is presented. Every area is detailed to satisfaction, but some parts of the village can feel somewhat lacklustre, simply consisted of cobbled streets and blue wooden doors. Another thing I liked about the game’s presentation was the small cut-scenes that depict certain points of the tale in a small animation.

          Something that I always long for in games such as this is that every character and box of dialogue should have voice acting instead of just having a simple box of boring text. The cut-scenes come with voice acting mainly from just Layton and Luke, but the voice cast could easily be widened. As for the in-game music, it seems to just loop the same quirky tune over and over again, the only variation being the sudden horror tone at certain points within the game.

          The Curious Village definitely has its ups and downs. On one hand, it is presented superbly, but on the other, the actual gameplay is repeated throughout and a large portion of the puzzles won’t actually make any sense. The brutal truth is that if you do not take pleasure in puzzle solving of giving your brain a proper work out, you will be very displeased with the game, however I managed to persevere and if you do the same you will soon reap the benefits and crack the dark secret behind St. Mystere.