Puzzles have been in video games from the beginning. Even games as simple as PAC-Man challenge the player to find the best route to avoid the ghosts. Puzzles have never been the main focus for most games, and none have been as charming as Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke. In 2008, Level-5 took these too to a most unusual location in Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS.
Baron Augustus Reinhold has died and has left a puzzle to find the Golden Apple. Who ever finds it will get his fortune. Layton and Luke arrive at the request of his widow and find a town who values brain teasers above all else. What might just be a treasure hunt turns serious as someone gets murdered earlier on. It seems everyone wants to get their hands on the money and someone will do anything to get it.
The puzzles are just fun, and none of them are too hard or too easy. You might beat one on the first go and then spend a good amount of time on the next. The problems range from riddles to situations you have to figure out. Part of the joy is figuring out something that seemed impossible moments before. There is no progression of difficulty, the puzzles are just there as well as the answers. No need to go to an outside source.
The story comes to life through well written dialogue and a few cut scenes. Layton is smart, but he does not believe that this makes him better then anyone else. The reason he and Luke have come is not to seek a treasure, but to help out someone in need. The fact that one of your first missions is to get a cat back shows that this Professor has a heart as big as his brain.
The Curious Village started a franchise with Layton and Luke going across the globe to solve other mysterious. Layton even ran into Phoenix Wright, a match that made perfect sense. The story developed too, showing a very real history for the Professor. It all started her, with two people exiting a car and entering a village where logic is valued above all else.
