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Layton is worth it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle game; some pros and cons below.

Pros
1) The cut scenes are amazing! You can hardly believe that you're watching this little cartoon on a hand-held gaming system.
2) The puzzles are fun, and become more challenging as you progress. Even if you're stuck, it's never impossible to solve a problem since the Hints are usually enough to help. It might take time, but you'll get it eventually.
3) The story and characters are engaging, and it's never too hard to figure out what you need to do next.

Cons
1) I wasn't able to find all of the puzzles in the game, which is important for some of the mini-quests. I started a new game and was still unable to find all the puzzles.
2) Sometimes the hints aren't helpful at all, so you've used up your hint coins for nothing.
3) Some of the puzzles were kind of ridiculous in the technicality of the language. For example, one question is "What is the last letter of the alphabet? Hint: It's not Z." It's pretty obvious that the answer is 'T', but that's not really a puzzle in my mind so much as a trick question.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes solving puzzles.

A pleasant diversion if you like Zelda's puzzles but hate the battles

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm a 40-something who's always liked the Zelda-type RPG games for the puzzles but who's always hated the monster-battles and the fact that you couldn't save at any time you liked, so you would always get thrown back to a point well back if you ran out of lives before you won a given monster battle, so you'd have to repeat previous stages again and again until you beat the monster. I don't see the point of that ridiculous & repetitive cheese-chasing. I buy games for relaxation and some mental workout challenge, not frustration. I get enough frustration at work -- and at least there I get PAID for it.

That's why I liked this game so much. There wasn't any time pressure, you could save & stop at any point you liked, and most of the puzzles were challenging enough to be interesting.

I took off a star for a few reasons:
1. The 'back-story' games, like building up the stuff in the Inn rooms, or creating a painting from the scraps you were awarded, seemed pointless.
2. You couldn't get an answer to any puzzles that truly stumped you.
3. In 2 puzzles, I had a definitively correct answer but since it wasn't THE correct answer I had to keep trying again and again to figure out what the game wanted me to say. (Case in point: The Tile puzzle.)
4. And, most annoying: I discovered that you should never ever ever go back thru the tower door once you've gone thru the first time. If you do, you'll get stuck in the unstoppable little mini-movie that begins once you choose to enter the doors, and doesn't end until all the credits have s-l-o-w-l-y crawled off the screen. (Well, you can just shut off the DS, but if you've solved extra puzzles in the meantime, your progress would be lost if you did.)

Nice little plus that you can download extra free puzzles weekly if you have Wireless Broadband in your home. I have a secure network but just plugged in the WEP key and now can download new puzzles.

Solved the game in about 17 hours, but have spent a few extra hours to solve the additional download puzzles.

I got what I wanted from it - relaxation, some mental challenge, and a pleasant diversion. What else could you do that would give you 17+ hours of that for just $29?

A Game EVERYONE Will Enjoy!!! a must buy!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Before i get started i want to tell everyone that im 23 yr female and im new to Nintendo DS so i dont know alot about games and because the prices are high on some, i completely rely on customer reviews before i spend the money on a game.I bought this game because i wanted to get a game that would keep me intrested. I can say i was surprised!!! this game is great! im so glad i bought it. The puzzles are great, the story line keeps you guessing and wanting more, I'm really enjoying it. The best part is when im stuck on a puzzle I'll ask a family member or a friend to take a crack at and we end up working it out together. Its a great way to get others involved! my friends who have Nintendo DS never would of thought of buying this game because they figured it would be just another puzzle game. I have to litterally take "Professor Layton and The Curious Village" from them! This game is for all ages and i highly reccommend this game for everyone. It really is a must have! im so glad i took everyones advice here and bought this game, ive had so much fun with it! i hope they come out with a sequal or something like it. Buy this game and ENJOY!!!!!

Story unfolds by itself.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Rather than a game, this is a collection of 135 basic puzzles and trivial puzzles that only sound hard. The puzzles are unlocked sequentially by clicking through the linear story. It is marketed as some kind of detective/mystery/adventure game, but it's not. The story actually just plays by itself, and you answer the puzzles.

The trivial variety puzzle uses arbitrary wordplay or ambiguous definitions. This becomes annoying when you can't ask the game to clarify the ambiguous question; hence, you sometimes get penalized for doing things the "right" way. These make up about 10% of the questions.

If you find yourself taking more than a minute, remember that nothing here can't be solved by a 3rd grader, so you are probably doing a trivial question.

Overall, the game was worth the time for the story and art design. Puzzles were amusingly written at times, though few actually make you use dedicated thought. Since 3 players can independently save progress, this is an ideal family game, particularly for kids.

Good Game But Nothing Special In the Long Run

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 23
Date: February 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's a great game the first time you play. The puzzles are hard and interesting. But the magic disappears when you're doing the same things over and over again. You have to just solve puzzles and the story develops very slowly. It's got nice art direction and is pretty original but the fun doesn't last. I was so bored with the second and third time I played it... by the forth time I was so frustrated with the repetition that I sold it.

Fun for everyone!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is quite possibly the most fun I have had with my DS yet!
The story is fun and exciting to unfold but the puzzles make this an absolute joy to play. Many of them are brainteasers that we still see today in chain e-mails. And others (at least to me) are brand new. Some easy, some extremely difficult. This game can be played by kids and adults alike. If you like things that challenge you to think outside of the box, then this is the game for you

Addictive fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I got this as a gift from my non-video gaming boyfriend. After playing for about 10 minutes even he was hooked. This game has a wide variety of puzzles and brain teasers and I found myself having trouble putting it down. There was a big part of me that wanted to bring my DS along to work so that I could play some more. Overall a great game, even for people who aren't usually into video games.

Can't wait for the next one!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an extremely addictive game. The storyline, characters, interaction, and most importantly the puzzles are all astounding. The puzzles range from easy to difficult depending on the player but with such an interesting story to fall back on, I can assure that all gamers who enjoy puzzles would have a blast with this one. The original Japanese versions already have a second game out with a third on its way. I can't wait for the second English version to come out!

Addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I agree with everyone that says this is addictive! It really is! I couldn't put it down. Hours went by and I didn't even realize. Once you finish all the puzzles, you can get a weekly puzzle through wi-fi. I don't have fast internet, though. I wonder how long they will be doing that. Most of the puzzles aren't really ones you would do again because it's only the same answer/method. I don't know how fun this will be for me later. It was great, though.

I highly recommend that you wait if you have important things to do, because you'll find some reason to blow everything off! Very bad! Now I have to go do last minute homework!

Great, but not entirely replayable...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought PL because I love puzzles & brain teasers, & I wanted something with a storyline to it. I wasn't dissapointed. The game opens with what is one of the neatest animation style openings ever on the DS, with several other animation clips to play at specific intervals during the game. The backgrounds were very nicely done & the characters were simplistic, but well drawn. The games run from being very complicated to incredibly simple. Some of the puzzles will have you smacking your forehead at their simplicity. The storyline is basic, yet surprisingly complex for what is ultimately a glossed up puzzle game. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the Professor Layton trilogy later developed into an animated movie further on down the line.

However, once you've played the game once, there isn't much replay value unless you are trying to find & play all 120 puzzles (not including the bonus puzzles). The other two issues I had were that 1) the soundtrack tended to grate on my nerves after a while, & 2) sometimes you couldn't immediately locate some tokens. There were occasions where I tapped all over the place, yet couldn't find any tokens. (Although I discovered later when my gizmo was completed, that I'd missed several.) These are small issues, however, & I feel that this is a wonderful game for any puzzle lovers out there.

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