Professor Layton & the Curious Village

[Necronopticous]

It's a lot of fun.

Have you played it?

[Dreddz]

Its Level 5 so I will be playing it eventually.

[Roto13]

I haven't... technically played it, but JKTrix has thrown some of the riddles at me. I plan on picking it up as soon as I have money and nothing to buy. :P Along with Zack and Wiki.

[Necronopticous]

Professor Layton is a big time paedophile.

[JKTrix]

(insert Professor Layton Pimping)

Oh, a thread.

I was worried that the sequels wouldn't be coming out if people don't buy the game, but one of the last pages of the manual refers to the sequel 4 times. Yay.

There are a few more features in the game that make it something more than just a bunch of puzzles tied together by a general plot. One of them has you collecting pieces of a painting (that you get from solving puzzles), another one has you collecting random bits of junk to create some kind of mechanical dog (again from solving puzzles). Luke & Layton end up 'staying' in the attic of the inn, and another part of the game has you arranging bits of furniture on their sides of the room. You get judged by how much either of them likes the piece of furniture. I'm not really sure how you get more furniture yet because I still only have the first set that the inn lady gives you. With those 3 features, you apparently get something once you complete those.

For hints, you pay for them with coins. You start with a bunch of them, but you can find lots more of them by clicking around in 'suspicious' places. Just little extra things to do, like Lovikov's Dragonballs in NMH and polishing badges in Pokemon.

Kind of strange that I didn't see this labeled with the Touch Generations label, like Elite Beat Agents and Brain Age are. It seems like this would fit with it. It *is* a Nintendo published game (you can even register it if you have a Nintendo account, something you can't do with 3rd party games). I wonder if Nintendo has dropped the whole 'touch generations' branding now?

[Necronopticous]

I completed that robotic dog, then I gave him a really immature name, because I'm really immature.

You get new furnishings the same way you get the puzzle pieces and robot parts; simply completing puzzles.

What I'm not sure of is if these items are puzzle-specific, or if they are acquired when you reach a certain amount of picarats.

[Evastio]

Interesting. So it's somewhat like Big Brain Academy or Brain Age except it has a story right?

[Necronopticous]

It's a small-scale point-and-click adventure game, driven by puzzles you might expect to see in an IQ test; tough, but generally free of difficult calculations.

You simultaneously play the roles of a flamboyant boylover and his boy lover, solving puzzles in a fictitious town where people, strangely, genuinely care about puzzles.

[Deborah]

I love the situations when its like oh someone died but hey solve this puzzle, next time I go to a funeral I'm bringing puzzles!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I haven't played it, but having read about it extensively, it seems really contrived and tedious. I feel it would have been more honest of them just to drop the pretense and call the game "100 Puzzles by Akira Tago" or "Atama no Taisou DS."

I can understand that people who love brain-teasers will love it, and in their case, the plot and characters and art style are just a bonus. But my only attraction to the game is that aesthetic charm itself, and it seems to offer me little to substantiate that.

[Necronopticous]

The puzzles are great. There's nothing wrong with stringing them together with a worthwhile point-and-click adventure.

Of course you're not going to like a game of brainteasers if you admittedly have absolutely no interest in the brainteasers. This is like trying to go into the Phoenix Wright series with no interest in anything other than the quality of the animated sprites and calling it tedious because you have to actually play the game.

It's not as if the game is trying to fool anyone into making the purchase; the tagline takes up nearly a fourth of the front cover, reading, "Solve brainteasers to crack the case!"

[Deborah]

I amazingly beat the game last night, but missed a few puzzles I have to find, I like the little story that went with it. Me beating the game means that I didn't get bored!

[Xander]

Since there's already a thread for this, I guess it's ok if I add to it! Got this game today and I think its a really fun, unique, charming game so far! The puzzles are addictive, challenging enough to make you have to think right from the outset but not too annoying since there's no time limit and you can just go back to some later!

I like how you use the stylus for everything and how it makes great use of it, and how its a bit of point-and-click, with exploring the various screens (oh how I miss point and clicks..).

Graphics are preeetty! Characters are kinda similar to the artstyle of Studio Ghibli's films, spirited away, etc, thats definately what it reminded me of the first time I saw it! Backgrounds are pretty and little movies are nice. And well, I live for pretty 2D games...

I've only done about 20 puzzles so far but they are really entertaining, certainly not just boring and usual (a lot are familiar but kinda like a new take on that kinda puzzle), I have a few faves already

I think it's a unique game and deserves some love

[JKTrix]

Now that I've finished Ace Attorney, this is the game that's planted in my DS again. I was actually pretty eager to get back to it, since I didn't realize how I missed it while I was being entertained with the other game. This is good stuff! I'll definitely be finished before the sequel comes out.