Games for Lunch: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
In a nutshell: Professor Logic and the Logical Logic Puzzles
3/27/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Kyle Orland
Status: "You can't get quality video game editorial from a value menu!" "No, really, you can't."
0:00 I actually played a 10-minute demo of this game months ago at a Nintendo event. I was impressed with the concept if not with the difficulty of the first few puzzles. But I'm a puzzle addict, so it's gonna take a lot to stump me. I'm also very humble.
0:01 A haunting tune plays over a muted cartoon intro screen featuring a bouncing car and a askew houses. It reminds me of nothing so much as
The Triplets of Belleville.
0:02 I enter my name "by hand" (i.e. using frustrating handwriting recognition) and the game segues into some nice full-screen animation on the bottom screen. A tall guy in a ridiculously tall hat hands his young friend get a letter.
0:04 The young one asks the old "professor" why they're settling an inheritance dispute. The voice acting is impressive, with some enchantingly precious English accents.
0:05 Baron Reinhold passed away. His treasure is hidden in the village. Whoever finds it gets his estate. Pretty boilerplate plot, but the animation and British accents keep me enraptured.
0:06 The place we're going is called "St. Mystere." Groan. Apparently we've been hired by Reinhold's widow.
0:08 The map to our location is the first puzzle. "Think of it as a warm-up for things to come." Hmmm... I can't help but think Layton is talking to ME and not his young companion! This puzzle is worth 10 "picarats," whatever those are.
0:09 "My village is on a road that leads to no other towns." Well that's a pretty stupid road then, innit? Still, it's incredibly easy to trace out the roads and figure out which one has only one house on it. Yawn.
0:10 CORRECT! The game tells me in big, bright letters "Layton's apprentice saves the day," Luke says in that jaunty British lilt of which I can't get enough. *Swoon*
0:11 Layton: "A basic puzzle like that is easy enough to solve with a glance." Dayummm, LUKE. You just got PUZZLE SERVED! And we come to another title screen.
0:12 Loving the architecture of the town. Mixes a classic Victorian look with a touch of madness. The British lilt is gone, now, replaced with plain scrolling text. *pout*
0:13 An extremely grumpy fat man can't lower the drawbridge for us unless we help him figure out how to put a crank in a slot. Dirty! What's this game rated, again?
0:15 "Another puzzle solved." If you can even call it a puzzle, it was so simple. I know... I'm an arrogant prick. So sue me.
0:16 A mustachioed, bescarfed fellow -- named Stachenscarfen -- calls us dandies. If I weren't a professor, I'd knock his lights out. He tells me where to find a hint-granting "hint coin" though, so I guess I'm glad I'm a gentleman.
0:18 "Welcome to St. Mystere, where our local export is... the puzzle!" says an old lady. Do other towns really trade things like flour and spices for... puzzles? "They say wonderful things will happen if you gain enough picarats." How vague...
0:20 New puzzle: I have to pick the hat with a width the same as its height. I forgot my tape measure at home... but I do have a stylus whose tip just happens to be the right length for comparison purposes. "Every puzzle has an answer," Layton tells me tautologically after I finish.
