SFist Plays Professor Layton and the Curious Village

By Gordon Elgart

Do you remember classic brainteaser puzzles like the one where you have to put wolves and chickens on rafts, but only in certain combinations? Or the one where you have to draw things without picking up your pen, and without redrawing a line? Of course you do.

Now, there’s a video game that features all of these puzzles, all wrapped into a story of lost treasure, murder, kidnapping, and other mysteries. It’s called Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and it’s both extremely fun and utterly frustrating.

One of the best looking games ever to appear on the Nintendo DS, with Professor Layton and the Curious Village you will find hand-drawn animation in parts, and also some pretty decent voice acting. (Alas, there’s also some scratch-your-eyes-out bad voice acting, but not too much of that.) The art is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli or The Triplets of Belleville, without being a straight rip-off.

The basic concept of the game is that you arrive in town, and everybody (including the cat) has a puzzle for you at every turn. This can be humorous in parts. “Sure, I’ll help you chase down the kidnapper who needs to be caught before he escapes town, but first will you tell me how to get from point A to point B without taking any left turns, and without retracing your steps?”

If you find yourself stumped by any of these puzzles, and you will be (unless you Google the answers), you can buy hints with hint coins. The first hint is useless if you have ever solved any puzzle, but the second and third hints can be useful. You’ll have to find “hint coins” throughout the village, and they are in limited supply, so you can’t just go around asking for hints without consequence.