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								Professor Layton and the Curious Village Genre: Action/Puzzle Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Release Date: 2008 Written by:El Gordo A brain teaser with a story. This game primarily plays, like the new popular Brain Age games that Nintendo has released on it's Wii and DS conoles. The main difference between the 2 is that this game provides a story, instead of a whole index of puzzles. I for one didn't mind the story of the game, which in some ways is kind of convoluted due to the twist. What I did mind, more than anything, was how illogical most of the puzzles were. Some were very well detailed and some of them made no logical sense at all. When you do get a puzzle right, the game will fill in the gaps of reasoning. Most of the time the reasons for the answers were more puzzling than the gameplay itself. As for the gameplay itself, it's not all that bad. Puzzles are worked out on the bottom screen via the stylus while the top screen shows the conditions for the puzzle. Like I mentioned above, the puzzles (most of the time) are straight forward and some are just flat out confusing. The game itself is broken down into chapters and you point and click your way around town with the stylus. Kind of like how old PC games used to be. The storyline focus' around Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke (Skywalker?). Layton was sent a letter to investigate and find the treasure of the town St. Mysterye called the Golden Apple. Throughout the story, you find more mysteries to solve around the town before actually finding the Golden Apple. Most of the dialogue and storyline is fairly straightforward that has few twists and turns. Honestly this game could have been a 2-D side scroller with just a jump button and action button and could have been fairly decent if done right. The cutscenes are awesome and having the option of reliving some of these cutscenes was a good idea. All in all it's not a bad game, it just needed a few tweaks here and there. Graphics: Not bad for a puzzle game and the cutscenes give it a push, in the right direction 3.0 Sound: The voice overs are not bad at all. I can't say the same thing for the soundtrack, the songs are irritating and loop over. 2.0 Playability:Using the stylus is a pretty welcoming experience. There are times when you have to input a number or letter 4-5 times, which can get frustrating. I for one could not understand why they decided to go with a point and click format, it's just an archaic way of playing a game 2.5 Bang for your buck: Fans of Brain Age will love this game. If your someone who is interested in puzzle type games, you might find this game up your alley. If neither of these things interest you save money and buy something else. 2.0 All around this game isn't terrible and it's not that great either. It really depends on your taste in games, fans of puzzle type games might find this game interesting while others might find it to be terrible. 3.0 / 5.0