Reviewed on Nintendo DS.
| Professor Layton and the Curious Village Cover Art |
There are a lot of games I played on the Nintendo DS. Hand-held consoles kept me busy during trips, car rides, even at home. I was always a Nintendo hand-held fan so from the Game Boy, Game Boy Colour, Game Boy Advance, and so forth, practically owning every hand-held console to date. Now I enjoy puzzle games and there's a ton of puzzle games on your phone that pass the time, but this one also had a story element to it so I was interested.
The whole premise of the Professor Layton series where he's a detective solving a case, but always presented with various puzzles to solve, it's so unique and fun. You're captivated with the story and drawn to what Layton and Luke will do, and then you get puzzles ranging from easy to difficult as the game carries on. It never feels too dull and for its time, you're essentially reading a lot of text, but being 2008, and for the Nintendo DS, it's to be expected.
By the end of the game, you're craving for more and hope there's a sequel to it and in fact, many sequels. As a bonus, if you collect the subsequent games, you're given a special code to apply, that'll give you some bonuses. That's some definite long term planning and a nice thank you to the fans who support them from game to game.
It's unfortunate after the sixth game and a movie, there isn't much more they can do to the story. They've created a cross-up between Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright which was fantastic, and now made a game with Layton's daughter, but that original spark is no longer there. It could be a variety of things. The idea of a hand-held console is essentially fading away, with the rise of smartphones. Would a company invest money into developing a game for the Nintendo 3DS which...has been out for so long? They can easily make it for the Nintendo Switch at this point, or better yet, make it for the iOS or Android in the ever so popular freemium style. It's unfortunate to look back at these kinds of games slowly becoming obsolete but there are definitely some great memories.
