Metareview: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
We've been excited about Professor Layton and the Curious Village for some time now. With every new screenshot and video released, that excitement quickly grew into obsession, and then infatuation. Last Saturday night, we were barely able to sleep, scrunching our eyes tight shut whenever our mums would come and check on us, and bouncing on the bed in excitement when she left. But now -- joy! -- it's here! And it's really good! We know because these people told us so!
1UP -- 85%: 1UP reviewer Jeremy Parish felt that the game was more than the sum of its parts: "Admittedly, the game's puzzle and story elements likely wouldn't stand well on their own -- the puzzles are excellent but often rely on certain tricks of language that, once spotted, become transparent in subsequent iterations; the adventure game is unrepentantly simple and linear. The genius of Layton is that they don't stand alone. Instead, the two game types work together harmoniously, resulting in something altogether more entertaining than its base components."
GamePro -- 75%: GamePro's assessment, meanwhile, was slightly less glowing, criticizing the puzzles for being anywhere between laughably easy and horrendously hard. In the end though, they rather liked it: "For all its frustrations, Professor Layton does have its merits. The overall vibe of the game is charming and immensely likeable and the basic game mechanic is solid. There is also a ton of things to do: aside from the puzzles, there are other neat extras that I'll let you discover on your own. Even if the uneven difficulty robs the game of some of its fun and the slow, methodical pacing might lull some gamers to sleep, for puzzle lovers and brainy gamers, Professor Layton definitely has a lot to offer."
GameSpy -- 90%: GameSpy simply adored Level 5's game, praising the developer for going the extra mile with the storyline and game world: "Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an incredibly original and thoroughly entertaining addition to the Nintendo DS library. Level-5 could have easily packaged the puzzles into a barebones daily format and have ended up with a game that's as entertaining as the Brain Training series. Instead, Level-5 went the extra mile and wrapped these puzzles into a beautifully presented world inhabited by endearing characters amid a compelling murder mystery. The effort paid off."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kylock @ Feb 13th 2008 12:11PM
To be frank, I don't really listen to what the main reviews sites and magazines say anymore. Their logical inconsistencies and sometimes downright biases and stupidities have destroyed their reputation.
The fanboy sites (PSP/DS fanboy in particular) do such a better job with reviews, it isn't even funny.
Joshua @ Feb 13th 2008 12:29PM
Hi, Frank.
Kylock @ Feb 13th 2008 2:25PM
Frank smash!
CJC @ Feb 13th 2008 1:47PM
That image looks unusually poor compared to everything else on this site.
And this game is amazing in a way I can't quite explain.
RootiePatootie @ Feb 13th 2008 8:32PM
I read reviews from MANY sites and a few publications, especially for my PC gaming habit. I also talk to friends who've played the game, if they have, that I trust...and whose gaming likes are similar to mine. Prof. Layton, which I bought Sunday (first time I ever bought a DS game the day it came out), I'd so far say is worth it if you like puzzles (which I do) but I feel that the Game Pro review above is pretty much spot on. I have set it aside and went back to Zelda today...that one I can't seem to set aside for too long!
Game reviews, for me, are something that I always read a LOT of, consider the source (there's a couple gaming mags that I've read for YEARS and feel I've got a good handle on the reviewers and the general direction of the mag) and even then if I can get my hands on a trial version (I'm talking PC games here for the most part although I did that a LOT with my XBox too) I'll play that before making a final decision. Of course, there are always a few exceptions to this and I'll buy it either because the previews hooked me badly, such as in Prof. Layton, or because it's an expansion to something I'm already deeply into.
James @ Feb 13th 2008 9:16PM
I notice that GamePro (the worst score of the bunch) obviously didn't know how to play the damn game. Exactly like Zack and Wiki, people knock the game for being of "uneven" or "maddening" difficulty, without using the *built-in hint system*. Both games let you "buy" hints to any puzzle with easily obtained currency -- I have over 20 hints in the bank right now in Layton, and I've already used 4-5 of them on ~18 puzzles. And all I had to do was tap the occasional candle or barrel or other vaguely-interesting bit of scenery. If you can't be bothered to learn *all* the rules of the game, please don't bother to review it.
Goldilocks @ Feb 14th 2008 2:20AM
My husband wondered about the Layton ad he saw on another gaming forum, and since I recognized it from browsing DSFanboy, told him a lil' about it as he went onto the site. He seemed to enjoy playing the single puzzle demo.
Then he made the mistake of even mentioning buying the game. I guess I didn't really care what DS game, just any new game.
I played it for about an hour tonight, while he cooked dinner, and it's very captivating. The voice acting is pretty darn good and the plot is just enough to add the sort of excitment you got when you were a kid, reinventing the aether.
I haven't gotten but an hour or so into the game, but I like it a lot. It reminds me of a book I had when I was younger. The book had a lot of parts (colorful string, lots of cardboard triangles, plastic shapes for making bigger-more-defined shapes, nuts and bolts kind-of-stuff) to use for solving hundreds of puzzles. It was cool, but Professor Layton is even more.