Being Layton’s apprentice saves the brain! (Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of one’s time…)

Partners in the crime against productivity

I finally sat down with Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and as one might expect, I haven’t gotten up since. The game is sheer deducing delight, a bonafide Golden Apple for any puzzle bookworm. It’s almost certainly the perfect format of DS title ever to be conceived, and I would wish there to be many others like it. (On September 1st, there will be one more.)

But even if the lot of third-party DS supporters were to clean their bilge-spewing development pipes, they simply could not produce a worthy imitator to Layton. Level 5′s game draws together an atmosphere of mystery and a world of intelligent interaction, authentically constructed by writers and designers, and the one-of-a-kind talent of a puzzle mastermind, Akira Tago. They were very, very smart, and it shows.

If you’re not afraid to lose your mind a little while you train your brain, take a visit to the Curious Village. There must be upwards of 100 puzzles to solve, and you have no idea how long that’s going to take you.

Problem Gamer