Info about Gaming
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
There is a big trend – there’s always a big trend, generally – in gaming towards self improvements. On the one hand we have an avalanche of fitness based ‘games’ for the Wii platform, using the device’s movement sensing capabilities and a few very clever peripherals to monitor users progress. On the other hand, we have programs that exercise your mind. Strangely, most of these seem to occur on the DS, making Nintendo a strong contender for the ‘Self Improvement Support’ award (not that we have an award like that, but anyway.)
The argument that games are mentally stimulating anyway doesn’t seem to come into the picture – these games are marketed as more stimulating, and are basically becoming to gaming what the giant crossword is to the Sunday paper. Not, if you think about it, a bad thing. I like puzzles, all kinds of them. From a jigsaw that more often than not gets the pieces scattered all over the floor by the cat (and subsequently thoroughly, soggily masticated by the dog) through to crosswords and the like, puzzles are cool. So having puzzle games on a hand-held platform is a winner (if even only because the cat can’t get to the pieces.)
One of the games that provide an excellent degree of mental stimulation, combined with a rather entertaining tale, is Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The game was something of a late arrival on our shores, but now South Africans can join the rest of the world in enjoying this stimulating title. The story is simple. Professor Layton, a puzzle solving boffin, is called to the village of St Mystere to help get to the bottom of a rather chunky will. The dividing up of the estate of a late, wealthy baron, is dependant on the finding of a golden apple… but no-one knows where it is. And so Professor Layton, with the help of his rather annoying assistant, takes the case.
The story doesn’t only give the game a paradigm to exist in, but also provides a theme for the presentation of the game. The graphics are mostly static, in a hand drawn style, but they are none-theless rather appealing. The voice acting also carries the style (which is rather Sherlock Holmesy) nicely, although some of the fake British accents employed by the voice actors are very fake indeed. Moving through the village is a simple task of pointing the way. The transitions through the village are a series of static frames, some of which contain the villagers that will supply the player with the real meat and bones of the game: the puzzles.
There are around 130 brain teasers in the game, ranging from the easy to the downright migraine-inducing. Some of them are familiar (the kind of puzzles that have been around since your grandfather was a nipper) but others are rather new and inventive. Each puzzle also has a system of hints in place, and can be retried numerous times. Using hints and retries will lessen the rewards that the player gets for solving the puzzles, though – these are used to buy unlockable content within the game.
On the surface, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is little more than a collection of brain teasers with a veneer of aesthetic elements. The story and setting are not necessary, in practical terms. However, the story is part of what makes the game compelling, and the setting and general feel it brings to the title only enhances the player’s enjoyment of the game. The game is really uncomplicated and easy to play, with simple controls supporting the collection of puzzles, adding accessibility on the technical side. The puzzles can also be replayed, once they have been encountered in the game, although there doesn’t seem to be much point in re-solving a brain teaser that you have already solved. The game very nicely explains the logic behind the puzzles, too, particularly those based on optical illusions.
On the whole, it’s an enjoyable game that is easy to pick up and play absolutely anywhere. Sure, if puzzles aren’t your thing, you’ll probably want to avoid it, but the convenience of getting a quick puzzle in anywhere (thanks to the DS’ portability) and the excellent work done on the presentation make this game a winner.