I ditched Apollo Justice and don't regret it: Professor Layton & the Curious Village
 

So I decided to spend my birthday earnings in a DS game, seeing that I'll have no access to my Wii this semester. I went to Gamestop today to see if they already had Apollo Justice available, even though the actual launch day is this following Tuesday. Surprise surprise, they did break the embargo and there it was, standing in all of its glory, tempting me to purchase it.

However, there was something else that caught my attention at that time. I had heard about this game for quite a while, and I was intrigued, to say the least, of what was so special about it to be making such a shockwave in the videogame world.


Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an adventure game developed by Level 5 (Dark Cloud 2, Dragon Quest VIII, Jeanne D'Arc) dealing with the mystery of the Golden Apple, a relic left by the former Baron Reinhold of the village of Saint Mystère. You take control of the famous Professor Hershel Layton and his apprentice, Luke, as they try to solve the mystery surrounding the death of the Baron and the perplexing existence of the Golden Apple.

What really struck my heartstrings about this game were the graphics and the music. For a videogame, be it on the DS or the PS3, it looks gorgeous. The visuals are not only splendid, but they also become embellished a whole lot more by what is a wonderful soundtrack accompanied by some of the best voice acting I've heard in a game since Final Fantasy XII. The whole package brings smells of nostalgia for that old anime I used to watch with my mother, Heidi, or even of the old Captain Tsubasa or Hayao Miyazaki's works if you want to stretch it. It is a style of japanese manga that's more closely related to the original influences of Disney, and I cannot help but love them.

Still, the most important thing about a game is the gameplay, isn't it? Although the plot is vastly interesting, what makes this game float is the number of puzzles, actually developed by a professional and not a bunch of programmers trying to find a reason to put you into a flying castle because they already have the code for it. Ranging from the usual "take the chics and the wolves from one side of the river to the other" to actual mind-blowing stuff, all of them feel intriguing enough to grab you and make you feel clever if you manage to solve them.

So anyhow, has anyone else tried it or do I have to beat some people in the head with a Game Boy? I'm talking about the original brick one, none of this "Pocket" shit you guys have going on.

I'm kind of on the fence about this one since I don't ordinarily like puzzle games that much, but... hmnneurgh... ah screw it, I guess I'll pick it up.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080213.jpg

Heard good things about it

nice about nintendo is that thanks to the DS (mostly) Puzzle games are strong again, and more up-to-date. Too bad the replay value is quite low. Anyone know if this one is like that too?

I heard this one gets regular updates of new puzzles as DLC to keep it fresh. Not sure if that's true.

You get one extra puzzle each week by Wi-Fi. That will keep it living until the sequel, Professor Layton and Pandora's Box.

Again, you get one new puzzle each week, but if you don't stand point and click adventure games you're probably not going to be satisfied by this.

I've never played this game and probably won't play it a single time in my entire life but because that was the best Penny Arcade in a long while Professor Layton & the Curious Village gets my approval.

Fucking tl;dr Tera.

Just say it's fucking amazing and get it over with.

I'm already pumped for the sequel.

This has about 120 puzzles in it, and you have to look all over the place in tiny little areas before finding them all, and then you can download a new one every week. Plus, this is supposed to be way above the average for your general DS puzzle game; I haven't played it, so I don't know, but GameSpot was raving.
For me, Apollo Justice is first on my list of games to get, but this'll come soon after.

Too long? You've been in 4-<H@n far too long. When a game is fucking amazing I sincerely believe it deserves to have a long, sweet and tender essay detailing its finesses to demonstrate how lovely one must feel when playing it.

I'll have mercy and not tl;dr this as well.