That said, the new Professor Layton came with a veritable feast of new mini-games, new puzzles, and one of the best story-lines in a game I’ve played in the last while. As a result, the newest addition to the series (Professor Layton and the Unwound Future) ends up being the best of the series (thus far).

Synopsis

The Unwound Future takes place after the events from the Diabolical Box. Layton and Luke have been invited, somewhat at random, to a scientific demonstration of an apparent time-machine. Things go south (as all preludes in this series do), and days later you get a letter from Luke that has a posting date from 10 years in the future. Now since Layton has conquered ghosts, missing peoples, phantom trains, and imaginary clockwork people, solving a temporal mystery just seems the next logical step.

Luke and Layton follow the instructions, and end up at a mysterious clock shop (surprise, surprise). When brought into the back of the shop, a giant clock awaits them. This is, apparently, a time machine, and before they can think it through, the shop owner throws the switch and Luke and Layton are thrown into the future. Here they notice the changes (and similarities) between them. Eventually they run into Future Luke, and things just get weirder.

As the story unfolds, you find out that the scientist from the demonstration and Layton have some shared past. Namely, they went to the same school, and happened to be in love with the same girl: Claire. The scientist (Dimitri, in case you’re wondering) at first seems to be out to get Layton due to Layton’s winning the affections of Claire. Things, though, are not what they seem. As the story progresses, things get well messed up, and it really does take right up to the 11th hour for everything to come to light.

It ends with, in my opinion, one of the saddest endings I have ever witnessed on the DS. Possibly one of the saddest endings on any Nintendo title that I’ve played. Things are tied up well, if not nicely, and you’re not really left with any questions other than ‘WHY DID THEY JUST DO THAT TO ME?” I was honestly more upset than I thought possible, given the game I was playing. I didn’t sob or anything, but it did move me.

Mechanics

The core mechanics of the game have been left pretty much unchanged. New faces, new places, but the environmental stuff hasn’t moved on much. It doesn’t really need to, either. They got it right the first time, so there’s not much of a need to change it. Tap everywhere to find puzzles and/or hint coins. Solve said puzzles with or without the help of said hint coins. Move on.

The mini-games have changed again. You now get a toy car game, a parrot-guiding game, and the sticker-book game. The toy car game is similar to the hamster game from the last Professor Layon, with a few obvious changes (water, comes to mind). The sticker-book game is fun because you have to put the correct stickers in the correct spots on the page. When this is done, you get to read the whole story. It’s a bit juvenile, but entertaining.

Then there is the parrot game. I hate the parrot game. I hate it more than slider puzzles, and I really hate slider puzzles. The idea is to draw ropes from peg to peg in order to help the parrot (who can only seem to hop short distances) get to end flag before the timer runs down. I’m just going to say right now: I cheated. I don’t even feel bad about it. Know why? because I spent hours and hours trying to legitimately figure the damned parrot puzzles out, and to no avail. Well screw that noise, I have better things to do (shutup I do so) than to run the same parrot simulation over and over and over and over and over and motherfucking over.

The Highs

The laytest installment (see what I did there?) comes with a heaping dose of wonderfully animated cut-scenes, which are pretty much par for the course by this point. The music is wonderful (the alteration of the main/professors theme is sublime) and as goes well with both the puzzles and the story points. Some new items have been added to the score selection, though the puzzle theme remains just as ponderous as it always was.

A special shout-out has to be made here for the grace in which the Professor’s history is handled. While I enjoyed the previous two stories for being entertaining, the Unwound Future is the first in the series that actually made me care about any of the characters. Even Luke, who in many cases I find to be grating, was given a lot more … Luke-ness. That’s a good thing, surprisingly. They really went the extra mile to make the characters mean something more to you than simple puzzle gods, and it shows.

The Lows

Slider puzzles make a shining return in the latest installment, which of course means that I stared at the DS’ screens for a while, scowling in hate until my fail-safe method of random sliding paid off. On top of that, the writers really went out of their way to include more utterly ambiguous riddles. I’m talking about the kind of riddles that legitimately have more than one answer (which makes them shit riddles to begin with) but will only accept whatever cryptic answer they keep locked up in their brain-can. Also, there were a small number of puzzles that looked eerily familiar to past Professor Layton puzzles. I worry that they may be running out of puzzles for the series. Hopefully not.

I also have to say that one of the lows was the feeling of utter depression I got upon finishing the game. I could spoil the ending for you (though I will not) and ruin your day, but suffice it to say that it really struck a chord for me. The only thing that makes a depressing ending worse though, is an unnecessarily depressing ending. They didn’t need to do what they did,  but I guess they felt that the best ending to a light-hearted puzzle game would be to break everyones heart. Repeatedly.

Woe upon the parents who buy this game for their 11 year old daughter, only to have her run into their room, sobbing uncontrollably.

Overall

A great addition to the Professor Layton series, and what will probably go down as my favorite. That is of course until this comes out, and I am forced to purchase a 3DS just to play it.

Regardless, it’s a great title, if not a bit depressing at the end, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the series. I would suggest picking up the previous two if you’re new to the series because it will allow you to appreciate Unwound Future so much more.

9/10

It’s silly, I know, but I have a problem with brain teasers. I can’t put them down without getting really angry at myself for giving up. I will constantly think about the problem until I’ve answered it. It’s really quite unhealthy. So what do you think happens when I come across a game like Professor Layton and the Curious Village?

I lose sleep.

I will finish a puzzle, and then say to myself “just one more, it wont take long.” Next thing I know it’s 1 in the morning and I’m still feverishly solving mind-benders. I find my waking thoughts drifting back to the unsolved puzzles trying to work them out. I obsess over the words, searching for secret meanings and obtuse angles.

I love this game.

It’s one of the first games I’ve played for the DS that actually requires that you use the stylus instead of having it as a novelty. It’s direction, if a bit linear and predictable, is solid and well-written. The music and artistry throughout the game is top notch, and it even has voice acting that doesn’t suffer from Shatner syndrome or make me want to claw my ears off with rusty serving forks.

The story goes thusly: Professor Layton and his sidekick receive a letter in the mail from a duchess requesting his puzzle-solving abilities. When hey arrive, they are told that there is a golden apple hidden away somewhere in the city, along with a huge treasure store. If the Professor can find it, he’d be entitled to a cut, and thought of as a hero. Shortly after this knowledge is revealed, a murder takes place, and the Professor takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of the golden apple as well as the murder. In fact there are 10 mysteries overall that are solved by playing through the story.

Oh, did I mention that everyone in the village is obsessed with puzzles, and will prompt you to solve them with little care for whether you actually would like to or not? Yeah, that happens a lot.

My biggest problem with the game is that it’s so linear it hurts. In order for you to miss puzzles (which you can always access in the puzzle hut – don’t ask – later) all you have to do is go to every screen and talk to every person until they repeat themselves. You have to do this after every Chapter.

Actually now that I think about it, the most annoying part of the game is any of the “hidden” things, because they all require you to tap the screen like a retard, searching for that one magical pixel that will reveal unto you a coin or puzzle. It almost isn’t worth it in the end, except that you NEED coins for some puzzles simply because they are just so obtuse that logic just doesn’t really apply.

Other than that, this game is great. It’s solid from start to finish in its delivery, its novelty, its sound, and its visuals. The story is a little kiddish for me, but the exceptionally difficult puzzles (few and far between, but good God they’re there) help balance it all out. Seriously, if grade six kids can figure all these puzzles out (the script and average puzzle difficulty lands around there) they deserve a prize. I spent hours on a couple of those damned things.

I suggest picking it up and playing through it. You’ll kill time and increase brain activity by solving puzzles, you’ll be entertained, and you’ll even have some intrigue throughout the entire story. It also has a great scene involving a ferris wheel that made me laugh more than it probably should have.

8/10