DS - 2007's Most Wanted
The best things yet to come in small packages.
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village
- Release Date: Late 2007
- Gamepage
This, the first installment in an intended trilogy based around the exploits of Professor Layton and his sidekick Luke, comes from Level 5, the team behind PS2 titles Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy. The game has a delightful and unique illustrative art style, and its mechanics are built up of a series of mini-game style puzzles interlinked by narrative and simple exploration.
The game's puzzles seem to major on those infuriating mental conundrums beloved of schoolchildren and Boy's Own annuals. In one example you're presented with the task of carrying three chicks across a river using a two-man raft. Three wolves also wait on the riverbank: leave a single chick with a wolf unattended and it will be eaten, so you must work out the order in which to carry the units to ensure their safe transport.
As you work through puzzles, you build up hint points which can be used to gain tips towards solutions. It's a refreshingly different take on the ubiquitous DS puzzle game and, combined with the game's wonderful art style presents a welcome departure from the JRPG for the talented company.