You wouldn't believe it at first glance, but sitting behind the friendly, innocuous face of Professor Layton is a game chock full of puzzles that'd make any Brain Training master sweat profusely. One part mystery adventure and one (larger) part about the puzzles, Professor Layton & The Curious Village is a surprising strong union of the two differing elements.

Through a simple narrative structure that sees Layton and his young protégé arriving at a strange village to help an elderly woman track down her inheritance, you're invited to tap around the screen looking for puzzles to try, people to talk to, and the invaluable hint coins that we'll come to shortly. When talking to people, they invariably ask you to help with one of the game's many, many puzzles that you need to solve before you're given (usually) helpful information.

The puzzles range in difficulty, and you're given a clue as to how tricky each is going to be by how many Picorats - the in-game points system - you'll be awarded for solving it. Get it wrong first time and the potential points grab will reduce.

The earlier puzzles are good confidence builders, but it doesn't take long for the difficulty level to ramp up, and for the hairs on your head to shrivel up in anticipation of being pulled out. Some of the problems are really quite ingenious, others frustrating, but it's easily the most challenging brain workout you can find on the Nintendo DS.

If you get stuck on a particular problem, you can buy up to three hints with the assorted hint coins that are discoverable throughout the game. These generally will eventually lead you to the answer, but the finite nature of the coin system means you can only use so many (although we found that even when we hit the latter part of the game, we still had a decent coin haul).

The game throws in a few other facets along the way. There are bits of picture to collect and put together, a multitude of gizmos to experiment with, hidden puzzles to find and things to put in your hotel room. These do have a place, but it's the puzzles that are the main meat, and where you'll spend most of your time.

It's a good job, because the narrative itself becomes a little bit tiresome and too often predictable, and while it works as a link from one puzzle to its next, the story does outstay its welcome.

Yet this is still a terrific little game, more engaging than the likes of Big Brain Academy and Brain Training, and in many ways far more testing. What's more, over in Japan it's already proven to be the first of a popular trilogy.

So by the time you get to the end of the mystery, and sit down and congratulate yourself on beating some of the most devious puzzles ever seen in a videogame, you can be assured that there are more challenges around the corner.

Verdict
A fun, engaging, terrific value puzzle game that offers a lot of brain prodding for your outlay. It's not perfect, but it's very good.

Company: Nintendo

Tags: puzzle professor layton japan video game nintendo big brain academy brain fitness games