1 Minute Madness – Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is marketed as a point and click adventure puzzle title, which basically means it’s a game with a whole pile of brain teasers and puzzles loosely strung together with a story.

You take control of both Professor Layton and his annoying companion Luke as you set about trying to solve the mystery of St. Mystere (how original). The game starts of with a very basic brainsteaser where you need to find the right road into town and you quite quickly realise that Professor Layton is a pompous prat and his junior sidekick is constantly getting upset at everyone else for absolutely no reason. Maybe it’s because I missed the first few titles but you are given no real reason why Luke looks up to the Professor so religiously or why a grown man is touring the French countryside with a young child who isn’t his… but back to the game.

Luckily the game isn’t about the dodgy story line and is all about the puzzles, the puzzles range from the simplistic to the insanely complicated and do well to cover all the levels in between. There are 131 puzzles that ship with the title but you don’t need to complete all of them to complete the game. I think I have completed 79 of them and have now finished the story, which took just under 11 hours,  and I can now go back and complete the ones I missed at my leisure. Once you have completed all 131 you can also download new puzzles on a  daily basis through your Wi-Fi port but I haven’t given that a try yet as my DS thinks that my local access point’s security is to high? 

If logical thinking and brainteasers are your thing then you will absolutely love Professor Layton and the Curious Village and you never know it may help you get that job you always wanted*

Verdict: This is a must buy for all puzzle addicts

*True story, when I went for the interview at my previous day job I was given this brain teaser to try out in a meeting.

You have 9 billiard balls which are the same colour, texture and size. One of the 9 is lighter than the rest.

You also have an old fashioned set of scales that can only be used twice, how can you find out which of the balls is the lightest?

This brainteaser is in the game and if I had played the game first it would have made that moment in my life a lot easier… if you were wondering I did get it right in the interview and got the job.

First answer in wins a hearty pat on the back.

Last Updated: December 15, 2008