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Nintendo's pushing Professor Layton with its usual first-party ferocity. At Best Buy you can buy a discounted bundle that gives you a new Cobalt/Black DS, a copy of Layton, and an ugly carrying case for only $160. Extra puzzles are already up on the WFC, and Layton actually has a little memory free on the cart for saving them after you download. Once I'd run my errands earlier today, got some lunch and a nice big latte from Starbucks, I expected to sit down and read hell of Professor Layton reviews.

Well... uh. I guess Nintendo didn't manage to get the word out that Layton is a significant first-party title. Right now there are seven reviews up for Layton there, with only one major North American outlet represented. Of these, four are import reviews from last year. What the hell? Why is Layton not worth even bothering with?

To editorialize: I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that there's a segment of gamers who believe gaming is fundamentally about death. Either you are killing things, or trying not to die. If a game design doesn't include either of these elements, it's somehow not actually game, even if you are playing it on a game system with a controller like, you know, a game. This mentality seems to spawn both general indifference, and worthless non-reviews like EGM's loathsome Electronic Nongaming Monthly section. (Funny how one Ziff-Davis outlet can handle this kind of material with skill and aplomb, but not the grandaddy of modern games writing.)

Anyway, enough kvetching. Let's talk about the reviews that exist for Professor Layton, which reveal an interesting title that may beat media darling Zack & Wiki at its own game when it comes to purveying delightful brainteasers. First off, let's start with Nintendo Power's print review from the February issue. There Layton scored an 8.5, equivalent to the score given Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.

"I'll be done in just a few minutes," I told one of my colleagues as he was leaving the office for the evening. An hour and a half later I still hadn't pried myself away from Professor Layton and the Curious Village. And not because I was stumped *although the game does contain plenty of brain-straining challenge)--because I was absolutely hooked; I kept wanting to solve "just one more puzzle." Not everyone will get addicted to Professor Layton's critical-thinking puzzles like I did, but those that do will find it captivating. Finally there's a brain game for gamers--one that mixes its puzzles with point-and-click exploration, memorable characters, and a touching, surprisingly poignant story.

See, the game was so good that it left the writer incapable of not writing a hideous complex run-on sentence! You get similar enthusiasm from Gamebrink, which awarded an even higher 8.8 score despite having quite a few complaints about the localization quality (voice acting, mostly). This review goes into a lot of detail about just about everything, including the way the item-hunting system unlocks more puzzles.

Beside the myriad of puzzles that youll come up against, there are also a number of items for you to collect too. In Professor Laytons bag where the main menu is youll find that you must collect the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle and a robot dog. Once you put those pieces together, youre ready to unlock more puzzles to solve. But item collecting doesnt just stop there because you can also collect furniture to help decorate the Professor and Lukes empty rooms. Satisfy their tastes and youll unlock even more content! You might be glad to know that theres no pixel hunting involved to collect these items. Theyre all rewards from solving puzzles.

Da Gameboyz also graced Professor Layton with a review, which makes sense given their portable focus. The Gameboyz review is also extremely positive, with an 8.5 score. This review also touches on a lot of Layton's hidden content, and I commend the reviewer for having the spine to say "You know, i couldn't find everything."

Now I have not had the chance to experience all the puzzles in the game as a lot of them are hidden. You do not need to find all of them to finish the games main story but you will feel a sense of accomplishment the more puzzles you find. There are a heck of a lot of puzzles in this game. Early on within the first hour of play I came across a hidden puzzle that was No. 110. Now that my friends is a whole lot of content. From my understanding there are going to be in the neighborhood of 130 or so total puzzles, but remember a number of these are hidden.

So! Sounds like a good, long experience for people who like ferreting out unlocks and solving logic puzzles. This is something I like, but I don't think I'll pick up Layton. I want to focus on Phantom Hourglass and finish it up before Shiren hits, and it'll probably be about a month after that before I'm ready for a new DS game. Still, for those of you who aren't "booked up", Layton may be up your gaming alley.

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