Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is far from being a game just for kids. Developed by Level-5, the studio behind Dragon Quest VIII and Dark Cloud, it combines two brain twisting genres into an unique title on the Nintendo DS.The story begins when Professor Layton, a puzzle fanatic and part time detective, and his side kick, Luke, receive a message from Lady Dhalia, a rich widow in search of a lost valuable memento left by her late husband, called the Golden Apple. Before even setting foot in St. Mystérie, the tone of the game reveals itself, throwing a puzzle the player's way in order to discover the actual location of the village. Along the way to solve the Golden Apple and the many other mysteries found in St. Mystérie, the villagers present brainteasers that sometimes lead to clues when solved. Upon exploration of the environment, more puzzles can be discovered, amassing to around 150 puzzles total. However, only a fraction of these has to be solved in order to complete the game's story.
The puzzles themselves range from all kinds of problems, mixing mathematically heavy enigmas, simple jigsaw puzzles and even Tetris-like block pushers. For each of these, a certain amount of piccarats, the game's currency, is awarded. These are used to acquire the many bonuses locked up in the bonus menu found outside the story mode, and range from a variety of puzzles. There is no time limit to solving the problems presented, but for each wrong answer, a certain amount of piccarats is taken away. However, they are never completely zeroed out, stopping at a certain minimum number available to earn. Tips can also be used at the cost of hint coins, which can be found through good, old fashioned, pixel hunting of the village's backgrounds, in the form of stylus tapping. Even though there are lots of possibilities to get help, the puzzles are no push overs, and often provide interesting challenges that require an "outside the box" method of thinking. These were created with the help of free pc games full version downloads Chiba University's Professor Akira Tago, which is a known Japanese puzzle creator, author of many books in the subject.