Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Encyclopedia
Professor Layton and the Curious Village, released in Japan as , is a puzzle adventure
video game for the Nintendo DS
system. It was developed by Level-5
, and published by Level-5 within Japan and Nintendo
internationally. It was released in Japan during 2007, and in PAL region
s and North America a year later in 2008. Curious Village is the first title in the Professor Layton series, directly followed by Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
The game centers around Professor Hershel Layton
, and his self-styled apprentice, Luke Triton, investigating the fictional village of St. Mystere about an artifact known as the Golden Apple, an heirloom that the late Baron had left as a test to determine who would receive his fortune after his death. The residents of St. Mystere particularly enjoy brain teasers, and will often ask the player to help solve them by using the system's touchscreen
to submit answers, in exchange for their cooperation in the search.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village was met with generally positive reviews, praising both its approach to combining the adventure and puzzle genres, as well as for its presentation and animated cutscenes. It would go on to sell over a million copies in Japan alone.
in US English and Maria Darling
in UK English) around the village of St. Mystere to locate the "Golden Apple" and solve other mysteries that arise during their search. St. Mystere is divided into several sections, some of which are inaccessible until the story has advanced to a certain point or the player solves a certain number of puzzles. The player can talk to characters or investigate objects on screen by tapping them. In many cases, the characters will ask Layton and Luke to try to solve a puzzle; there are also hidden puzzles that can be found by investigating certain objects. As the story progresses, if an unsolved puzzle can no longer be accessed (for example, if the person offering it has departed), it will reappear at Granny Riddleton's Puzzle Shack at the plaza, midway through the game.
Puzzles include brain teaser
s, sliding puzzle
s, logic puzzle
s, and others. The player is presented with each puzzle and its value in "picarats", and is given an unlimited amount of time to solve it. Each puzzle has three hints available for it, but the player must spend one "hint coin" to see each hint. Hint coins are limited; the player starts with ten, and more can be found by examining suspicious objects around the village. Once the player feels they have the answer to a puzzle, depending on the puzzle, they might enter it by selecting an answer, drawing a circle around a specific area, or entering the answer by inputting letters or numbers into the DS's touchscreen. If the player is correct, the picarats are added to his total score, and he is sometimes rewarded with an item. If the player is incorrect, he can retry the puzzle indefinitely, though the first two times he is wrong, the value of the puzzle will decrease by approximately ten percent each time (or more, in the case of multiple-choice puzzles). There are also puzzles in which the player must make a sequence of moves in order to reach some final state, and cannot submit an incorrect answer. Optionally, a player can quit a puzzle at no cost and try another, though certain puzzles are mandatory to progress. Once a puzzle is completed, the player may retry it at any time via the game's menu.
As a reward for completing a puzzle, the player may earn one of three rewards: machine parts known as "gizmos", furniture, or portrait pieces, to be used in their respective minigames accessible through the professor's trunk. Gizmos can be attached to assemble a robotic dog with the ability to sniff out hidden hint coins and puzzles. Pieces of furniture can be placed within Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local inn, arranging them in such a way as to make both of them completely happy with their rooms. Pieces of a portrait are assembled like a jigsaw puzzle
, revealing a picture once fully assembled. By completing all 120 puzzles in the main game and each of these three minigames, the player can access up 15 bonus puzzles from the main menu. The game is also compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
, which allows players to connect to the internet and unlock over 25 new puzzles in the game. The first unlockable puzzle was made available on the day of the game's release, and new puzzles were released weekly for half a year, every Sunday. Also found within the bonus features is a "Hidden Door", which can be opened by inputting a code found in a similar menu within the sequel, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. After opening, the door can be clicked to reveal concept art of various characters within the game.
A playable demo
of The Curious Village is available on its official website.
The game opens with Professor Hershel Layton and his young assistant Luke driving to the town of St. Mystere, summoned by a letter from Lady Dahlia, widow of the late Baron Augustus Reinhold. The Baron stated in his last will and testament that whoever solves the mystery of the Golden Apple will inherit his fortune, and several people have attempted and failed. The two enter the town and find that most of the population is fond of puzzles and brain teasers, which both Layton and Luke are adept at solving. They see a large, haphazard tower that occupies one side of town that no one can get to; people hear strange noises emanating from it at night. Layton and Luke meet Lady Dahlia and other family members, including Simon, Gordon, and the family servants. Before they can discuss the mystery further, a loud exploding sound is heard and Dahlia's cat Claudia flees out of the door. Layton and Luke chase Claudia through town, solving puzzles along the way. Meanwhile, a strange soot-covered man plots a deadly plan against the heroes. Eventually they discover the cat's fondness for fish and tempt her back with one. Upon returning to the mansion, Layton and Luke find that Simon has been murdered and the case is already under investigation by Inspector Chelmey, a renowned detective. Chelmey initially suspects the two, but their alibi holds up. He lets them go, but tells them to stay out of the murder investigation. However, Matthew tells Layton about a small gearwheel that he found in the room near Simon's body.
As Layton and Luke continue their search for the Golden Apple, they witness the kidnapping of one of Dahlia's servants, Ramon. A strange man stuffs Ramon into a bag; they give chase but are unable to catch him, though they do find another gearwheel similar to the one before. However, they are befuddled as Ramon is back the next day as if nothing had happened. They continue to explore the town, and check the looming tower that everyone had been telling them to stay away from but are eventually led to the town's abandoned amusement park by a young girl. As they explore the Ferris wheel, the sinister figure from earlier uses a remote to tear the wheel from its moorings, sending it rolling after Layton and Luke. They barely escape as the wheel smashes through a locked building. Exploring the wreckage, they find a key shaped similarly to the tower, and Layton gets an idea of what's going on in the village. The two return to face Chelmey, who Layton realizes is an impostor. The man reveals himself as Layton's self-proclaimed arch-enemy, Don Paolo, who is seeking the Golden Apple for himself and who tried to use the Ferris wheel to knock Layton out of the picture. Paolo escapes before Layton can capture him. Luke asks the professor who Don Paolo is and why he wants revenge. Layton knows Don Paolo's reputation as an evil scientific genius but has no idea why Don Paolo hates him, implying that the two have never met before.
With Luke in tow, Layton heads for the tower, using the key to unlock a secret wall in a dead end. Inside, they discover the man that previously had kidnapped Ramon, who is named Bruno. With Bruno's help, Layton discovers the truth: all the residents of St. Mystere are robots, created by the Baron and Bruno to challenge the wits of anyone seeking the Golden Apple, hence their shared obsession with puzzles. Simon has not died, only malfunctioned; similarly, Bruno collected Ramon in order to perform repairs. Having solved the puzzle of St. Mystere, Layton and Luke climb the tower, solving more puzzles and meeting minor characters along the way. Eventually, the pair reaches the top of the tower, and much to their surprise, find a beautifully-kept cottage there. Inside, the young girl from before awaits. She reveals herself as Flora Reinhold, the only daughter of the Baron. The Baron actually died years ago (not two months ago as Layton and Luke were initially told), leaving Flora an orphan. She is the "Golden Apple" that the robots were protecting until she became an adult.
Layton's triumph is short-lived as Don Paolo returns in a flying machine and starts demolishing the tower. Luke escapes down the stairs, but Layton is forced to improvise a glider to take Flora and himself to safety as the tower collapses. Don Paolo, with his machine malfunctioning, he drops a bag containing the stolen Simon. The villain swears revenge and leaves, and the three reach the town safely. As Flora hugs the Professor and laughs, an apple-like birthmark can be seen on her shoulder. As they regroup at the Reinhold manor, Layton realizes that there is more to the treasure than just Flora, as the birthmark points to the Baron's riches. Luke finds a switch on the portrait of Flora in the same location as her birthmark which leads to a secret room filled with gold.
A voice recording from the Baron, intended for those who solved the mystery, congratulates Layton. The voice tells Flora to take the treasure, explaining that if it is taken, all the robots will stop functioning. Flora opts to leave it as a way to repay the robots for their services in protecting her and her new friends. As the game ends, Layton, Luke, and Flora leave St. Mystere without the treasure, allowing the residents to continue on with their lives. The three (and other characters) are shown laughing and living together during the game credits.
As the first part of a trilogy, the main story ends with a "to be continued
" message with a picture of Luke and Layton at a train station. They are about to take the Molentary Express in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
Professor Akira Tago supervised direction on the game's development, with Level-5 President and CEO Akihiro Hino
serving as producer. The game features animated custscenes produced by P.A. Works
.
Layton's creation was a direct result of Hino's childhood love of Tago's Head Gymnastics series of puzzle books, which have sold more than 12 million copies to date in Japan
. The game makes use of many puzzles from Tago's books, all of which have been modified to support the DS stylus and touchscreen. Tago also contributed 30 brand new puzzles to the game, developed specifically with the unique capabilities of the Nintendo DS in mind.
, the game had an average score of 86% based on 48 reviews. On Metacritic
, the game had an average score of 85/100, based on 57 reviews. The combination of the adventure game and "brain training" genres received mixed appreciation. Some reviewers praised the game for the successful combination with 1UP.com
commenting on how the game's approach is much better than games where the puzzles were integrated into the environment. Other reviewers felt that these two genres do not merge well within the game; Game Informer noted that while the player is given numerous small puzzles to solve, the mysteries of the main plot are basically solved for the player. The game was noted to have little replay value; once all the puzzles were solved, there was no point in playing through them again. The presentation of the game, including both the general European animation style and cutscene animations, was appreciated by reviewers. Hyper
s Darren Wells commends the game for its "clever concept, with plenty to solve and unlock as well as its fantastic presentation". However, he criticises "some puzzles feeling tacked on and the music can get annoying". Nintendo Power
listed the ending as one of the best on a Nintendo console, citing the many discoveries that players find in the end credits.
The Curious Village sold over 700,000 units in Japan in 2007. The game was the top selling game for the Nintendo DS in the United States in the first three weeks after its release. After it was restocked in the UK, sales of Professor Layton increased 54%, moving it from 10th place to fourth place.
. In March 2009 it was awarded Best Handheld Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards. It was also nominated for Best Puzzle Game on the Nintendo DS in IGN
's 2008 video game awards, and for Children's BAFTA Best Video Game Award in 2008. It won Best DS Game of 2008 on GiantBomb. Professor Layton and the Curious Village was awarded fifteenth game of 2008 overall by Eurogamer, and DS game of 2008 from Gamespy. It also won the "Best Puzzle Game Of The Year" award in the Nintendo Power
magazine. In February 2009, Professor Layton and the Curious Village was awarded the Aggie
for Best Console/Handheld Adventure in the first award presentation by AdventureGamers. It was also nominated for Best Handheld Game on G4's G-phoria in 2008.
. The album received mixed reviews from online sites. Squareenixmusic.com gave the album 6 out of 10, calling it "a rather bland collection of repetitive and similar music tracks from the game."
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
video game for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
system. It was developed by Level-5
Level-5
is an independent video game developer and publisher based in Fukuoka, Japan. The company, which currently employs about 200 individuals, was founded in October 1998 by Akihiro Hino after he departed from the now defunct Japanese developer Riverhillsoft...
, and published by Level-5 within Japan and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
internationally. It was released in Japan during 2007, and in PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...
s and North America a year later in 2008. Curious Village is the first title in the Professor Layton series, directly followed by Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
The game centers around Professor Hershel Layton
Professor Hershel Layton
is the eponymous fictional character of the Professor Layton series of video games, created by Level-5. He is the central protagonist in every entry to the series, which consists of five games that have combined sold over 11 million copies, three novels, and an animated...
, and his self-styled apprentice, Luke Triton, investigating the fictional village of St. Mystere about an artifact known as the Golden Apple, an heirloom that the late Baron had left as a test to determine who would receive his fortune after his death. The residents of St. Mystere particularly enjoy brain teasers, and will often ask the player to help solve them by using the system's touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
to submit answers, in exchange for their cooperation in the search.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village was met with generally positive reviews, praising both its approach to combining the adventure and puzzle genres, as well as for its presentation and animated cutscenes. It would go on to sell over a million copies in Japan alone.
Gameplay
The Curious Village is an adventure/puzzle game. The player controls the movements of Professor Layton (voiced by Christopher Miller) and his young assistant Luke (voiced by Lani MinellaLani Minella
Lani Minella is a voice actress who has voiced in over 500 computer and video games as well as several TV and anime series. She is best known for voicing Nancy Drew, Millie Strathorn, Loulou the Parrot and Freddie in the Nancy Drew computer games, Ivy Valentine in the Soulcalibur video game...
in US English and Maria Darling
Maria Darling
Maria Darling is an English voice actress who regularly provides character voices for children's television programmes in the UK and the US, as well as videogames such as the Professor Layton series and the UK versions of the Ape Escape franchise....
in UK English) around the village of St. Mystere to locate the "Golden Apple" and solve other mysteries that arise during their search. St. Mystere is divided into several sections, some of which are inaccessible until the story has advanced to a certain point or the player solves a certain number of puzzles. The player can talk to characters or investigate objects on screen by tapping them. In many cases, the characters will ask Layton and Luke to try to solve a puzzle; there are also hidden puzzles that can be found by investigating certain objects. As the story progresses, if an unsolved puzzle can no longer be accessed (for example, if the person offering it has departed), it will reappear at Granny Riddleton's Puzzle Shack at the plaza, midway through the game.
Puzzles include brain teaser
Brain teaser
A brain teaser is a form of puzzle that requires thought to solve. It often requires thinking in unconventional ways with given constraints in mind; sometimes it also involves lateral thinking. Logic puzzles and riddles are specific types of brain teasers....
s, sliding puzzle
Sliding puzzle
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes to establish a certain end-configuration....
s, logic puzzle
Logic puzzle
A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematics field of deduction.-History:The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
s, and others. The player is presented with each puzzle and its value in "picarats", and is given an unlimited amount of time to solve it. Each puzzle has three hints available for it, but the player must spend one "hint coin" to see each hint. Hint coins are limited; the player starts with ten, and more can be found by examining suspicious objects around the village. Once the player feels they have the answer to a puzzle, depending on the puzzle, they might enter it by selecting an answer, drawing a circle around a specific area, or entering the answer by inputting letters or numbers into the DS's touchscreen. If the player is correct, the picarats are added to his total score, and he is sometimes rewarded with an item. If the player is incorrect, he can retry the puzzle indefinitely, though the first two times he is wrong, the value of the puzzle will decrease by approximately ten percent each time (or more, in the case of multiple-choice puzzles). There are also puzzles in which the player must make a sequence of moves in order to reach some final state, and cannot submit an incorrect answer. Optionally, a player can quit a puzzle at no cost and try another, though certain puzzles are mandatory to progress. Once a puzzle is completed, the player may retry it at any time via the game's menu.
As a reward for completing a puzzle, the player may earn one of three rewards: machine parts known as "gizmos", furniture, or portrait pieces, to be used in their respective minigames accessible through the professor's trunk. Gizmos can be attached to assemble a robotic dog with the ability to sniff out hidden hint coins and puzzles. Pieces of furniture can be placed within Layton's and Luke's rooms at the local inn, arranging them in such a way as to make both of them completely happy with their rooms. Pieces of a portrait are assembled like a jigsaw puzzle
Jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces.Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture...
, revealing a picture once fully assembled. By completing all 120 puzzles in the main game and each of these three minigames, the player can access up 15 bonus puzzles from the main menu. The game is also compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
The is an online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii games. The service includes the company's Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop, and Nintendo eShop game download services...
, which allows players to connect to the internet and unlock over 25 new puzzles in the game. The first unlockable puzzle was made available on the day of the game's release, and new puzzles were released weekly for half a year, every Sunday. Also found within the bonus features is a "Hidden Door", which can be opened by inputting a code found in a similar menu within the sequel, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. After opening, the door can be clicked to reveal concept art of various characters within the game.
A playable demo
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
of The Curious Village is available on its official website.
Plot
Specific order of events in the game will vary depending on choices that the player has made during the game, but the overall plot remains unchanged.The game opens with Professor Hershel Layton and his young assistant Luke driving to the town of St. Mystere, summoned by a letter from Lady Dahlia, widow of the late Baron Augustus Reinhold. The Baron stated in his last will and testament that whoever solves the mystery of the Golden Apple will inherit his fortune, and several people have attempted and failed. The two enter the town and find that most of the population is fond of puzzles and brain teasers, which both Layton and Luke are adept at solving. They see a large, haphazard tower that occupies one side of town that no one can get to; people hear strange noises emanating from it at night. Layton and Luke meet Lady Dahlia and other family members, including Simon, Gordon, and the family servants. Before they can discuss the mystery further, a loud exploding sound is heard and Dahlia's cat Claudia flees out of the door. Layton and Luke chase Claudia through town, solving puzzles along the way. Meanwhile, a strange soot-covered man plots a deadly plan against the heroes. Eventually they discover the cat's fondness for fish and tempt her back with one. Upon returning to the mansion, Layton and Luke find that Simon has been murdered and the case is already under investigation by Inspector Chelmey, a renowned detective. Chelmey initially suspects the two, but their alibi holds up. He lets them go, but tells them to stay out of the murder investigation. However, Matthew tells Layton about a small gearwheel that he found in the room near Simon's body.
As Layton and Luke continue their search for the Golden Apple, they witness the kidnapping of one of Dahlia's servants, Ramon. A strange man stuffs Ramon into a bag; they give chase but are unable to catch him, though they do find another gearwheel similar to the one before. However, they are befuddled as Ramon is back the next day as if nothing had happened. They continue to explore the town, and check the looming tower that everyone had been telling them to stay away from but are eventually led to the town's abandoned amusement park by a young girl. As they explore the Ferris wheel, the sinister figure from earlier uses a remote to tear the wheel from its moorings, sending it rolling after Layton and Luke. They barely escape as the wheel smashes through a locked building. Exploring the wreckage, they find a key shaped similarly to the tower, and Layton gets an idea of what's going on in the village. The two return to face Chelmey, who Layton realizes is an impostor. The man reveals himself as Layton's self-proclaimed arch-enemy, Don Paolo, who is seeking the Golden Apple for himself and who tried to use the Ferris wheel to knock Layton out of the picture. Paolo escapes before Layton can capture him. Luke asks the professor who Don Paolo is and why he wants revenge. Layton knows Don Paolo's reputation as an evil scientific genius but has no idea why Don Paolo hates him, implying that the two have never met before.
With Luke in tow, Layton heads for the tower, using the key to unlock a secret wall in a dead end. Inside, they discover the man that previously had kidnapped Ramon, who is named Bruno. With Bruno's help, Layton discovers the truth: all the residents of St. Mystere are robots, created by the Baron and Bruno to challenge the wits of anyone seeking the Golden Apple, hence their shared obsession with puzzles. Simon has not died, only malfunctioned; similarly, Bruno collected Ramon in order to perform repairs. Having solved the puzzle of St. Mystere, Layton and Luke climb the tower, solving more puzzles and meeting minor characters along the way. Eventually, the pair reaches the top of the tower, and much to their surprise, find a beautifully-kept cottage there. Inside, the young girl from before awaits. She reveals herself as Flora Reinhold, the only daughter of the Baron. The Baron actually died years ago (not two months ago as Layton and Luke were initially told), leaving Flora an orphan. She is the "Golden Apple" that the robots were protecting until she became an adult.
Layton's triumph is short-lived as Don Paolo returns in a flying machine and starts demolishing the tower. Luke escapes down the stairs, but Layton is forced to improvise a glider to take Flora and himself to safety as the tower collapses. Don Paolo, with his machine malfunctioning, he drops a bag containing the stolen Simon. The villain swears revenge and leaves, and the three reach the town safely. As Flora hugs the Professor and laughs, an apple-like birthmark can be seen on her shoulder. As they regroup at the Reinhold manor, Layton realizes that there is more to the treasure than just Flora, as the birthmark points to the Baron's riches. Luke finds a switch on the portrait of Flora in the same location as her birthmark which leads to a secret room filled with gold.
A voice recording from the Baron, intended for those who solved the mystery, congratulates Layton. The voice tells Flora to take the treasure, explaining that if it is taken, all the robots will stop functioning. Flora opts to leave it as a way to repay the robots for their services in protecting her and her new friends. As the game ends, Layton, Luke, and Flora leave St. Mystere without the treasure, allowing the residents to continue on with their lives. The three (and other characters) are shown laughing and living together during the game credits.
As the first part of a trilogy, the main story ends with a "to be continued
To Be Continued
To Be Continued... is a 4 CD/4 cassette box set detailing Elton John's music from his days with Bluesology to the then-present day. Four new songs were recorded for the box set...
" message with a picture of Luke and Layton at a train station. They are about to take the Molentary Express in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
Development
Chiba UniversityChiba University
is a national university in the city of Chiba, Japan. It offers Doctoral degrees in education as part of a coalition with Tokyo Gakugei University, Saitama University, and Yokohama National University.-Faculties:*Letters*Education*Law and Economics*Science...
Professor Akira Tago supervised direction on the game's development, with Level-5 President and CEO Akihiro Hino
Akihiro Hino
is president and CEO of Japanese video game developer Level-5.- Biography :Prior to founding Level-5 in October 1998, Hino began his career in the video game industry in the early 90's at the now defunct Japanese developer Riverhillsoft, specifically on the Overblood series for the original...
serving as producer. The game features animated custscenes produced by P.A. Works
P.A. Works
is a Japanese animation studio established on November 10, 2000 and is located in Nanto, Toyama, Japan. The company's president and founder Kenji Horikawa once worked for Tatsunoko Production, Production I.G, and Bee Train before forming P.A. Works in 2000...
.
Layton's creation was a direct result of Hino's childhood love of Tago's Head Gymnastics series of puzzle books, which have sold more than 12 million copies to date in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The game makes use of many puzzles from Tago's books, all of which have been modified to support the DS stylus and touchscreen. Tago also contributed 30 brand new puzzles to the game, developed specifically with the unique capabilities of the Nintendo DS in mind.
Reception
The Curious Village received generally positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, the game had an average score of 86% based on 48 reviews. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the game had an average score of 85/100, based on 57 reviews. The combination of the adventure game and "brain training" genres received mixed appreciation. Some reviewers praised the game for the successful combination with 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
commenting on how the game's approach is much better than games where the puzzles were integrated into the environment. Other reviewers felt that these two genres do not merge well within the game; Game Informer noted that while the player is given numerous small puzzles to solve, the mysteries of the main plot are basically solved for the player. The game was noted to have little replay value; once all the puzzles were solved, there was no point in playing through them again. The presentation of the game, including both the general European animation style and cutscene animations, was appreciated by reviewers. Hyper
Hyper (magazine)
Hyper is a multi-platform Australian video game magazine. Australia's longest running gaming magazine, it has been in publication since 1993, and was released the same month as the better known UK magazine Edge...
s Darren Wells commends the game for its "clever concept, with plenty to solve and unlock as well as its fantastic presentation". However, he criticises "some puzzles feeling tacked on and the music can get annoying". Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
listed the ending as one of the best on a Nintendo console, citing the many discoveries that players find in the end credits.
The Curious Village sold over 700,000 units in Japan in 2007. The game was the top selling game for the Nintendo DS in the United States in the first three weeks after its release. After it was restocked in the UK, sales of Professor Layton increased 54%, moving it from 10th place to fourth place.
Awards
Professor Layton and the Curious Village was awarded the Best Handheld Game award in the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards, Best Nintendo DS Game of 2008 by GameSpy, and the tenth best game overall of 2008 by GameSpyGameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
. In March 2009 it was awarded Best Handheld Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards. It was also nominated for Best Puzzle Game on the Nintendo DS in IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's 2008 video game awards, and for Children's BAFTA Best Video Game Award in 2008. It won Best DS Game of 2008 on GiantBomb. Professor Layton and the Curious Village was awarded fifteenth game of 2008 overall by Eurogamer, and DS game of 2008 from Gamespy. It also won the "Best Puzzle Game Of The Year" award in the Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
magazine. In February 2009, Professor Layton and the Curious Village was awarded the Aggie
Aggie
-People:Aggie may be a diminutive form of the given names Agne, Agnatha, Agamemnon, Agata/Agatha, Agnija, or Agnes. It may also be a diminutive form of a family name that begins with 'Ag-'.People who are known as 'Aggie' include:* Christopher J.C...
for Best Console/Handheld Adventure in the first award presentation by AdventureGamers. It was also nominated for Best Handheld Game on G4's G-phoria in 2008.
Music
An album titled Layton Kyouju to Fushigi na Machi Original Soundtrack was released in Japan only, containing all the music featured in the game. The music has a bit of French influence in it. It was composed by Tomohito NishiuraTomohito Nishiura
Tomohito Nishiura is a Japanese video game music composer. He works primarily on games developed by Level-5.-Works:*Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva *Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box...
. The album received mixed reviews from online sites. Squareenixmusic.com gave the album 6 out of 10, calling it "a rather bland collection of repetitive and similar music tracks from the game."