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Professor Layton and the Curious Village
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Amazon.com Sales Rank: 288
Average Customer Rating: 
UPC: 045496739270
List price: $29.99
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Showing page 1 of 20
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Reviews
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 let's be fair - a collection of reviews with my humble opinion added :), November 29, 2008
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so many times i read poor reviews and the negs listed are so strange - for instance, john thomas oaks gives this game a 2 star rating and then says, "I can see why so many people are raving about this game. The graphics are gorgeous, and if you are partial to brain games, it's a good choice. However, if you hate brain games (like me), the storyline and graphics will not save this game for you. I thought perhaps a story might make me enjoy the brain games, but no." well, if you don't like puzzle games, prehaps you should have read any on the product information on this game. it is clearly sold as a puzzle game. tulip (who also rates the game a 2 star game,) says, "I haven't seen anyone else mention the tedious dialogue that takes up so much time in this game. I don't care about the conversations between the characters. Perhaps there is a way to bypass them, and I just haven't figured it out yet. The puzzles are not enjoyable to me. It's like being back in third grade doing bogus math problems. Perhaps I am just more of a word person." i agree with her to some extent on the dialog, it was actually one of the negs i was going to point out. i don't dislike it all together BUT i do hate the way they make you contiuously tap your screen begging for more. the dialog box is a semi-generous three line box that often the villiager will not fill unless you tap several times, i.e. "Hump..." (tap) "I was just over there." (tap) "I didn't see anything strange." (tap) -- you get my point, i feel like - JUST SAY IT! a point i disagree with tulip on is the puzzles being too easy, they are not HARD, but they are fun and elusive enough to make you think (and sometimes way over think, grant it.) some of them are grade school math word problems but i found it fun to relive that old, work-it-out type of thought.
luke keppler, who rated 3 stars, mentioned another sorta-neg i was feeling, "The puzzles are unlocked sequentially by clicking through the linear story. It is marketed as some kind of detective/mystery/adventure game, but it's not. The story actually just plays by itself, and you answer the puzzles." it's kind of disapointing that your great brain skills don't ever (so far - i'll update if this changes) actually apply to the story. another 3 rater, miss mausie, mentions the same issue i have with the hint system - you have to buy the hints with coins you find, you can buy three hints per puzzle and often the first hint simply restates the puzzle adding no new or useful information. the second and third may help, but quite often you have to spend 3 coins and you get little to work with. i down loaded a hint guide - a list of the hints for each puzzle - the hints still suck and i only use it from time to time, but it beats getting mad about spending my coins and feelimg ripped off. miss mausie also mentions another strange twist and that is that while the puzzles vary in difficulty from easy to brain teaser they do so in a random way. there is no progression, it's just easy, hard, hard, easy, medium, easy... and so on.
ultimately if you liked brain age but wanted more of a story-video game feel, you'll like it. if you like action adventure and get bored easily, you will not. it might break new and exciting ground, but it is fun and light hearted and has enough edge to wake your brain up more than tv.
is it worth 30 dollars? maybe not - but i got mine on sale for 15 and i feel just fine about the purchase.
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Utterly Charming, November 29, 2008
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I was taking a class marketing. As a result I've become more aware when I get direct marketing stuff. Normally, I would have ignored the email I got from Nintendo about a month before this game released. But instead I opened it to see if it would be something good to take into class. As a result, I was completely charmed (and by "charmed" I mean "suckered in") by Professor Layton and the Curious Village.
The first thing that charms you about this game is the art direction. It has a look like something you'd expect to see on Mystery! on PBS if they ever showed animation. The not-quite sepia-tone not-exactly vintage but you can't quite put your finger on the era aesthetic makes it difficult to take your eyes off the screen.
The writing for this is actually pretty good. It really does play out like a mystery with little clues here and there that you can pick up on and figure out what's going on before the characters do. Sadly, this doesn't make it any easier to solve the puzzles that advance the story.
The game makes use of a wide variety of puzzle genres and the DS functionality which keeps the game (which has well over 100 individual puzzles) from becoming repetitive and dull as far as variety goes. Though I think that this might be a good game to occasionally take a break from. Professor Layton can impose a bit of puzzle sensory overload. That's the thing keeping it from 5 stars in my opinion, at one point I became very frustrated because I couldn't go through a particular door without solving a puzzle. If your player begins to resent your core game play element, there's something wrong here. After taking a short break from the game, however, I dove right back in. I wasn't able to just put it down and walk away from it forever, even though I'd become frustrated I still wanted to go back. When I did go back I had difficulty remembering why I had a problem with solving a puzzle to go through the door.
Aside from the fact that you might need to take a break from it after 75 or 80 puzzles, I can't recommend this game highly enough.
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 Adictive, good, 5 star!, November 24, 2008
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Very adictive and fun to play... you will play for hours and never get bored of it!
Really recommend it!!! * * * * *
If you dont believe me, check out the reviews, 110-5 star so far, and no 1-star =D
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Love, love, looove it!!, November 23, 2008
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It started out with mom finding this game in the newspaper ads. Honestly, this did NOT look interesting to me at first glance. Later, reviews got me interested, and I bought it. I wasn't disappointed! This game is so much fun. The riddles are challenging and really get your brain working. The artwork is cute and charming, and the voice acting and animations are very good.
My only problem was that I found some of the riddles extremely confusing. (Only a few, though) Mainly because I didn't understand what I was supposed to answer. There was one riddle at the end of the tower that had me in a pickle; I had to check online for the answer because I was completely lost.
Don't let that make you hesitate to purchase this, though. I absolutely love this game, and it was lots of fun to play!!
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Excellent game!, November 23, 2008
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This game is fantastic. It's has a great story line and lots of mindbending puzzles, too! It's a mixture of an action adventure game with the puzzle twist. I highly recommend it.
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Reviews
