To be honest, I only skimmed a handful of previews before picking up this one.  The information that I “gleaned” from them led me to believe that this was a quirky adventure game with an appealing art style.  Once I actually put the game into my DS and started playing, I found out that it wasn’t quite exactly what I was expecting…

The best way I can describe “Professor Layton and the Curious Village” is that it’s what would happen if “Phoenix Wright:  Ace Attorney” and “Brain Age” had a kid and sent it off to be raised in Europe.  Put simply, it’s presented in the style of an adventure game, but all of the puzzle-solving in the game revolves around brainteasers.  (I’ll explain the “raised in Europe” part later, trust me.)  So instead of collecting items to use at certain points, or selecting the right choice from a dialogue tree, you’ll just be solving the various puzzles the villagers present Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke with.

These villagers are the inhabitants of the titular “Curious Village,” St. Mystere.  Professor Layton has come to the village by request of the family of the late Baron Reinhold in order to locate his inheritance.  The Baron left a clue to it in his will, saying that whoever finds the “Golden Apple” will find the way to obtain the riches he left behind.  It sounds like a relatively straightforward case for the Professor, but the complications quickly pile up as murder, an evil scientist, a merely secretive scientist, and a mysterious tower that looms over the town provide even more puzzles  that need to be solved.

The story itself is well-told, and localized exceptionally well.  My only complaint is that the  village’s big secret stretches believability a bit further than I would’ve liked.  Still, it doesn’t come completely out of the blue since the game hints at it over the course of the investigation.

As for the brainteasers that you’ll be solving, they’re integrated into the game about as well as they could be.  That’s because while nearly all of them have only a tangential relation to the matter at hand (if that), the inhabitants of the village are set up as puzzle-loving fiends who will offer them up to you whenever you talk to them (along with some hidden ones you’ll find along the way).  The good news is that the amount of puzzles and the variety between them is great enough to keep you interested and occupied up to the end of the game and beyond.  Some of them are easy enough to be solved in five seconds, while others will have you tearing your hair out for the better part of an hour (and prompting several trips to GameFAQs).  If you do get stuck, you’re always able to leave a particular brainteaser and come back to it later.  There are very few “required” puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to advance the game (and most of them are part of the final area you’ll visit), so getting hung up on a particular one won’t stop you from finishing the game.

You are able to unlock hints for each puzzle by using the various “hint coins” that you’ll come across by searching each area you visit (by tapping the DS stylus anywhere on the screen).  If you’re thorough enough, you won’t have a problem finding these things, but it’s a good practice to “tap everywhere” since brainteasers are also hidden in various places around St. Mystere.

Once you’ve finished the main quest, you’ll also find that there are still more brainteasers to solve, if you’re up to the challenge.  Aside from the hidden brainteasers scattered around St. Mystere, there are other ones to be unlocked through the various gizmos, painting scraps, and furnishings you’ll get by finishing other puzzles.  If that’s STILL not enough for you, Nintendo will be offering new puzzles on a weekly basis through the DS’ wifi conneciton.

Even though the game is designed to challenge your brain, it also winds up being very easy on the eyes as well.  “Professor Layton” has a very distinct Eurocentric art style that captures the quirkiness of the town and its inhabitants.  It’s refreshingly different from just about any game currently out there, which only adds to its charm.  However, what’s downright shocking about the game’s art style is that it looks even better animated, and that the animation actually looks good on the DS!

Nearly all of the animation I’ve seen on the DS has been so badly compressed and conventionally done that I wished they had used the space for those movies on adding something to the gameplay.  That’s not so here, as the animation itself is not only used to enliven key points in the story, but it’s so smoothly and professionally done (not to mention compressed well) that I looked forward to seeing new sequences as I got further in the game.

Even with all these attributes, the fact remains that “Professor Layton” is pretty much a niche game.  I’m not sure that a game that combines the exploration and storytelling of an adventure game with brainteasers right out of “Brain Age” is going to enjoy massive mainstream success over here.  But “Professor Layton” is put together and executed so well that it deserves that kind of success.  Figuring out that puzzle that’s been stumping you for the last hour is just as rewarding as finishing a dungeon on “Zelda:  Phantom Hourglass.”  Hopefully it does achieve enough success to encourage Nintendo to bring over the next two games in the series, because after thirteen hours of puzzle solving, I’m still ready for more.

Pros:  Immensely appealing art style, lots of brainteasers that will challenge you from beginning to end and beyond.

Cons:  Not much replay value.  Won’t appeal to anyone who doesn’t like having their brainpower tested.

Overall:  8