Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release Date: Feb 10, 2008
Professor Layton and the Curious Village Image
Metascore
85 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 72 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 91 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Summary: (Also known as "Layton Kyouju no Fushigi na Machi" and "Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village") Marking Level 5's first foray onto the DS, Professor Layton is an old-fashioned point-and-click adventure which requires your use of skills such as reasoning, knowledge and creativity to solve various puzzles.… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 72
  3. Negative: 0 out of 72
  1. Zentendo
    100
    A very amazing piece of art merged with very unique, engrossing gameplay. Truly a unique experience that almost any gamer should give at least one go at. Other than very minor issues, this is easily one of the most well designed and enjoyable games ever made.
  2. Modojo
    100
    Whether or not Akihiro Hino and the crew at Level-5 built the world upon the foundation of the puzzles or vice versa, it melds into a cohesive miracle that's greater than the sum of its undeniably fantastic parts.
  3. Kombo
    86
    But is Professor Layton a puzzler or an adventure game? It doesn't really matter, because visiting the Curious Village will be the best vacation you'll have in quite some time.
  4. Edge Magazine
    70
    There are lots of puzzles, a fun environment to tootle around in, and little to dislike. Utterly charming. [Apr 2008, p.95]
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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 31
  3. Negative: 3 out of 31
  1. ChimC.
    10
    This represents a very good game for all ages. Lots of puzzles. Great artwork. An enjoyable concept all around.
  2. sJagstang
    8
    Professor Layton & the Curious Village is a great little puzzle game with a interesting story and great characters, the story follows Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke as they go to the village of St. Mystere to solve the mystery of the Golden Apple. I'm not going to say much more than that since I don't want to spoil the characters or story.

    Obviously the meat of the game is in it's Puzzles, There is about 130 puzzles in the game, Most of the them are good but some can be a bit so-so in there logic and sometimes they don't give you any indication of how to solve a particular puzzle since they sometimes leave out key information but this happens rarely and may be a localization issue.

    The game has a nice art style with characters that really stand out, It's fun to explore St. Mystere to find some of it's hidden puzzles. The town is fairly small so there isn't really an issue of getting lost in the town or anything like that.

    Sometimes the puzzles can feel like they are not really relating to what's happening in the story and can be somewhat random but they do a fairly good job of trying to make them cohesive, Not that it really matters since the puzzles are still good for the most part.

    In the end if you like puzzle games or at least want to try one then Professor Layton is a great game to play on Nintendo DS or 3DS, If you generally turn away from puzzle games because you want an interesting story to keep you going then you won't have the problem here since the characters are a big standout, especially Layton and Luke. Go pick this one up.    … Expand
  3. Bathmat
    7
    This is a really good game, I'm just a tough marker. The story is really good, the cutscenes are great, the puzzles are fun, the story is good and the characters are good, but to retry a puzzle you have to go through a million menus, it sucks that you're confined to a small space repetitively running from point A to B and the puzzles don't really mix together with the story. It's also a bit short. Other than that, it's good but I prefer you to buy the far superior Pandora's Box or the even better Lost Fututre.… Expand
  4. NaytoE
    2
    Half the questions aren't in correct english and don't make grammatical sense. It's impossible to solve a riddle when the a specific, valuble word have been replaced by a simular word that doesn't actually have the same definition. maybe if they'd checked to see if half the text made sense it would be good, as it stands, it's just a poor excuse of a puzzle game. Also the art sucks if you're above 14 and not Female, I don't like looking like a kiddie fiddler in public thanks.… Expand

See all 31 User Reviews