Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Review
Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke are back again to solve yet another mystery. This time around the Professor and Luke are attending a demonstration of a time machine, which promptly blows up and everyone close by vanishes. The Professor goes home to find a mysterious note from a Luke 10 years in the future, pleading for Professor Layton to find a way to his time and help save London for the Evil Professor Layton. That's right folks we're dealing with two Laytons, the present one, and one that apparently has become corrupt with power in the future. You are instructed to go to a clock shop which houses an enormous clock that is said to control the flow of time. This is where your adventure truly starts.
Graphically this is identical to every other Layton game, which is fine, the most important part of the game is the puzzles, and the graphics have never truly been an issue. It is interesting to see some of the characters from the past appearing in your path, but overall you're going to get the same sort of character design on everyone. The scenery of course is different from the 2 previous games, but still has the same feeling as before.
Just like the graphics you're going to notice that you've got the same voices, and music to accompany through your time in the game.
The controls are once again controlled through the stylus. You're going to be touching the screen a lot, and even though you can get away with using your finger, the finer puzzles are just easier with the use of the stylus.
To me the one thing that Level-5 keeps getting right is the story, its got just enough twists to it that you've got to play through the entire game to make sure there's no last minute surprises. Another thing is the puzzles, you're not going to see many if any puzzles from the past, you're also going to see some pretty creative puzzles that will trip you up, or at least they got me a couple of times. You're going to be touring Future London, a place with no buses, no police, and a mafia like organization, called the Family, calling the shots. As in all the past games you're going to go a screen at a time, there will be chances to pick up hint coins that are hidden throughout the scene, as well as characters to interact with, some giving you vital information, while others who are just looking for someone to help them solve a puzzle. The mini-games this time around consist of a remote control car game, in which you have to lay down where the car needs to turn to collect all the items on a certain board, and reach the end point. There's also the Parrot game in which you've got to find a way to get the parrot across the screen within the time limit to deliver an item.
If you like brain-teasers, and puzzles that aren't always straight forward, or if you've enjoyed any of the previous Layton games, this is one you're not going to want to miss out on. I'm hoping that these games keep coming because they have yet to disappoint, and its also great to know that there are additional puzzles that you can download onto your DS to extend your puzzle solving times. This game gets a 9.2 out of 10.
