Mathematics behind the game
First of all, I was surprised to learn that Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a japanese made game because the artisitic look, storyline and puzzles feel so much like a western game. Level 5, the game studio who has also done the excellent Dragon Quest 8 has developed this pleasant brain teaser for the DS although it is only recently available on North American's store shelves. It was first released in Japan during February 2007 and the translation team did a great job with the English version from both a writing and vocal standpoints. The british voice actors shine there.
The game consists of very well thought puzzles which cover academic areas and skills such as critical thinking, mathematics, comprehension, problem solving, observation and more. Math puzzles involve probability, permutation, graph theory, number theory and other areas. Scholars usually spend years finding complicated proofs and equations to solve those problems and it is quite a delight to find simple version of those problems in this game.
Most of the puzzles that are thrown at the player can look complicated and sometimes initimidating but you should not fret since each one of those problems have a very simple solution. You can also notice that the difficulty ramps up as you progress in the game. I have to admit that I got stuck a few times but luckily, there are hints coins that you can collect throughout the game. Those hints are very well written too and they help a lot in solving the more difficult puzzles. There are about 130+ puzzles that can be solved during the entire game and it took me around 20 hours to complete the game.
Level 5 has done a great job hiding those puzzles under the guise of an adventure game. It has been a while since I have experienced such immersion in the storyline and gameplay since the days of Lucas Arts point and click adventure games. The plot is very engaging with a twist at the end which can send a chill down your spine. The interface makes use of the stylus and it is pretty intuitive to navigate around by tapping the various scenes and objects. Although most of the gameplay uses still images with slight animation, the progression of the storyline is shown with short full motion videos spread out across the game.
I would highly recommend this game to kids ranging from 6 - 12, it will be interesting to test whether they will shine in school in the mathematics field based on their performance in the puzzles. I also see this game interesting for anyone else, it keeps those usually dormant neurons on fire.
