'Professor Layton And Pandora's Box' (DS)

Also available on: N/A
Developer: Level 5
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Puzzle/Adventure
Release date: September 25, 2009

The original Professor Layton was one of the finest games on the DS, and was especially notable for turning the fashionable brain training phase on its head. For a system that quickly established itself for its quick-fire brainteasers and puzzles, The Curious Village used puzzles to supplement an irresistible mystery story with a bizarre cast, where its tasks were both independent and crucial to the progress of the adventure. It was part puzzler, part adventure but all sewn together in a cleverly addictive fashion, and it's pleasing to see that the sequel continues the winning formula.

More or less following on from the original, Layton and his excitable assistant Luke search for the Elysian Box, an item that apparently kills anyone who dares prise it open. After it was stolen from Layton's recently-deceased mentor, who was moments away from finding its secret, the duo discover a ticket with no destination and hop on an illustrious train bound for the English countryside in search of more clues. The pacing still holds strong: you tap around various scenes for clues and badger residents for gossip and rumours, but they'll only let anything slip if you successfully solve their puzzles.

While some are essential to advancing the story, and others there to fill an end of chapter quota, they're all unique in flavour; riddles, tongue-twisters, mental arithmetic and visual differences all await taps of a stylus. The beauty of the series is that although many appear impossible, you'll never need specific background knowledge or mathematical prowess to complete them. Every solution is within your reach, and getting stuck is rendered near-impossible thanks to a coin-based hint system. The sheer range of tasks available means that everyone will be challenged by something, making it incredibly accessible to the casual and experienced puzzle solver alike.

While it continues the wonderful variety in its puzzles, the penalty system is still lax. Multiple choice answers can still be easily passed if you don’t mind losing a few picarats (an overall score that decreases if you get answers wrong) by simply choosing each one in sequence. Although it manages to tie puzzles together with the plot in a more cohesive fashion, it results in a disproportionate amount of block-pushing and visual tasks involving the stylus, arguably the weakest type in the game, and certainly the hardest to overcome if you're hopeless at solving them. There is no quick solution for getting a suitcase out from behind a set of coloured blocks.

While the first was especially well known for its red herrings and unusual solutions, this sequel sometimes gives questions and riddles in convoluted and muddled wording that can require several re-reads or, very occasionally, make absolutely no sense at all. It might be the shift towards making the puzzles slightly more complex (which is balanced by providing more hint coins, still found by tapping the screen for clues) but having to battle over the wording as well as a tough puzzle makes you feel unusually helpless. Again, it's an occasional problem that plagues a handful of puzzles, but one that's surprising considering the crystal clarity of the original.

A particularly useful addition is the memo pad, allowing you to trace lines or scribble notes as you solve puzzles, and retains your workings out even if you fail and return later. It also adds several optional mini-games to the briefcase, from creating an assault course for an overweight hamster, to piecing together a camera and brewing tea. Although the former two are entirely optional, the residents of the game's final area will badger you for cups before solving their puzzles, which requires tedious trial and error before they're pleased enough to loosen their lips.

While the puzzles are disappointingly not as sharp or balanced as they were previously, one area that successfully ups the ante is the adventure. With more cutscenes and lines of spoken dialogue, as well as far more scenes to explore and a mystery much more complex, it feels like a fully-fledged adventure compared to the cabin fever feel of the village first time round. And while it felt like the puzzles were the crux of the game before, here the adventure takes precedence, and it's an exchange that you'll be totally comfortable with.

Of course, the puzzles still offer those simply incomparable 'eureka' moments when you solve a particularly tough task, or that feeling of total embarrassment when its obvious solution manages to elude you for so long. Few games manage to capture making you feel so exceptionally smart and incredibly stupid within moments of each other, and Pandora's Box offers that in spades. Despite its uneven variety and execution of puzzles, the bolder approach of the sequel pays off, and is an adventure you simply won't put down until you reach its brilliant and baffling climax. As the man himself would say, Professor Layton strikes again.


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