Professor Layton and the Curious Village

The game takes place in quest mode, but is often interrupted by solving small puzzles . The professor and his student explore the city in search of the mysterious Golden Apple, which the recently deceased Baron Augustus bequeathed to the one who first finds it. Heroes move to specific areas of the city; they open gradually as you move through the plot. Locals love to set tasks, and often when trying to talk to a city dweller, he thinks about one of them. At this point, the game enters puzzle solving mode, where the task text is displayed on the upper screen, and puzzle elements are presented on the lower screen, or just an illustration, if the puzzle requires a written answer — you need to use the stylus to solve it in one way or another. Puzzles can be completely variegated: these are chess puzzles , puzzles like “ pyatnashka ”, and ordinary puzzles and various other varieties. Puzzles play a key role - it often happens that in order to go to a new area or get important information, you have to solve another problem. However, most of the mysteries are not mandatory, and many of them are simply hidden among the urban architecture. Searching the city streets, the player, in addition to hidden puzzles, can find "tip coins." They can be used in solving puzzles to buy text hints, if the puzzle is difficult for the player. All found (solved and unresolved) puzzles are added to the catalog: the player can solve any of them again by selecting the appropriate item in the game menu.

In addition to these two main modes, in certain moments, access to three additional mini-games . The first is an assembly of some mechanism of individual parts, the second player is given the opportunity to furnish the rooms of Leighton and Luke in a hotel, taking into account their taste preferences, and finally, the third is a classic puzzle . All elements for these mini-games are awarded for solving puzzles, including hidden ones.

The soundtrack to the game was written by Tomohito Nishiura . The main instrument in musical compositions is the accordion , which sets the main theme in most game tunes. Also such instruments as bells , flute , xylophone , and violin were involved, which is quite unusual for gaming soundtracks and creates an original atmosphere. However, even though the musical accompaniment rather organically emphasizes the style of the game, it was criticized asand music browsers ^[4] , who referred to his monotony.

December 24, 2008 soundtrack was released in Japan. It included all the musical compositions of the game, as well as the arrangements of some melodies, recorded by the composer Norihito Sumitomo , and the orchestral versions of individual tracks performed by the Layton Grand Caravan Orchestra .

The president of Level-5, Akihiro Hino, once turned to psychologist Akira Tago, a professor at Tiba University, the author of the Gymnastics for the Mind enigma popular in Japan ( Japanese 頭 の 体 操 ама но тай ) : . Hino admitted that since childhood he has been a fan of the professor and his book, that he was always amazed by the “feeling of eureka ” when he himself finds the answer to the task set before you or out of the problematic situation ^[5] . Akira Tago gladly accepted the offer and cooperated with the developers in every possible way, inventing new puzzles, when his books were not enough for this, or specially designed them for the sensory capabilities of the platform. However, the simple format of the puzzle set did not suit Hino, since the gaming market was already overwhelmed with such games, in particular, at the peak of popularity was the Brain Age series of games. Therefore, the president developed a new concept of the game, in which the solution of riddles would be combined with the narration of an interesting story - so “the player would get double pleasure from the game” ^[5] . The basis of the script was written by Akihiro Hino himself. It was decided to move the game to a European-style town, Hino recalls that he had to study European culture diligently in order to most accurately convey a similar atmosphere ^[6] . The protagonist of the game - Professor Leighton - he saw a stiff gentleman with impeccable manners and wanted to make him look like Sherlock Holmes ^[5] . And just like Holmes, Leighton must have a loyal assistant, who was the young Luke Treiton.

The game was warmly welcomed by the gaming press, including the Russian one. The ratings on the Game Rankings and Metacritic aggregator sites were 86.17% ^[16] and 85/100 ^[17], respectively. The combination of the quest genre with puzzles was made ambiguous by critics. Some resources praised the game for a successful combination of genres ^{[7] [12]} , “a seamless fusion of puzzles, adventures and fascinating stories,” said GameSpot portal ^[11] . On the other hand, the Game Informer reviewer complained that there were too many puzzles in the game that did not fit into the narration, and also regretted that, unlike games like Hotel Dusk or the Ace Attorney series , the main secrets of the story are resolved themselves "In the course of dialogues and animations ^[10] . It was stated that the game does not have the opportunity for replaying , since having solved all the riddles and having learned how the story ends, you will not want to return to the game ^[7] . At the same time, however, it was noted that due to the large number of puzzles, the game has a considerable duration, and the life of the game continues with additional puzzles that can be downloaded for free using the console’s Wi-Fi connection to the Internet ^[12] . But the presentation of the game, in particular, the European style, colorful characters and high-quality animated videos were highly appreciated by most journalists ^{[10] [12] [13]} . “The funny caricatures of the characters, a convincingly lively town, the colors are muffled but not faded,” Jeremy Perish from 1UP.com says that the developers were probably inspired by the French animated film “ The Trio from Belleville ” ^[7] . The musical composition, however, was characterized by “annoying” ^[18] and “often repeating” ^{[11] [15]} . The story in the game made a very positive impression on most reviewers ^{[11] [14]} . "... A plot worthy of a detective novel (taking into account Japanese specifics, of course) ... The classic detective moves of the game have been made absurd, but because of this they produce only a greater impression," said Anatoly Sonin from gameland.ru ^[15] . In the anniversary 250th edition of Nintendo Power, the ending was named Professor Layton and the Curious Village among the best games on the Nintendo console, noting the many discoveries that await the player in the final scene ^[19] .

In the first year in Japan, over 700,000 copies of the game were sold ^[20] . In the US, the game was held for three weeks by the sales leader among games on NDS ^{[21] [22] [23]} . In the UK, when Nintendo delivered an additional batch to the market (about four months after the game debuted), sales of Professor Layton and the Curious Village jumped 54%, and the game moved up from tenth to fourth place on the Nintendo console game sales leader ^{[24 ]} . In total, at the end of 2012, over five million copies (5.06 million) were sold worldwide ^[25] .

Professor Layton and the Curious Village was recognized as the best game of 2008 for Nintendo DS according to the portals GameSpy ^[26] and GiantBomb ^[27] . Nintendo Power magazine called the game “The Best Puzzle Game” of 2008 ^[28] . In the list of the 50 best games of 2008, the Eurogamer resource, the game ranked 15th ^[29] , hit the top ten games of 2008 according to the GameSpy portal ^[30] . IGN presented the game in the nomination "The best puzzle game" - although it did not win, but according to the readers it was recognized as such ^[31] . Professor Layton and the Curious Village won the Best Handheld Console Game nomination at the British Academy Video Games ^[32] and Spike Video Game Awards ^[33] .