Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Nintendo
(Nintendo DS)
I'm not that hard to please. Show me a game whose main character is a charming little British chap with a cartoonishly huge top hat, and I am so there. And if that game also happens to contain a variety of puzzles that make you feel like genius even for your most trivial accomplishments, then we're really in business.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is unlike just about every other game available on the DS right now. Sure, it has puzzles like Brain Age does, and it has a point-and-click at everything you damn well please aspect like Sam and Max, but this is an entirely different beast. Our top-hatted protagonist and his pint-sized apprentice, Luke, have been cordially invited to the odd little town of St. Mystere by the wealthy Lady Dahlia. But this is no social call: the Lady has recently been widowed by the Baron Reinhold, whose will has apparently cause quite a stir about the Reinhold Manor. It's up to Layton to solve the mystery of the will, along with whatever other problems come flying his way (and believe me, there are a ton of them).
