In the world of videogames, public opinion can be a fickle and often unpredictable beast. We regularly see bad games selling well, while guaranteed classics often gather dust on the shelf. Still, there are exceptions. Take Professor Layton And The Curious Village, for instance. It's not that we're surprised that it's done well at retail, because the quality of the game speaks for itself. What we are shocked at, however, is how well it's done.
In the weeks after the game came out, we couldn't find a single copy of the game on sale anywhere and it has now been confirmed as the fourth best selling game of 2009 so far. Such furious popularity in the same vein as Wii Fit and the console itself obviously makes us smile, if only because it guaranteed the release of the game's two sequels, the first of which is coming in September. And believe us, these are sequels we want if what we've already played of them is anything to go by.
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It's not that either of them reinvent the concept laid out by Curious Village, because we love the first game too much to see the ideas there thrown out for something new. Instead, they refine what's already been seen before adding new elements to the mix that bring added depth to the gameplay. Indeed, you only have to play Professor Layton And Pandora's Box - the second game in a trilogy that's already concluded in Japan - for half an hour or so to realise just where the improvements lie.
Part of that realisation comes from the story itself, which is considerably darker than Curious Village's tale of kidnapping and missing treasure. Having been summoned to London by his mentor, Doctor Schrader, to protect a box that can supposedly kill anyone who opens it, the Professor arrives to find Schrader murdered and the box missing. Gasp! Mystery! Intrigue! More gasping! And all in the first five minutes of the game too... providing you can solve the first four puzzles in that short time, of course. We did, but then we're smart like that.
Murder She Wrote Things get more mysterious as the Professor's efforts to unravel the secrets of this killer box unfold. Not only do several familiar faces pop up along the way (Detective Chelmey being the most obvious one, although Curious Village fans will know the twist behind that little tale), but the quest takes Layton and Luke to a more eclectic range of locations than their previous adventure did. From the busy streets of London and the cramped carriages of an express train, to Dropstone, a rural village with a slightly odd cow obsession and the creepy underground town of Folsense, there's a great variety of atmospheres to experience this time around.
Brain... Freeze! And then, of course, there's the gameplay. Aside from the gorgeously-drawn environments and interesting characters you'll meet, the bulk of it is still made up of dozens of brain-straining puzzles (over 130 in the main adventure, plus over 60 more in the form of bonus and downloadable Wi-Fi puzzles), which need to be solved before you can solve clues, get people to co-operate and generally make progress with your investigation.
Instead, it's the additional side-quests from the first game that have been changed, with more intriguing ones replacing them for you to mess with. One sees you having to help a portly hamster lose weight by making him follow paths you set out for him, another requires you to collect ingredients and combine them to make different types of tea that can quench people's thirst and a third focuses on Layton's new camera.
While it might not sound that much of a diversion from the original formula, Curious Village fans will know that that's exactly what we want - an intriguing new story wrapped around more cunning puzzles that we know what to do with. Can't wait...
