A puzzle game wrapped inside an enigma, smothered in a delicious secret sauce
Platform: Nintendo DS
I felt like a dunce while playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village after bungling the following riddle: Ten candles stand burning in a room. A strong breeze blows through an open window and extinguishes three of them. If you close the window and assume that no additional candles are extinguished, how many candles are left? Smugly content with my abstract-reasoning skills, I guessed “10.” After all, it didn’t specify lit candles. WRONG! (The answer is “three” because the seven burning candles eventually melt into puddles.) You’ll encounter this riddle and many more as you guide Professor Layton and his puzzle apprentice, Luke, through a rural British village where a secret treasure is hidden. The game’s music echoes Yann Tiersen’s Amélie soundtrack, the cartoon art is whimsical and the puzzles are cunning enough to bring you hours of masochistic pleasure.