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Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
The riddle-solving prof returns with Luke in tow for a mysterious train journey
Written by Chris Schilling, 07 August 2009
A real sleeper hit in both Japan and Europe, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is still hanging around the upper echelons of the All-Formats Top 40 in the UK. The success of the first game caused Nintendo to get motoring on localising the sequel a little quicker this time, though we're still one game behind the lucky Japanese, who now have an entire Layton trilogy to call their own.
PlayZine Issue 31
For our latest Professor Layton coverage, click here to download PlayZine Issue 31 for free.Whether it can match the sales of the original is debatable - we're not sure Nintendo's casual audience will pay out for a sequel while the original is riding high - but it's undeniably a more polished game. The graphics have been improved, with smoother animation and more detail, and there's a wealth of shiny new cutscenes which are longer and feature more voice acting. The story's set to play a more significant part this time around, with Layton and apprentice Luke hopping aboard the Molentary Express as they investigate the death of the prof's enigmatic mentor Dr. Schrader. And the puzzles are less incongruous this time around, fitting the plot a little more snugly.
There's more of them, too, and a host of asides which better the fun metagames of the original. Furniture-arranging has been replaced with a diversion which sees you collecting ingredients to make exotic teas, while the robot dog from the first game has been switched with a hamster that needs regular exercise - of both the mental and physical variety.
With extra puzzles promised at a one-a-week rate for the thirty-three weeks following the game's release, we should be just about finished with everything Pandora's Box has to offer before we get the third in the series. And then we just have to wait for developer Level 5's latest puzzle hit, Sloane and McHale, to get the localisation nod. Looks like our DSes will be training our brains for the foreseeable future, then...
Professor Layton coverage available in PlayZine Issue 31 - click here to download it for free!
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