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New info on DS Professor Layton and his Curious Village

Mysteries, murders and hundreds of puzzles

New info on DS Professor Layton and his Curious Village

Nintendo confirmed today - among other things - that its upcoming DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village will feature the downloadable puzzle service already available for Japanese gamers.

Following its February release in the US, for every week for the first six months, a new puzzle will be available via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. These puzzles will be on top of the 130 already included in the game.

Professor Layton is an adventure game with a twist. You play as the professor as he's called to the (curious) village of St. Mystere where the wealthy baron Augustus Reinhold has passed away without telling anyone where he's put his stash of treasure. Obviously keen to find it, his family asks Layton and apprentice Luke to solve the mystery of where it lies. However, while they're looking for it, another member of the Reinhold family suspiciously dies leaving two mysteries to solve.

What's most curious about the village itself is - well, basically all the people in it and their chosen form of home security too. The townsfolk speak to one another in riddles - something we can't really imagine Hercule Poirot putting up with for long when conducting his investigations - and their front doors are locked with 'sliding puzzles'. Yep, this is where those 130 puzzles come in - many of which are new for the game's western release. You need to solve them in order to progress through the story.

Unlike most other puzzle-centric games, Professor Layton promises something a bit different with its involved story, characters described as 'eccentric' (ie loopy) and animated cutscenes.

Nintendo has previously confirmed the game's US release date as February 18th, but today's press release says October 2nd 2008 for an unspecified territory.

We'll let you know if that's really the UK release date when we get word from Nintendo.

Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.