But Professor, we want more! And more is what we received. Once again, Level 5 has delivered the goods with the latest look into the life of our favorite puzzle solving professor: Professor Layton And The Unwound Future.
More seems to be the running theme throughout this adventure with Layton and Luke; there are more puzzles, more locations, and more characters. This installment of Professor Layton has you more involved with the ever twisting storyline, catches you off guard with references that break the fourth wall, and manages to surprise you with a few familiar faces along the way.
Level 5 has made a few improvements to the game this time around to help with some of the more challenging puzzles. For instance, in the hint options, there is now one additional super hint available for people who are unable to tap into their inner Dr. House to solve the puzzle.
Unfortunately, most of the time I found the super hint did all but tell you the answer. This was great in those moments of brain freeze, but made me feel as if I could avert any potential challenges if I really wanted to.
A vast improvement from the first two installments is the memo function. How many times have you forgotten which line meant what when drawing out those clumsy thick black lines? Level 5 has come to our rescue giving us both thick and thin lines, erase options as well as color options! The memo function has now become a must use when it comes to solving puzzles- Layton wasn't just going to give us something substantial without expecting us to use it now was he?
The storyline this time around was given a major overhaul. It had more structure and narrative than the earlier editions of Layton, and it became much more intriguing because of it. I found myself becoming much more invested in the characters and their histories than in previous games in the franchise.
When comparing Unwound Future to previous installments, I found the storyline to be very unpredictable, which is to be expected from a time-travel based narrative. Thankfully, they didn't just go for the most outrageous or campy option when it came to handling the narrative. Instead, the writers kept it fun but logical and kept the paradoxes to a minimum. I should also add that I found the content to be slightly more adult oriented in this adventure, so parents might have a tougher time explaining portions of the game to their kids if they play along side them. Serious themes involving emotions of loss and destruction were played upon, however they were vital for the story and were not used frivolously. This is heavy, Doc.
This time, your Hamster, Tea Set, and Camera from Diabolical Box have been replaced by a new Parrot friend and Toy Car mini-game. As with the previous installments, these mini-games will help you out as you continue to save London. Picrats (the puzzle solving reward) have again become a major player in the unlocking of bonus puzzles throughout the game, which is familiar to anyone whose played the first two titles in the series. Also returning are downloadable puzzles, which help extend your playtime with the game even after you've fully completed the story.
Level 5 has done a fantastic job with the visual style of the game this time around. All the exquisite animation detailing found in games like Wario Land: Shake It has been transposed to the Nintendo DS in Unwound Future. There is sporadic voice acting throughout the game, which makes it seem like it may have been a last-minute addition, or, perhaps they simply ran out of cart space to be able to contain the voice files for the entire game and made some judgment calls with where to keep voices in certain story points. However, on the plus side: the musical score this time around is absolutely phenomenal and so catchy that it continues to be fantastically stuck in your head well after you've put the game down for the night.
Our first time through the story took approximately 17 hours, but we were admiring the scenery and cutscenes along the way. If you knew where every puzzle was, all the answers and skipped those wonderful cutscenes, the game would probably take from eight to ten hours to complete.
Nintendo provided us our copy to review early last week, and after spending ample time with the title, I can safely say that if you have played the previous titles in the series, you will cherish Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, appreciating all the work the developers put in it to create a fresh experience. If you have not experienced the Professor before, you won't be missing out on anything devastating, but the underlying jokes and depth of various characters that series fans appreciate will likely go unnoticed by newcomers.
More seems to be the running theme throughout this adventure with Layton and Luke; there are more puzzles, more locations, and more characters. This installment of Professor Layton has you more involved with the ever twisting storyline, catches you off guard with references that break the fourth wall, and manages to surprise you with a few familiar faces along the way.
Level 5 has made a few improvements to the game this time around to help with some of the more challenging puzzles. For instance, in the hint options, there is now one additional super hint available for people who are unable to tap into their inner Dr. House to solve the puzzle.
Unfortunately, most of the time I found the super hint did all but tell you the answer. This was great in those moments of brain freeze, but made me feel as if I could avert any potential challenges if I really wanted to.
A vast improvement from the first two installments is the memo function. How many times have you forgotten which line meant what when drawing out those clumsy thick black lines? Level 5 has come to our rescue giving us both thick and thin lines, erase options as well as color options! The memo function has now become a must use when it comes to solving puzzles- Layton wasn't just going to give us something substantial without expecting us to use it now was he?
The storyline this time around was given a major overhaul. It had more structure and narrative than the earlier editions of Layton, and it became much more intriguing because of it. I found myself becoming much more invested in the characters and their histories than in previous games in the franchise.
When comparing Unwound Future to previous installments, I found the storyline to be very unpredictable, which is to be expected from a time-travel based narrative. Thankfully, they didn't just go for the most outrageous or campy option when it came to handling the narrative. Instead, the writers kept it fun but logical and kept the paradoxes to a minimum. I should also add that I found the content to be slightly more adult oriented in this adventure, so parents might have a tougher time explaining portions of the game to their kids if they play along side them. Serious themes involving emotions of loss and destruction were played upon, however they were vital for the story and were not used frivolously. This is heavy, Doc.
This time, your Hamster, Tea Set, and Camera from Diabolical Box have been replaced by a new Parrot friend and Toy Car mini-game. As with the previous installments, these mini-games will help you out as you continue to save London. Picrats (the puzzle solving reward) have again become a major player in the unlocking of bonus puzzles throughout the game, which is familiar to anyone whose played the first two titles in the series. Also returning are downloadable puzzles, which help extend your playtime with the game even after you've fully completed the story.
Level 5 has done a fantastic job with the visual style of the game this time around. All the exquisite animation detailing found in games like Wario Land: Shake It has been transposed to the Nintendo DS in Unwound Future. There is sporadic voice acting throughout the game, which makes it seem like it may have been a last-minute addition, or, perhaps they simply ran out of cart space to be able to contain the voice files for the entire game and made some judgment calls with where to keep voices in certain story points. However, on the plus side: the musical score this time around is absolutely phenomenal and so catchy that it continues to be fantastically stuck in your head well after you've put the game down for the night.
Our first time through the story took approximately 17 hours, but we were admiring the scenery and cutscenes along the way. If you knew where every puzzle was, all the answers and skipped those wonderful cutscenes, the game would probably take from eight to ten hours to complete.
Nintendo provided us our copy to review early last week, and after spending ample time with the title, I can safely say that if you have played the previous titles in the series, you will cherish Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, appreciating all the work the developers put in it to create a fresh experience. If you have not experienced the Professor before, you won't be missing out on anything devastating, but the underlying jokes and depth of various characters that series fans appreciate will likely go unnoticed by newcomers.