Released over a year ago, Professor Layton and the Curious Village received critical appraise for its unique art style, ingenious storytelling, and most of all, its rich puzzle-solving.  American fans of the English professor-turned-scientist over this time have grown envious of the Japanese because a fourth game is already in development along with a Layton movie, and Nintendo had yet to reveal the original game’s sequel.  But with E3 here, Nintendo silently had the game for play at their booth, and it’s safe to say that fans should remain excited.

Once again, the game revolves around Professor Layton and his curious young sidekick.  Before boarding the Molentary Express, Layton received a letter from his mentor.  Much like the letter in the previous game that asked for the whereabouts of the Golden Apple, this time it’s about a cursed box that would kill all those who opened it.  Right off the bat, the story is already looking even more dark because instead of dealing with a single murder and kidnapping, it’s a box that kills people.

Gameplay mechanics remain pretty much the same.  In typical DS storybook fashion, most of the exploring will require you to poke arrows and touch inanimately-colored objects to find hint coins, which you can use to help you with the many brain-teasers there are in the game.  The original game claimed to have a lot of puzzles because the inhabitants of St. Mystere simply solving them.  We don’t know what the fetish is with the puzzles this time around, but we have been told that there will be over 150 puzzles in the game, which is more than the original, and there will also be additional downloadable puzzles available weekly for a limited time.

The game’s crafty hand-drawn artwork is a mainstay in the game and can’t look any better, and much of the music looks to be brand new.  Of course, it would be nice to hear some of the game’s old music, but it’s bound to turn up somewhere.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is slated for release on August 25th, and you can bet we’ll have a review around that time.  Stay tuned to Gamer 2.0′s SmashPad for more previews from E3.

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Related posts:

1. Review: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS)
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4. E3 2009: Mass Effect 2 Preview (Xbox 360, PC)
5. E3 2009: Dissidia: Final Fantasy Preview (PSP)

About This Author: Danreb Victorio

Danreb Victorio is SmashPad's longest tenured staff member and has been writing for the publication since its existence as Gaming-Nation, Inside Gamer Online, Amped IGO, Amped News, and Gamer 2.0. Though SmashPad has gone through many branding changes, Danreb has remained the same--he pushes out content while also improving his craft with every piece that gets published. As a Co-Managing Editor, Danreb, along with Chris Selogy, is in charge of assigning, maintaining, and providing SmashPad's editorial content. Danreb is currently an undergraduate at San Jose State University studying to earn a bachelor of science in magazine journalism. In addition to SmashPad, you can read his work on Yelp.com and San Jose State University's student newspaper, The Spartan Daily.

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