Last Rant on Videogames: Riddle Me This

I talked recently about the Phoenix Wright series and how amazing it was.  Additionally, I was left in some state of awe as to how few people had actually played it.  I realize there are a lot of people who won't touch Nintendo products with a 10 foot pole, but there are, contrary to popular opinion, some pretty good third party games on their systems.  As part of advocating awareness of such games, let's talk about puzzles!

If you don't know what I'm going to be talking about after that, congratulations!  You're my target audience today.  Professor Layton is a wonderful little game series for the DS and 3DS.  The premise is thus: you take on the role of the professor as he and his companions, usually Layton's ward, Luke, as he sets about unraveling massive conspiracies and the causes of apparently supernatural events.  The professor, tenured at Gressenheller University teaching archaeology and helping the befuddled dean exist on a daily basis, is a man after my own heart.  With the mindset that no puzzle is without an answer, he thwarts all adversaries and obstacles by sheer logic and a bit of trickery.  Really, he's the Doctor without a second heart.  I'm pretty sure he regenerates, too.

The plot is generally incredibly grandiose, though rather short.  The only reason the games last a reasonable amount of time is because Layton has a serious problem.  You see, our poor boy here has a serious puzzle addiction.  Unfortunately, everyone he meets is an enabler, throwing puzzles at him for little to no reason, and without provocation.  You chased a cat?  That reminded this old man of a puzzle!  You wear a hat?  Puzzle time!  Now, when I mentioned this to Zach, he seemed rather nonplussed at the idea.  I should point out that this game uses the word "puzzle" quite loosely.  Really, it's taken to mean any logic problem possible.  Some are, in fact, jigsaw puzzles.  More often than not, they're riddles.  A number of them are word problems, some are MindTrapian in nature, and some give you copious opportunities to try solutions until you find the correct one.

The game gives incentive for a thoughtful and thorough approach rather than brute force.  Every time you get a wrong answer, you lose a portion of the Picarats a puzzle is worth.  Picarats are the imaginary currency of the game, used to unlock more stuff after the main game has been conquered.  For the completionists out there, it's definitely a motivation to get it right the first time.

If you're stuck on a puzzle, you can expend a hint coin to help you out.  In later games, you can have up to 4 hints, usually in increasing order of helpfulness.  The first three cost one coin and the last costs two, but will generally give the answer away.  Most of the games have a cap of 200 coins.  Collecting coins is similar to navigation and interaction with NPCs.  In the style of old point n' click games, you navigate colorful scenes and memorable caricatures of people by tapping the lower screen with the stylus.  You can move from scene to scene by tapping arrows around the scene, and talk to people by poking them.  There aren't really dialogue trees, so if you're out puzzle hunting, you're likely to hear the same comments multiple times.  Hint coins are found by prodding interesting features of the environment.  At one point, the developers lampshade this by having one of the professor's companions ask him why he always taps light fixtures upon entering a room.  Additional puzzles and some niftiness associated with each individual game can be found in this manner as well.

The stories follow the same general route, though the scenery varies dramatically.  Layton receives some call to action and sets out, followed closely by at least one of the companions he'll pick up that game.  The plot thickens as strange events occur, and Layton quickly finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue.  More often than not, the current catastrophe is paranormal, and Layton, while not immediately disbelieving the evidence, is skeptical of the true nature of events.  In all the games I've played so far, there's nothing more supernatural than Luke's oddly specific affinity for animals, a near empathic bond used as a plot device for no real reason other than to have some more side games.  Oh, yeah.  There are quite a few side games, usually 3 different ones per title.

In the end, the events are totally explainable and founded in the real world.  

However, feasibility is not really an issue, as the explanations have ranged from hallucinogenic dust to building a steampunk replica of London under the Thames that's also a giant spider robot.

 Super realistic, guys.  Layton proves, at the end of the day, that logic triumphs and archaeologists are awesome.  The games are so ridiculous, it's amusing.  While there's always a bit of peril, it's obviously intended to be camp, and it comes across wonderfully.  Full of quirky humor and mind boggling puzzles, these games are great fun.  Additionally, they have such a simple formula that it's hard to see it ending.

While the now 6 games in the series might not be enough to run out and get a 3DS, 4 of them are on the DS and prices on that are coming down.  If you really like logic puzzles and would like a story for them to be framed in, it might be enough to make you get the console.  The newer games are still $40, but the entire series can be found on the Amazons for under $100.  Given that each game is probably about a 10 hour endeavor, I'd say that's a pretty good use of your money.