GENRE
	Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Level 5
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	MICROPHONE
	Yes
	BUY NOW AT

With all the angry, violent and rough-and-ready video game heroes we've met this console generation, it's remarkable to see a hero like Professor Layton debut and, better still, prove popular with gamers. Perhaps the chivalrous and etiquette-concerned gentleman doesn't seem out of place on a Nintendo platform, but he and his stalwart companion and gentleman-in-training, Lucas, are remarkable exceptions to the norm and have headlined yet another excellent puzzle/adventure game for DS. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box may do little that's fundamentally different compared to is predecessor Curious Village, but what's present in the sequel is once more so captivating and addicting that it's still heartily recommended.

As with the prior game, Diabolical Box's story kicks into gear over a death, or, to be more specific, the surprising murder of Layton's own mentor and friend. Yet as Layton and Lucas travel from the streets of London to an extravagant train and other mysterious villages and locations, things once more prove to be not all they seem, and a host of interconnected mysteries, all tied to the greater plot, steadily pop up as the gamer progresses. If fans of Curious Village appreciated that game's unexpected sci-fi twists and melancholy undertones, Diabolical Box will provide an extremely satisfying follow-up in nearly every way, though completing or knowing anything of the previous game's storyline is unnecessary to enjoy or understand this new adventure.

Regardless, the richly creative and detailed environments, story and myriad supporting characters all exist to support a string of brain teasers and puzzles. These puzzles are seldom the kind of obtuse logic stumpers that traditional adventure games are founded on: these are genuine brain teasers, ranging from tricky math puzzles, to deductive logic teasers, to sliding tile stumpers. One puzzle may ask for a parcel of land to be evenly divided among four inheritors, each getting a tree, pond and field, while another may require moving a pyramidial stack of pancakes strategically moved from one plate to another, Towers of Hanoi style, and another may request hopping marbles over one another to clear the board of all but one marble. Usually, there's only an indirect or tenuous link between the puzzles and the game's story, and while the setup of a puzzle may be relevant to its giver's background, interests or location, the puzzles themselves infrequently have impact upon the progression or resolution of the main mystery at hand. Rather, the gamer is free to sit along for the ride and see where the main mysteries go, surmising clues from diary entries and small conversations with puzzle givers, all the while completing a prerequisite number of puzzles to advance to the next story milestone, which is often delivered via a hand-drawn mixed with computer animation cut scene.

If the sound of "brain teaser" brings to mind plainly illustrated black and white diagrams from childhood activity books, fret not: every puzzle in Diabolical Box comes with lushly illustrated and painted artwork, no matter how simple the challenge at hand. Plus, the over-100 different characters who provide these puzzles have personalities and appearances so varied it's amazing they all can belong to the same game world, yet thanks to the spot-on art design, it works.

Visually, Diabolical Box is replete with the same European, vaguely-Miyazaki, art style of Curious Village, and the watercolor painted backdrops are littered with details that many gamers may not even notice. Yet whenever taking a pause to appreciate the design, the care and passion developers at Level 5 have for this world immediately rise to the surface. Adding to the presentational feast is a suitably complementary European-styled soundtrack that's once more heavy with accordion, but further fleshed out with violin, piano and cello. Excellent voice acting in a variety of accents also shows up in story sequences and cut scenes, though some of the more unusual accent choices-- specifically the New York-accented hamster and Jack Black wanna-be train conductor-- stick out and don't mesh with the rest of the game world as well.

As aforementioned, a certain number of puzzles must be completed to advance each leg of the story. This means gamers don't have to solve every last puzzle to go forward, but solving each of them sometimes gifts camera parts, tea ingredients, and other materials used in mini-games that augment the main adventure. While some puzzles do require more basic-level mathematics than Curious Village did, all of them still come with three hints a piece, which can be unlocked or purchased one-at-a-time using in-game hint coins, which are found on nearly every screen of the game by tapping random pieces of scenery, such as a small pond or the top of a steeple. As in Curious Village, completing one of the minigames unlocks a helper to find hint coins, so gamers don't have to fret if the stash runs low.

Also just like Curious Village, tangential minigames give the gamer more to do when he or she's wanting a break from the traditional brain teasers. A camera must be pieced back together with parts gathered from puzzle solving, and once assembled, unlocks a new set of "find the visual difference" games, which then unlock some truly stumping, hidden puzzles. In another challenge, toys must be gathered and strategically placed within a hamster cage to get an overfed and overweight hamster back in shape. And the most intriguing, challenging and perhaps appealing addition is the tea set. After gathering different ingredients via solved puzzles, the gamer can randomly (or deductively) combine three different flavored ingredients in a tea set (spicy, sweet, smoky, for instance) to create one of a dozen different recipes. Randomly, puzzle givers will appear to be sweating with anxiety on the game screen, and by talking to them and hearing what's stressing them out, Layton and Luke must provide a specific cup of tea. Perhaps the only drawback of the tea minigame is that if Layton presents the wrong cup of tea, he likely won't get a second chance until he leaves and returns to the screen with the character over and over until said character is "sweating" again. Plus, tracking down every tea ingredient is quite a challenge that pretty much necessitates completing every single puzzle. Regardless, it remains fun and addictive.

Gamers can expect to get at least a dozen hours of playtime in with just the main adventure alone, and thereafter small sets of the hardest puzzles the game has to offer can be unlocked and played outside the main game. Plus, Nintendo once again is gifting DS users the ability to download a free puzzle for the game every week if connected via WiFi, and we're uncertain how long that will go, but if it's like the previous game, it'll be months.

Perhaps the strongest and most-heard criticism that can be leveled at Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is that it's more of the same, and indeed, it is. Yet there's a slightly grander sense of scale in everything-- the settings, story, puzzles, minigames, graphics and soundtrack all feel amped up just a notch. And what made the first game so utterly charming and addictive is all back here. Perhaps best of all? The main storyline ends with a teaser for the next game in the series, and we can't wait for it to arrive.

8.9/10