Outstanding!
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is like a puzzle book that you'd pick up in the magazine section of your favorite book store, only with videogame accoutrements thrown on top of it. The result is something far more interactive -- and, more importantly, far more entertaining -- than any puzzle book could ever be. Not only do puzzle enthusiasts get over 130 downright mind-boggling brainteasers, but they also get a host of interesting characters to meet and environments to explore, as well as a new storyline that brings cohesion to what would otherwise be a mere digitized textbook of logic puzzles.
You accompany the esteemed Professor Layton, along with his apprentice, Luke, in an effort to solve the puzzle of the Elysian Box. You explore environments by pointing with the DS stylus, interacting with characters and items in order to unlock puzzles. Completing the puzzles -- which tap into your logic, math, and pattern-recognition skills -- gets you picarats (the in-game currency used to purchase extras), as well as other items needed to progress the game's story.
Exploration opens up mandatory puzzles that must be solved in order to progress, and you're also challenged with a host of purely optional puzzles (which you can skip and play later from the main menu). That's a whole lot of puzzles, but that's unsurprising because that's what the core of the game is based upon. I love puzzles, I love being challenged, and therefore, according to my calculations, I love Diabolical Box because it hits both of those points. Consequently, if you hate puzzles, and hate fun, you'll also probably hate this game.
Even people who love challenges dislike being stuck for too long. Thankfully, players can unlock hints (three for each puzzle) via "hint tokens," which are found inside random items in the environment. Save from the rare occasion when the provided hints didn't prove all that helpful, I found them useful enough that I thoroughly explored the environments, making it into sort of a mini-game where I tapped every pixel I encountered. The challenging puzzles are spread out quite well, with several moderate-to-easy puzzles in between, with story-progressing puzzles often being downright simple.
Even puzzle enthusiasts who make it through the game's main storyline and solve all the riddles (more than 130 -- which took me over 14 hours) still get more challenges to satiate their brains. Just like the excellent first game (Professor Layton and the Curious Village), this title offers the option to download a new weekly puzzle. On top of this, several challenge puzzles exist outside of the regular game, giving you the chance to earn more picarats. Furthermore, several small mini-games offer a change of pace, covering everything from blending the right tea for a person's ailment to reassembling a camera from pieces you find in your journey (you know, gentlemen-y stuff). However, while the game features a lot of puzzles, it -- like its predecessor -- doesn't have much replay value. After all, once you've figured out a puzzle, it isn't likely to challenge you again.
The reusing of puzzles is one of my main complaints about Diabolical Box. While you're never forced to play the exact same puzzle more than once, several of them feel like rehashes, presented in slightly different ways. For instance, you'll have to finish several puzzles where you trace lines in order to see where they get tangled, or move objects around in a box to see how you can free one or more of the pieces inside. And while these puzzles were still fun each time they appeared, and they certainly had different solutions, they stood out against some of the more clever and unique puzzles I encountered in-between.
Most people probably don't play Professor Layton games for their story, and that's probably for the best. I'll admit that I was actually engrossed towards the end -- being especially captivated by the awesome animated cut-scenes and voice acting -- but the actual conclusion disappointed through sheer ridiculousness. I'm fine with a really well-done plot twist, but the one in Diabolical Box is so silly that I half-expected the Mystery Van from Scooby Doo to appear. But hey, at least you've got a story that engages up to the end, and this sure beats going back to the puzzle books in the grocery store.
