By now we know what to expect from a Professor Layton game: a whole bunch of interesting, varied puzzles wrapped up in an interesting story with high production values. The plot of this third game in the series gets a little more personal than before as it seems Layton and his apprentice, Luke, must travel forward 10 years in time to stop Future Layton from destroying London. It’s up to you to solve the puzzles along the way that will ultimately save the world (or just London, but that’s a big enough place to be saving).

The story of Professor Layton and the Lost Future is wonderfully portrayed using full animated sequences of exceptional quality, full voice acting in some conversations, and a number of still scenes. This gives all the 165-plus puzzles some context, although sometimes they feel a little shoe-horned in and tangentially related at best. Nevertheless it is far better to nest them in an interesting plot than just have a menu to choose them from. There are times when the dialogue gets too verbose, but the plot is engaging (albeit a little holey every now and then) and the mysteries keep you guessing all the way to the magnificent finale.

The structure of most of the game is that of an adventure game with still scenes (similar to Myst). Each location is hand drawn and the artwork is top class. You can click around the scene with your stylus and if you touch a character they will talk to you. Often these characters have puzzles for you to solve, because that’s how things work in the world of Layton – everyone loves puzzles. Other items will reveal a hint coin which can be used to pay for a hint if you’re stuck on a particularly difficult (or obscure) puzzle. Still other items (such as doors) are often exits from the scene and will take you to another scene. There are also hidden puzzles in the scenes which you can discover by touching enough in a certain area indicated by a slightly different graphic when you touch.

The game is excellent at guiding you to where you should be going, and there is never any problem with advancing the plot, should you wish too. I find that while the plot is great, the puzzles are where the interest really lies, so I talk to everyone I can find to see if they have puzzles for me. I would very much like some indication before clicking on them as to whether a conversation with the person will give me a puzzle or not because often you click on the same person at different times during the game only to find they say the same thing over again and you have to click through an entire conversation you’ve read before. Some of the dialogue is also a little over the top in terms of volume too, and plot points are often repeated until you’ve been told something in three different ways. But other than this verbosity there is very little fault that can be found in the quality of the adventure portion.

It is the puzzles that are the star of the show, however. And these are almost all excellent, interesting, varied, creative and well written. Each puzzle earns you a bunch of Picarats should you get it right, which is really like an overall score (and unlocks various extras once you complete the main plot of the game). If you get the puzzle wrong the number of Picarats it is worth will drop, but you will get another chance. You can also use hint coins you find around London to pay for a hint. Each puzzle has three hints, each giving a little more detail, and each also has a Super Hint which pretty much gives away the answer for two hint coins. Thus there are no puzzles that you can really get stuck on, although it is a good idea to save the hint coins for the later, more difficult puzzles.

Puzzles range from logic to numeric to matchsticks or Tetris-like fit-the-pieces. Very few types are repeated more than once or twice, which means each puzzle is fresh and interesting. All puzzles are solved using the touch screen, and controls are carefully explained when you encounter a puzzle of a new type. The controls to move pieces and spin them around are fiddly, but the controls are generally very responsive and intuitive. You can make memos on the touch screen, so you never need a pencil and paper to solve these puzzles.

In addition to the main puzzles there are also some “mini-game” puzzles. One involves placing platforms for a bird to deliver items from its starting perch to one at the far right of the screen. These start off easy but quickly get very tricky to do, with lots of trial and error. Another involves moving a toy car around a grid to pick up items and get to a destination by placing directional arrows that control the direction it travels in. Both of these have a whole set of puzzles that you collect as you talk to characters in the game. Another extra are story books – as you complete puzzles you will be given various stickers to place into these story books to complete the stories. All these extras are great for a change of pace and scenery.

I highly recommend Professor Layton and the Lost Future to all puzzle lovers. To those who aren’t sure if they like puzzles – of course you do! And there is no more an elegant set of puzzles to be found anywhere. Granted, some of these puzzles you could find in puzzle magazines, but then they wouldn’t have all the hints in case you get stuck, or the explanations of the answers (in case you guessed), or the great production values and intriguing plot. This is quality handheld gaming. Its good value too – you should get at least 20 hours of fun out of the Lost Future, depending on how expert you are at puzzle solving.

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