Decent games for the Nintendo DS are often hard to come by in Australian stores. The Professor Layton series seems to be a happy exception, with the second instalment, Pandoras Box, easily available through most stores.

If you’ve played the previous Professor Layton game, then you’ll know what to expect (i.e. another plate of Awesome). If you’ve never played the previous Professor Layton game, well, I expect you’re either new to the DS or entirely lost in the Imagine range and have yet to realise they do, actually, sell other games for the DS. Either way, you need to try this game. You won’t be sorry.

Like The Curious Village, this sequel is essentially a puzzle game framed within a Holmesian-style detective story. Professor Hershel Layton – archaeologist, puzzle-solver and gentleman – and his young assistant, Luke, are contacted by an old friend sometime after the events in The Curious Village. This old friend writes to the Professor regarding an artefact called the Elysian Box which, if opened, will cause the death of the one who opened it. On the heels of the letter comes news of the friend’s death and the fact that the mysterious box has gone missing.

Thus begins the investigation. Instead of the game taking place within the confines of one village, Pandoras Box visits different towns via the posh Molentary Express train. In each village you visit, you’ll meet people or discover objects that prompt a puzzle for the player to solve. The range of puzzles is great enough that there should be something to please everyone – logic puzzles, visual puzzles, mathematical puzzles, etc. Importantly, you don’t have to solve every puzzle to progress in the game. Something I’ve always liked about the Professor Layton series is the ability to put a puzzle away and solve it later (or not at all, if it’s really painful). There are only a few puzzles at crucial stages of the game that must be solved before you can progress in the story.

If you’re a completionist, finding every puzzle might prove tricky. Most are obvious but some are hidden in small objects or even cracks in the wall. After finding a puzzle, whether you solve it or not, it’s added to your puzzle list (from where you can play them again, if you want). As each puzzle is numbered, it becomes glaringly obvious when you’ve missed a hidden puzzle somewhere. Sometimes, you, er, might have to stoop to a Google search to find a well-hidden puzzle (cough). For normal people, however, it’ll be enough that most* of the puzzles you miss will be collected in Granny’s store house where you can solve them at any time. [*But I must have them all!]

Although the story, the mystery, the puzzles, the mini-games, and our gentleman hero are enough on their own to recommend this game, I really have to mention the animation sequences. While the game’s animation is very fine, the cut scene animation that appears during key scenes is lovely. It really gives the impression of watching a high quality animated movie – something like the Castle of Cagliostro springs to mind . Usually I’m not a big fan of cut scenes, but Professor Layton’s animation is charming.

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box is a detective story and puzzle game that shouldn’t be missed. This kind of quality game is the reason I own a DS. Here’s hoping the series grows in popularity and convinces game store buyers to cut their spending on Imagine and various animalzzz gamezzz. Vote for Quality! And remember, “a gentleman never leaves a puzzle unsolved."