Review: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is an adventurous and remarkable puzzle game in a charming world

Miracle Mask brings the professor, his assistant Emmy and his apprentice Luke to the Vegas-esque tourism town of Monte d'Or. It's a town that is under assault by the Masked Gentleman, turning people into stone and such. He's viewed with wonder by some citizens for his daring magical feats, and with contempt and fear by others and the police. Needless to say, he's the source of the town's problems that goes hand-in-hand with the mystery surrounding Monte d'Or. Navigating Monte d'Or is all done with the stylus. You can access Layton's chest, investigate, or navigate the town with simple swipes and presses.

Investigating is done by tapping the magnifying glass with the stylus. You then look around the section of Monte d'Or that you're in. It can take a little getting used to having to move the stylus along the bottom 3DS screen while looking at where you are on the top screen, but By clicking objects, people and buildings, you uncover clues, find hint coins, advance the story and, most importantly, find puzzles! Puzzles are everywhere, which is to be expected in a Professor Layton game. There's over 100 puzzles to solve over the course of the adventure, from solving riddles and untangling balloon strings, to deducing how many people are in a picture from just looking at silhouettes. They increase in difficulty as the game advances, but it's rather forgiving. Re-attempting a puzzle either lowers the amount of Picarats you get or just prolongs the time until Layton points at you with that finger, congratulating you for solving the puzzle.

Even the game's early puzzles are no cakewalk, but it never gets to the point of being frustrating, mainly because the puzzles, look and feel of the game are so charming. In addition to these puzzles, there are mini-games that you access through Layton's chest. There's ones where you guide a robot through different levels filled with obstacles, one where you use rules and logic to stock store shelves a certain way so that customers buy all of the items, and one where you train a rabbit to perform an act for the circus. Oh, and there's also some horse riding in the game. And that's not all, as a new puzzle will be released every day for a year from launch day. Talk about replay value.

Bringing together the whole package is the use of three-dimensional graphics, which is a first for the series. It's one of the first games that I can play with the 3D slider all the way up for extended periods of time — it looks that good! Everything pops, from the hand-painted backgrounds, to the cute animation of the characters, to text boxes. Puzzles look better. Investigating and zooming in on environments look better. Simply put: the 3D makes the game pop and come to life. Add in whimsical music and voice acting that bring the characters to life, and you have quite the charming package.

The adventurous prequel story about Monte d'Or and its mysteries and chaos, as well as a young Professor Layton's friends, are quite captivating — even if it does take a while to ramp up. Combine that with the sheer amount of puzzles and mini-games, you're guaranteed at least 13 hours to complete the main story. For completionists, though, you'll be able to dump a lot more time into the game. The only negative is that at times I felt bogged down by the amount of things I can do, and I constantly felt the need to investiage and re-investigate the same area every time I entered it.

For newcomers and Professor Layton vets alike, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is a remarkable puzzle game with an adventurous story set in a charming world. Everything pops with the 3D, and while changes to world exploration might take a bit to get used to, it doesn't hamper the game in any way. All this comes together to provide one of the best experiences on the 3DS and a must-have for fans of puzzle games.

You can follow Movies and Culture Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com

Via: Review: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is an adventurous and remarkable puzzle game in a charming world

Read More

Review: Silent Hill's only Revelation is that it's terrible

That near-miss of brilliance gave me hope that Silent Hill: Revelation would right the wrongs of the original. After all, it wouldn't take much more than tossing out the script and letting the atmosphere speak for itself. Unfortunately, the creators of Silent Hill: Revelations didn't take fan opinion to heart. Instead, they repeated the same mistakes again with half the adherence to what makes Silent Hill special and twice as much wooden exposition.

The revelation here may be the bit of revisionist history that allows Sharon, the girl from the first film, to return to her father Christopher (Sean Bean). Years later, the two are on the run from cultists. They regularly move to new towns and change their names, giving Revelations an opportunity to name drop characters from Silent Hill 3 (the game). Now known as Heather and Harry, the pair can't outrun the cultists, eventually finding their way back to Silent Hill.

Along for the ride is Jon Snow...er, Vincent (played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington), a boy from school who offers to help Heather return to Silent Hill. Of course he wouldn't be there without some secrets of his own, and his particular revelation is pretty much the turning point for any hope that this film will be any good.

Once again Silent Hill: Revelation is thick with explanations for all the madness that doesn't need explaining. And once again, the delivery of all this unnecessary info is as stilted as ever. The actors, almost all born outside of the United States, can't even be bothered to keep their accents in check. Sean Bean in particular dips into his native accent off and on throughout his scenes. As the revelations keep coming in the form of actors who seem too good for this film (Malcolm McDowell and Carrie-Anne Moss), it becomes clear that the terrible acting wasn't anyone's fault but those behind the camera.

At it's best, Silent Hill: Revelation is all about the creatures, but even then it falls pitifully short. Pyramid Head makes his return of course, but this time he's less terrifying and more fan service, pitted against another creature in an idiotic battle resembled Voldo and Nightmare duking it out in Soul Calibur. The creepy/sexy nurses also make a return, once again showing the creators' utter failure to understand what Silent Hill was about. After all, the nurses in Silent Hill 2 (the game) were manifestations of the main character's repressed sexual desires (yep), and in Revelations they're kinda just there.

Well before the end you'll probably find yourself fed up with the story and desensitized to the horror elements. That the central conflict of Revelations is solved with little more than an incredibly dramatic hug is just icing on a terrible cake. What I was left with was a very different nightmare than I hoped for: that I was looking at the next game-turned-movie-series to follow in the footsteps of Resident Evil. Now that's some scary stuff.

Via: Review: Silent Hill's only Revelation is that it's terrible

Read More