Professor Layton & the Diabolical Box for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Though gamefly critics and users have given this game good ratings, I simply have to disagree on this. If I wanted to watch a poorly plotted cartoon, I would watch them on television. There is very little GAME PLAY to this game. Other than randomly pecking around at items in the scenes and rolling your eyes through supremely easy mini-puzzles. I couldn't even bring myself to play past one puzzle that had only TWO possibilities, yet it still let you "win" on the second try.

Maybe if your kid is wanting a game where they don't feel inept and you just want to shut them up for an hour or so, you should put this in their hands. For those of you adults wanting to play an interesting game, this is not the one.

This was my first Professor Layton game, but won't be my last. It's a lot of fun, and it's great if you're looking to challenge your mind rather than your reflexes.

My only two gripes:

1. The ending to the story/mystery was kind of lame, IMO.

2. There are several infuriatingly cheap puzzles. By the time you figure it out, at the end of every puzzle there's an explanation. In these cheap ones, the explanation is usually "we never said you couldn't do THIS", and is just generally misleading. I hate puzzles like that.

Overall, fun game, definitely worth a try.