I completely adored Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Having recently beaten every puzzle (except the download-unlock ones) in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, I have to say I'm a little disappointed by the experience - I think.

The game is fantastic and the additions and improvements are most welcome. I'm, in particular, a big fan of the memo option available with every puzzle. It means that I haven't got scraps of paper with insane scrawling lying about my apartment.

I breezed through the first 10% or so of the puzzles with no problem before encountering some more difficult ones. After getting through all of them, though, I thought about it and realized that not a single one stumped me for more than an hour (some of the marble-jump ones were a pain). While it's nice to have never felt the need to fling my DS across the room, I miss the immense feeling of satisfaction that came when I finally puzzled out some head-scratcher in the previous game.

If you're reading this and love puzzle games, I heartily recommend picking this one up. If you haven't played the first, I'd even recommend doing them out of sequence. There's very little plot that'll be spoiled or become confusing if you play them out of sequence, and The Diabolical Box is far less frustrating.

I can't conclude this, however, without mentioning how craptastically inane the ending of Box was. Even the Curious Village's ending and plot conceit were more logical and less contrived.