Professor Layton and the Last Specter

   Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a puzzle-adventure game for the DS from 2011. It is the fourth game in the Professor Layton series. The story is that Professor Layton recently having hired a new assistant, Emmy, is on his way to a town called Misthallery. An old friend of the Professor, Clark Triton,  had sent him a letter asking him to help save the town from a mysterious specter who attacks the town at night. When they get to Misthallery they enlist the help of Clark's son, Luke to help them as he can predict where the specter will attack next.
   There are two game modes. The first is the standard puzzle-solving story, while the second is a game called "London Life." London Life is an RPG (controlled with buttons) in which you create an avatar, get jobs and apartments, and do other normal-ish things in Tiny London. The main game (which is fully controled with the touch screen) starts with a fully animated and voiced cut-scene introducing the story of the specter and introducing the characters. The voice acting is pretty good (not great), and the animation is really good. The cut-scene countinues by going back in time before the Professor had even met his assistant (the background music was really excellent during this part.) Then you finally get your first puzzle! It's rather easy as they practically told you the answer with a clue, but still fine. There is a system in the game that records various mysteries that you have and their solutions (once you find them.) This is a pretty good way to remember your goals and review past events. The graphics in the game are pretty good, they're sort-of cartoony and exaggerated, but still sort of dark and blurred. In the game there are different areas where you can tap around to explore. Tapping certain things spark conversation or you might find an object, etc. One of the objects you can find is a hint coin which you can use to help solve puzzles you find unsolvable. Something else you might find is a puzzle. Puzzles make up most of the gameplay, and most of them are really well done (and extremely hard). One of my favorite part of the game is the characters. There lots of them, and they're all really good.The town is very large, and you have to go back to each location several times to solve all the mysteries, making for a very expansive game.

SCORES

Gameplay-10 The puzzles are really fun and the controls are very intuitive.

Graphics-9 Super good, but some of the things in the distant background look like blurry nothing.

Replayability-10 You could keep playing London Life forever, and some of the puzzles that you couldn't solve before you can keep trying until you get them (even after finishing the game).

Size-10 There are tons of puzzled and it took a relatively long while (I've played for 15 hours and 45 minutes). Also there's a whole second game included on the cartridge.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.75