storytelling with dozens of brainteasers—for the most part, familiar logic and math puzzles that cross the boundaries of language and culture. The third title, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, arrives in the U.S. on Monday. Meanwhile, other developers have been inspired by the series’ success to try their own mix of puzzles and story. Meet the professor’s wouldbe challengers:

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (Telltale Games, for PC/Mac, $9.99; for iPad, $6.99): Near the end of this adventure, a suspect tells the hero, “Puzzles are a way to keep yourself from asking questions you don’t want answers to.” Well, yeah. Puzzle Agent comes from the studio behind the Sam & Max series, and shares its off-kilter whimsy. Nelson Tethers, the sole employee of the U.S. Department of Puzzle Research, is sent to the small town of Scoggins, Minn., to investigate the unexplained closure of its eraser factory. Scoggins is populated by a cast of weirdos straight out of Twin Peaks, and each, of course, has a puzzle to solve—37 in total. The brain-teasers will feel familiar to Layton fans: There are mazes, jigsaws, logic puzzles and other stumpers that wouldn’t be out of place in a 100-year-old puzzle book. There’s a generous hint system, but experienced solvers won’t need it; the few truly challenging puzzles are made that way by vague, incomplete instructions. Still, for 10 bucks you get a fun, fast-paced romp.

Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle (Relentless Software, for PS3, $7.49 per episode): This episodic series, with six chapters so far, strains much too hard for the dotty British atmosphere of the Layton games. Which is curious, since its developer is actually based in Britain, while Layton studio Level 5 is Japanese. Little Riddle is one of those quaint villages filled with eccentric residents and blustery officials. All of the characters, male and female, are voiced by the same actor, which gives the whole enterprise the feeling of an overextended Monty Python sketch. At the beginning of each episode a crime is committed, and identifying the culprit entails solving around 15 puzzles per chapter. Blue Toad tries to turn the solitary act of puzzling into a competitive activity—but only one person can solve at a time. Combine that with the sluggish cut scenes and you have a game where you spend way too much time not playing. And the puzzles themselves aren’t distinctive enough to make the downtime worth enduring.

The Jim and Frank Mysteries: The Blood River Files (Chillingo, for iPad/iPhone, $0.99): I enjoyed the stumpers in this app quite a bit more, mainly due to their variety and unpredictability. Along with the overly used classics, Chillingo has mixed in some Nikoli-type logic puzzles and “Jumble” knockoffs. There are also a few arcade challenges, like a Flight Control-inspired parking game, that break up the mental calisthenics. The drawback is a bizarre art design that mixes pretty background scenery with truly hideous characters who look like they were scrawled by a blindfolded 5-year-old. The title characters are two teenage Americans, although their adventure—a convoluted birthday quest created by Jim’s grandfather—appears to take place in a quasi-European village. It’s easy enough, though, to skip through the awkward dialogue and confused graphics and get to the 60 puzzles at the heart of Jim and Frank. And the price is tough to beat.

Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece: Book 1 (The App House, for iPad, $1.99): Despite a title that evokes both Layton and the Harry Potter books, Simon Graham is the blandest of this bunch. Simon is a 10-year-old boy in early 20th-century America. His story is told through static, black-and-white illustrations that do nothing to capture the potential excitement of his journey from a small farmhouse to New York City. The puzzle screens are more colorful, and there are a few anagrams and hidden-picture problems among the more traditional challenges. Simon Graham does deserve props for one thing: Unlike its competitors, it actually acknowledges the wizards, like Sam Loyd and Henry Dudeney, who came up with these puzzles in the first place. Perhaps those guys would be delighted to see their work repurposed for electronic play. If you grew up devouring puzzle books, you’ll recognize almost every chestnut found in these games. Indeed, I suspect the writers were simply handed collections of public-domain puzzles and told to shoehorn them into stories as best they could.

Fans of Professor Layton and his protégés would surely be even more enthusiastic if their games contained more original brain-teasers, and I can think of at least a dozen brilliant puzzle designers who would be capable of providing them. As promising as the puzzle-adventure genre is, it’ll go stale quickly without some fresh material.

Lou Kesten is a video-game critic for The Associated Press.

Authors: Mike Selinker

to know more click here