Review by: Brandon "Fat Hamster" Cackowski-Schnell

Whenever a beloved game gets a sequel there's a worry that all of the glittery shininess of the original will somehow get dulled down for the sequel and you'll end up with something that's good, but not quite as good. Thankfully this is not the case with Professor Layton and the Diabolical box as it is every bit as excellent as the good professor's previous outing.

When Professor Layton's mentor dies at the hands of the Elysian Box, an object said to kill whoever has the audacity to open it, Layton, his self-appointed apprentice Luke and Flora, the young girl at the heart of Layton's previous outing join forces to investigate the death. Their investigation takes them aboard the Molentary Express, a posh steam train, and into an adventure that will bring them to a young town with a secret, a hidden village and bring our group face to face with all manner of quirky characters. Along the way they'll solve more mysteries than you can shake a stick at including a missing "child", a train ticket without a destination, and of course, the mystery of the diabolical box.

The game's story is certainly enough to keep players interested with beautiful hand drawn animation serving as cut scenes in between chapters. As with the first game, as the game starts out, it seems like all you're finding is mysteries as the number of questions start piling up in Layton's trunk like used hats, but as you reach the conclusion, the feeling of triumph as every mystery gets that glorious "solved" status is hard to deny. The main story's conclusion is somewhat lacking, which, to be honest, was true of the first game as well, but by then, narrative issues do nothing to dent your feeling like the smartest puzzle master on the planet.

Luckily the game keeps the same intriguing mix of adventure gaming and puzzle gaming from the first outing intact providing a framework that can appeal to adventure game heads who grew up pointing and clicking as well as those who tackle the daily Soduku puzzle in pen. At first it seems strange that using the stylus to tap on a vase of roses would lead to a puzzle about wrapping up roses in paper, especially when the puzzle has nothing to do with the current mystery, but at the same time, when one considers the absurd puzzles that most adventure games come up with, it doesn't seem strange at all. In fact, it's better as Luke and Layton are self-described puzzle junkies and they aren't about to let something like death stave their desire to try and stump one another.

The puzzles are, for the most part, well done with a significant reduction of the various box sliding puzzles from the first outing. There are still some of those, and they still seem out of place as they don't require logic or alternative thinking, just nothing but trial and error, but as there aren't as many of them you don't notice them quite as much. The puzzles range in difficulty with some as simple as they sound, some far more difficult than you would initially think and some far, far, simpler than you would imagine causing you to feel like a big fat doofus when you spend ten minutes on it despite figuring it out within thirty seconds but thinking to yourself "it can't be that simple."

As you progress through the game, tapping on the well drawn environments with your stylus you'll uncover more of the game's 130 puzzles as well as hint coins which can be used to buy, you guessed it, hints. The hints are a mixed bag with some of them being quite useful and some of them giving you a serious case of buyer's remorse. Completing puzzles adds to your piccarat score with repeated attempts lowering your score for individual puzzles. The piccarat score doesn't do anything all that useful other than giving you a warm fuzzy, or alternatively making you feel like a gibbering moron.

Despite the player's movement through the game being entirely based on their ability to solve certain puzzles, you never feel restricted or held back in any way. The game does an excellent job of sheparding you along your way as well as fostering a desire to visit every screen and talk to every person to uncover every puzzle. Luckily, Granny Riddleton is back as well, as is her Riddle Shack meaning that you can still try every puzzle, even if you missed it as part of the previous chapter.

Granny Riddleton's shack becomes particularly important as some puzzles will give you items to be used in the game's three new minigames. As you go about solving the mysteries surrounding you you'll also get the opportunity to rebuild a busted camera, brew up some tasty new teas and get a corpulent hamster to lose some weight. All of these games are puzzles in and of themselves and reward the player with the ability to find more hint coins and, you guess it, more puzzles. The fact that the ability to find more puzzles is a genuine reward in this game is a testament to just how darn good the puzzles are. Heck, one of them even uses the game's manual, a tactic that hearkens back to the adventure games of yore when four 5.25" floppies meant hours of enjoyment.