Let's say you came into the ownership of a certain box that, when opened, kills anyone who looks inside. How long would you be able to hold onto it before opening that bad boy up? For one of Professor Layton's colleagues, the answer is simple: not long. It would be a short game if he didn't die, but sadly the Elysian box goes missing and it begins to look like foul play is involved. It's a surprisingly solid set-up for what could have been little more than a collection of puzzles, but that's why the Professor Layton games work so well. Welcome to Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Why simply release a collection of touchscreen-based puzzles and mind teasers when you can tie their completion into a mystery? Why create a simple mystery when you can surround it with beautifully conceived graphics and sounds? If you don't like puzzles, this still isn't the game for you. If you're intrigued by the possibility of a game that thinks outside of the proverbial and literal box, however, this is pure heaven.

Title Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box Developer Level 5 Publisher Nintendo Price $29.99 Shop.ars Platform Nintendo DS

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box offers a larger-scale experience than the previous game in the series, the Curious Village. The first game made more sense in that you operated in a village where puzzles worked like currency, but now the game doesn't try to explain why puzzles stop you at every turn, it just offers them for you to solve. Since gaming offers you harder pills to swallow than this with some regularity, the internal logic here isn't distracting.

For certain personality types, spending time in the world of Layton is going to be a wonderful time sink. The game moves at a slower pace than many titles, you'll meet and speak to many interesting characters while moving around the settings and trying to solve the mysteries of the Elysian Box, and you'll be constantly confronted with puzzles. There are over 150 in the game, and they involve numbers, logic, maps, doodles, and everything else you can imagine. You'll have seen many of the ideas behind many of the puzzles before, but the sheer variety and quality of the puzzles will keep your interest; there is something to be said for a game where you're never quite sure how you'll need to twist your brain to get to the next answer.

For such a genteel title, with a Professor who often gives you tips on being, in fact, a gentlemen, there is a surprising amount of anticipation about arriving at the next puzzle just to see what you'll be asked to do.

Some puzzles you'll solve quickly, others will take you a few minutes, and the harder ones—worth more points, called Picarats—could have you thinking for a long time, making notes on the screen with the memo feature. You do feel like you're doing something constructive with your mind while playing, and you're given a delightful story with twists and turns to keep you interested. You'll also find hint coins by tapping on the screen as you move around your environments, and you can use these to get, you guessed it, hints to puzzles that may be giving you problems.

There is more to collect and play with, including an odd side-quest involving a chubby hamster and a tea-brewing challenge, and the whole thing is set up to keep you involved and playing. While not much has changed since the first game, the new side-quests and story are much more interesting this go-around, and besides, the first game was great. You can play Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box for an entire afternoon with a nice cup of tea, or you can take a crack at a puzzle or two for ten minutes before you go to sleep. In many ways it feels like curling up with a good book, and that's not a bad feeling coming from your Nintendo DS now, is it?

Verdict: Buy