Well, this review is a little late. ;)

>"No mechanism to keep players from restarting if they fail a puzzle."
I'm not sure how this is a "con", really... Since the game is single player, it doesn't really hurt the game if the player wants to "cheat".

Anywhoo, I *loved* this game and cannot wait for the next one.  If you haven't bought this one yet, please do.

I found Layton to get a little tedious as the game went on.  The story is interesting, but it unfolds so slowly (10-20 puzzles between each plot advancement) that I couldn't stay excited about what would happen next.  I have also objected and mocked Luke's voice acting, which gives me nightmares.  HOWEVER, it is a very charming game overall, and most of the puzzles are quite good.  I'm not really interested in the sequels unless they shake up the formula and provide some nice enhancements, which I don't think is going to be the case.

The difference for me was that the puzzles were the main part of the game for me, with the story secondary.

The puzzles in this game are really good. Not obviously easy but not too hard that you have to pick up a pen and paper. I agree with the rating of this game but i would add the antagonist in the cons area. It feels like he's placed there without any reason and he annoys me more than anything in the game (even with his very limited time under the spotlight). He's like wacko jacko in an elementary school: he has no business being there.

There is a mechanism.  You cannot soft reboot the game (L + R + Start + Select).  You need to actually throw the switch.

Also, to alleviate frustration, the number of points you loose for wrong answers bottoms out (I think after 2 wrong guesses). 

Was there a reason to care about those points so much anyways?  I had over 100 hint coins when I finished as well (and got all of those without the aid of any dog sadly...)

That was the oddball thing in my book... tapping every square mm of the screen in search of the coins.  You should have just earned some thought the game.

LOL thank you British Tabloid.

I bought the game yesterday.

Now before I move on, I must state that I only have three hours under my belt and I only have a handful of puzzles completed, so think about that before potentially roasting this mockingbird ;) .

So far, I like it. I love the presentation and the story. I'm still pretty early in the game but so far I am intrigued. I just know a grand mystery with an amazing resolution is awaiting me. The problem is, believe it or not, the puzzles.

I KNOW the game was all about puzzles and that doing them would develop the story forward, but I was caught by surprise at how constant they are. At times, its just plain annoying as the puzzles presented aren't even relevant to the story. The very first puzzle was an excellent example of how puzzles should be uniform to the case at hand, especially in a game built around them.

For example, I am talking to a case witness when all of a sudden he springs a puzzle about a star and dots. Even Luke couldn't help but think it was odd that a puzzle would appear in such a scene. Plus, my suspension of disbelief might be on the fritz but WHY are nearly all of the residents of St. Mystere so obsessed with puzzles. It would have been fine if one of two people are puzzle fanatics, but all of them?

Finally, the game might cause mental fatigue. This is clearly designed to be played in short bursts rather than long marathons. The puzzles are quite clever and challenging. They pull no punches in the difficulty department so playing them for too long could make you tired (go ahead and insert the "LOL you are stupid!" jokes, I don't care). Which is a shame because I truly want to see what happens next, but I have to play through puzzles about dogs becoming roadkill, red cubes and people drowning in order to do so.

Again, I've only played this for 3 hours and I admit I wasn't in the best of moods when I played it (first time I was extremely tired, second time I had a headache and was waking up) so my whole view could change once I hammer through it, and maybe the resolution could change my overall view. But so far its reliance on puzzles might be its own Achilles' heel for me.

Take your time, pace yourself on the puzzles. The atmosphere is nice but the story starts inane and remains inane.

You'll eventually find out why...

You almost have to treat the story and the puzzles as two completely separate elements.  The game is essentially 120 puzzles back-to-back.  The game would be fantastic if that were all it was, but Factor 5 was nice enough to give us some gorgeous art and a fairly nice story to package it up in.  However, the puzzles are all that really matter, and the rest is just window dressing.

I confess that after playing it all morning with a more open and clearer head I am warming up to the game immensely. As I expected the story is becoming more engaging as it progresses. I still find the puzzles oddly irrelevant, but if its true that all is explained then I will have to wait.

One thing I realized, though, is that Professor Layton may be a much better and effective brain training game than all of the brain games on the market. Brain Age, for example, just measures how "dumb" you are according to the speed you perform the tasks. The exercises themselves are rather easy, especially if you attended grade school. So in BA its now how well you perform the tasks, its how fast you do them that matter.

PL, on the other hand, actually challenges your mind with puzzles that seem impossible at first but are quite simple once you put a little more brain matter into them. It also effectively makes you feel "dumb" if you spent more than 30 minutes on a puzzle only to realize that the solution is rather simple and under your nose.

So in a way, PL is a REAL brain training game because it forces you to think outside the box, use rational and critical thinking to solve its problems, and in a way leaves a far more effective impression on the player than small tests of speed.