Best Console/Handheld Adventure: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

While home consoles showed brief flashes of promise for their adventure gaming potential in 2008, the DS once again proved to be the go-to system for non-PC adventures with some impressive new titles, and tops on that list was Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Many will argue that it's more puzzle collection than full-fledged adventure, but few deny that it's one of the most stylish and addictive titles of any genre on Nintendo's handheld, filled with clever riddles, bizarre characters, and ridiculously polished presentation.

While its story framework may be thin, that won't stop you from wanting to see the murder mystery facing the top-hatted archeologist and puzzle-solver extraordinaire through to the end, slowly uncovering the deceptively dark secrets of the peculiar town of St. Mystere. Along the way, oh what a collection of puzzles you will indeed encounter. The game's many riddles always challenge, but in a completely fair, I-can-do-this kind of way. Better still, along with those trying brainteasers come ample rewards: bonuses and rewards colour your adventure, giving you different perspectives to the puzzles you encounter. This is the kind of game that'll keep you up at night trying to solve "just one more" puzzle, only to find the next story segment drawing you further along once again.

Runners-Up: Time Hollow, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People



Readers’ Choice: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

See? We told you few would deny how good Professor Layton is, although the supporters of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Strong Bad made a worthy but ultimately futile effort to keep the puzzle-centric DS adventure from top spot. But just as every puzzle has an answer, so every reader poll has one too, and to this choice of the winner we can only declare: CORRECT!



Next up: Best First-Person PC Adventure... the envelope, please.