Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town

Attention adventure game fans, check out Professor Layton. It's very language-heavy and currently only in japanese. Youtube video.

However, if you want to get a sense of some of the in-game puzzles, here are some that I remember offhand.

1) A brother and sister are chatting. The brother says, "Hey, if I gave you two of my years, you'd be twice as old as me!" The sister says, "If you're going to do that, why not give me one more year so I can be three times as old as you!"

How old are they?

2) A street-corner merchant is selling a camera with a case for $310. You want to buy just the case alone. He says that the camera costs $300 more than the case. You pay with a $100 bill. How much change should you get back?

3) A mouse has 12 babies at a time when it gives birth. The young mice then have their own litters two months after they are born. If you start with one mouse that was just born, how many mice will you have in ten months?

If this is the kind of stuff that makes you giddy, you should start writing to your Congressperson immediately and demand that Professor Layton come to the US. It's another home run for innovation.

Looks like a step above your ordinary drag-strange-objects-onto-strange-objects gameplay.

Math problems are innovation? Man, Adventure gaming is dead

It certainly has been done before. I think part of the trick of pushing an edutainment software is to not label it as such. Make the educational part a portion of the game, and deliver the rest in the style of classical puzzle games. The story looks interesting, at least, and hopefully serves as a proper link and backbone to all the random puzzles.

1) 4 and 2
2) $95
3) 1 (unless you've got some fancy way of making babies with only one mouse )

The siblings are both 6.

When it came to question 2 I discovered that I apparently didn't wake up with any brain cells this morning. I kept wanting to say $90 back.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

1) 4 and 2

I keep trying to see how I misread the problem, but that's not my answer.

wordsmythe wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

1) 4 and 2

I keep trying to see how I misread the problem, but that's not my answer.

I don't think you misread. Dr. J is right on the money with "6".

Stryker wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

1) 4 and 2

I keep trying to see how I misread the problem, but that's not my answer.

I don't think you misread. Dr. J is right on the money with "6".

Hey, not only did I interpret the question slightly wrongly, my math is also bad. (Turns out 6 and 5 are not the same number at all!)

Although personally I like wordie's fervent belief that I'm right and he's wrong, even though he can't see how. Nice to know that someone besides my mom believes in me.

Math: Still for jerks!

Dear Congressperson:

There's a math crisis in America. Please import Professor Layton immediately!

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Hey, not only did I interpret the question slightly wrongly, my math is also bad. (Turns out 6 and 5 are not the same number at all!)

Although personally I like wordie's fervent belief that I'm right and he's wrong, even though he can't see how. Nice to know that someone besides my mom believes in me. ;)

Irregardless Chumpy, it's all good

Dr._J wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Hey, not only did I interpret the question slightly wrongly, my math is also bad. (Turns out 6 and 5 are not the same number at all!)

Although personally I like wordie's fervent belief that I'm right and he's wrong, even though he can't see how. Nice to know that someone besides my mom believes in me. ;)

Irregardless Chumpy, it's all good ;)

In the end, it's good to know that we can all agree that Dr. J is wrong.

wordsmythe wrote:

In the end, it's good to know that we can all agree that Dr. J is wrong.

You missed the humor there big boy.

Gah, I get $90 as well.......

wordsmythe wrote:

Math: Still for jerks!

That's it! I'm throwing a lunch tray at your table in the cafeteria, dictionary nerd!

Dr._J wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

In the end, it's good to know that we can all agree that Dr. J is wrong.

You missed the humor there big boy.

Or you missed the wink that I didn't type.

souldaddy wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Math: Still for jerks!

That's it! I'm throwing a lunch tray at your table in the cafeteria, dictionary nerd!

Yeah? You don't have to calculate the trajectory first?

wordsmythe wrote:

Math: Still for jerks!

IMAGE(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1160/1473641783_87f1636a41_o.jpg)

( From http://www.cracked.com/index.php?nam... )

Oh winnie cooper... math-macise me all you want...

Because I'm on a laptopwith a small screen, I mis-read the description of that DVD. I saw it as:

"how to survive middle-school math without losing your mind or breaking anal"

1Dgaf wrote:

Because I'm on a laptopwith a small screen, I mis-read the description of that DVD. I saw it as:

"how to survive middle-school math without losing your mind or breaking anal"

The first rule of math club is you do not talk about math club.
The second rule of math club is you do not break anal.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

IMAGE(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1160/1473641783_87f1636a41_o.jpg)

Well this is the coolest thing I've learned in a month:

Danica McKellar, pictured above and also a former star of Wonder Years, has an ErdÅ‘s–Bacon number of 6 (and her hotness level on Souldaddy Absolute Scale just reached 1000).

****UPDATE*****

New hands-on preview impressions at Gamespot and IGN show that this might be another great little title for the DS. I've been keeping an eye on this title for some time and I'm really glad that it's almost here. Eccentric characters drawn with a fresh animation style and over 130 puzzles, sign me up.

$30 at Amazon (w/ free shipping)

souldaddy wrote:

Danica McKellar, pictured above and also a former star of Wonder Years, has an ErdÅ‘s–Bacon number of 6

Mmmmm... bacon...

Quintin_Stone wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Math: Still for jerks!

IMAGE(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1160/1473641783_87f1636a41_o.jpg)

( From http://www.cracked.com/index.php?nam... )

IMAGE(http://cdn-i.dmdentertainment.com/cracked/wong/danica3.jpg)
You passed up this for that picture? Quick someone seize its man card.

I...gah...braingasm.

CyberTrick wrote:

****UPDATE*****

New hands-on preview impressions at Gamespot and IGN show that this might be another great little title for the DS. I've been keeping an eye on this title for some time and I'm really glad that it's almost here. Eccentric characters drawn with a fresh animation style and over 130 puzzles, sign me up.

$30 at Amazon (w/ free shipping)

yeah, I'm going for it... I'm a big fan of Level 5 (after Jeanne d'Arc), so I'll give it a shot... the only thing that concerns me is that I'm not sure I'm going to be too happy with a bunch of "brain training" puzzles with a story wrapped around them. I may be off base, but from what I've seen, it looks like a lot of these puzzles are stuff like "there are 3 chickens and 2 wolves, you have to move the chickens across the river, and they can't be alone with a wolf" (etc.) that we've seen before.

Still, as I said, I'm going to trust in the developer and give it a shot.

Nosferatu wrote:

You passed up this for that picture? Quick someone seize its man card.

It wasn't quite as relevant to the discussion at hand.

Already pre-ordered. Silly storyline that has lots of dialogue and then every once in a while a puzzle? Count me in!

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Nosferatu wrote:

You passed up this for that picture? Quick someone seize its man card.

It wasn't quite as relevant to the discussion at hand.

Relevancy be damned! When there's an opportunity for oogaba, you take that opportunity!

I hate giving Certis excuses to lock threads though.