May's Mystery: Forbidden Memories

Platform: Nintendo DS

My Playtime: 13+ hours

Genre: Adventure Puzzle

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In general, I love puzzle games and of course, I had to try out any new puzzle games out there.  And if puzzle games are your cup of tea, May's Mystery might be up your alley but be forewarn, this is no Professor Layton.

May Stery and her brother were traveling in a hot air balloon that was caught up in a thunderstorm.  Crash landing in a mysterious place called Dragonville, May has to use her high intelligence to save her brother and take down Uter, the evil mayor!

The best feature of this game was the puzzles and the wide variety that Professor Layton sometimes lacked.  There were the usual brainteasers but has the added bonus of picross, hidden item searches and rhythm games.  As you progressed through the game, there are about 90 puzzles that are related directly to the plot that you have no choice but to solve.  The other 220 puzzles are randomly given to you at intervals and are optional.  These puzzles will show up in your briefcase and you can solve them at your leisure.  Each puzzle gave you 5 hint points (less you if you used a hint to help you solve the puzzle).  These hints were somewhat useful.  When you wanted to skip a puzzle, you sacrificed 15 hint points and the game moved on as though you solved it.  This was particularly useful to me with the rhythm games since I could never get it.  I earned up to 500+ hint points but never used them all.  This is where the game was weak.  Each puzzle allowed you only 2 hints and sometimes, they were not very useful hints either.  (I have to use a guide for some of the puzzles).  Plus, some of the puzzles were worded awkwardly and I had to read them over and over to understand what it wanted.  Another bad point was the lack of a note section.  There was no way to cross off or calculate your answer unless you have a pad and paper next to you.

The story was not as built up, too linear and lack intricacy but still interesting nonetheless.  The plot should have been fleshed out more and allowed for more involvement of the characters to gather more information.  You talked to them once and that was it.  The artwork was decent and pretty imaginative for some of the character design.  There were some short cutscenes and the mouth movements were drawn slightly awkward.  The voice acting was done well.  I found the main characters to be off-putting at times.  May was such a know-it-all.  Doyle told lame jokes half the time.  May's Mystery had great potential but it doesn't reach the pinnacle that would have made it as great as Professor Layton.

Should you buy it?  If you like Professor Layton and puzzle games in general, why not?  This was a decent way to waste time until the next Layton game comes out.  I managed to squeeze out 13+ hours out of this.  I know some people might call this game a poor knock-off of Layton's and I also had the issue of constantly comparing the two games at the start of the game.  But as I continue playing, I stopped critiquing the controls and just got use to it.  Believe me, after you get pass the first few puzzles, the game will capture you with its own charm.  Give the game a chance.  And if you can find it at a cheaper price, even better.  I still don't think $20 is worth it.