What?

No, seriously, WHAT?

Easy enough, this one, with a bit of thought.

I got past the age puzzle easily enough with a pen and paper next to me, so I wasn’t stuck for long. (There is an area you can scribble on built into the game, which is nice in a pinch, but it’s no substitute for the real thing.)

Nothing else has stumped me yet, though I did get one puzzle wrong because I misread it. D’oh.

I’ve heard that there are some puzzles coming up with very unclear instructions, so I need to keep an eye out for those.

Jim, Frank and a strange old geezer.

You’ve got talky cut scenes, you’ve got puzzles, you’ve got currency you can use for hints hidden in each scene, etc. You’ve even got bonus puzzles in your backpack. It’s all very familiar – which is no bad thing.

The timing's much tighter than in the equivalent Oregon Trail game.

One thing I don’t remember Layton having is mini-games. I’ve only come across one so far – a woodchopping one, very much like the one in Oregon Trail – but I suspect there may be more.

One of the easier puzzles.

As with Layton, everything grinds to a halt when you get stuck, but that goes with the territory. (You can spend in-game currency on hints – and even by more using real money, but I’m never going to do that.) Last night I got to a puzzle that involved calculating ages of a mother and daughter and I was far to tired to work it out. I’ll give it a go with a pen and paper next to me at some point.