Professor Layton And The Mask Of Miracle has successfully fended off the likes of Nintendogs + Cats and Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV 3D edition to become the best selling Nintendo 3DS title during this weekends Japanese 3DS launch.
Japanese publisher Enterbrain revealed that the latest edition of the popular Professor Layton series shifted an incredible 117,589 copies during the Nintendo 3DS launch in Japan on Saturday, something developer Level 5 will be immensely proud of.
Level 5 and Capcom have announced that they’re teaming up to bring together the Professor Layton franchise and the Ace Attorney series for the Nintendo 3DS. The games title translated is roughly ”Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney.”
The game’s story has Professor Hershel Layton and Phoenix Wright (Ryuichi Naruhodo in the Japanese version) finding themselves in a different world. They come to the medieval city of Labyrinth City, where reality and illusions are intertwined. This strange town is also home to witches, who hide in the shadows, and is a place where magic is real. It has also been home to a number of impossible occurrences of late.
The city is controlled by a villain named Story Teller. The story he writes with his pen becomes reality as the future of the world.
Layton will find himself faced with all new puzzles. As for Phoenix Wright, the person who seeks his help this time has been accused of witch craft.
As this game finishes the first trilogy of Professor Layton games, it certainly does it with a bang. Packing even more fresh puzzles into this game, it never seems to lack in variety of skill for all players.
One of the more obvious new features not seen in Curious Village or Diabolical Box, is the extended hint system. In previous games, each puzzle allowed three hints for a cost of one hint coin each. Unwound Future allows a fourth hint for each puzzle, entitled ‘S. Hint’ at the cost of two hint coins. This is most likely based around the ‘Super Guide’ system Nintendo began implementing with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The S. Hints tend to make the answer really obvious, sometimes even telling you the answer directly.
A great improvement was seen in the mini-game department. Three new concepts (storybook, parrot and laytonmobile) emerged and all are fun and intriguing. They all focus heavily on logic to finish the levels, and the difficulty rises at a fair rate. As for the future of mini-games; if Level 5 follows suit for NA/EU, Professor Layton and the Specter’s Flute on the 3DS will feature ‘Professor Layton’s London Life’, a 100 hour RPG made by popular developer ‘Brownie Brown’. This will no doubt bring the Professor Layton series to a whole new level.
Another new feature in the game is a puzzle ‘battle-of-wits’. These are on-the-spot, no saving, no hint puzzles that are crucial to the storyline, and can’t be avoided. Because of this, the difficulty is slightly lowered, but would still be considered difficult. These don’t occur too often, but often enough to make a fun challenge.
The story itself is spectacular. It especially pays off if you’ve gone through the first two games. Much like a good season finale of a TV show, the story here reveals major plot twists, and ties up loose ends to the ongoing mystery presented at the beginning. However, they did leave it open for a sequel of sorts. It will be interesting to see them tie the last of this trilogy to the beginning of the prequel trilogy.
This game is an absolute must for any Professor Layton fan. The perfect ending leading into a new beginning.
9/10
~~mario64mario
I was really excited when I heard about Professor Layton. Being a fan of brainteasers and puzzles, I knew this would be a series for me.
The expansive amount of puzzles, as well as characters make this game just perfect. The story takes twists and turns, and even boasts some unlockable puzzles. On top of all this, there’s still more to this game. You can collect painting scraps, pieces of furniture, and pieces of a “machine”, all of which unlock even more puzzles. Furthermore, there’s a secret door which is unlocked with a password set using Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box with your specific DS system.
Some of the more recognizable aspects of the game were the voice acting and cutscenes. Voice acting adds so much more to a game, and it’s a shame we don’t see it more in DS games. As for the cutscenes, they were well animated and the art style was good, but the transition to a playable format for DS lowered the quality a bit both visually and audibly.
Some of the puzzles really step up the difficulty. If you’re not up to challenges, or have a short temper, this may get a bit annoying. The puzzles vary quite a bit too. Some puzzles focus heavily on logical reasoning, whereas others are based on the simplicity of wording.
If you’re a fan of puzzles and brainteasers, this is an absolute must.
8.5/10
~Mario64Mario
The final game in the first series of the immensely popular Professor Layton series could soon be heading overseas.
Level-5 and Nintendo are currently negotiating whether to bring Professor Layton and the Lost Time Travel to the Western markets under the name Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.
The developer behind the critically acclaimed Dragon Quest and the Professor Layton series has announced it has a brand new title in the works.
Although the company’s next game is currently tightly under wraps, Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino has stated that the new title will be “centered on a system that’s not yet in this world.”
Level 5, the developers behind the highly successful Professor Layton franchise have stated on microblogging service Twitter that their next undisclosed project ‘will be extremely anticipated’.
“Once this is announced it will become an extremely anticipated title,
- Akihiro Hino, Level 5 CEO via Twitter
Pokémon Platinum and Professor Layton And The Curious Village and up for three prestigious Golden Joystick awards each.
A gargantuan 270,000 votes were cast for this years Golden Joystick awards, with both Pokémon Platinum and Professor Layton And The Curious Village short-listed for an award with three nominations each. Both of the well received Nintendo DS titles have managed to make the short-list for Family Game, Hand-held Game and Nintendo Game Of The Year categories at the awards.
