Is anyone else here a fan of Professor Hershel Layton? There are some great games coming up in the next year or two for the series! My apologies, but the only available videos are in Japanese. You'll have to put up with these until we get some English versions. Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute: The story of how Layton met Luke, plus another huge batch of puzzles! Probably an October 2011 release. Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle: Professor Layton's beginning in Archaeology come back to haunt him...on the 3DS...with a new puzzle EVERY DAY for 365 bonus puzzles in all! Probably a Fall 2012 release. Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Blending the gameplay of the Ace Attorney series with Layton's puzzles, this game looks bizarre, but probably really fun. To add to the bizarreness, it takes place in medieval Europe during the witch trials?? What?? Given its weirdness, it may only see a Japanese release. I don't know, I think I've seen weirder. I'd buy it!
As a bit of background for those who have never played Professor Layton, it's a series of puzzle games for the Nintendo DS based on some Japanese puzzle books called "Head Gymnastics" by a professor of psychology named Akira Tago. These are mainly books filled with brainteasers and simple logic problems. Professor Layton works these brainteasers into the framework of a cute little story and some excellent character designs. There are also some fun little animated scenes interspersed throughout the games. Most of the puzzles are fairly easy or silly trick questions, but some are actually fairly difficult and might leave you scratching your head for awhile. Even the easy ones are usually pretty fun to solve though, mostly because they're presented in such an entertaining way. It's a very interesting gameplay mechanic, and if you're a fan of puzzle books in general, you're going to LOVE this. Here are the English trailers for the games. Professor Layton and the Curious Village: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future:
