I couldn’t help but notice a few problems here…

1. Professor Layton is not one of the Layton Brothers.
2. In fact, one of the Layton Brothers is a girl.
3. There are no Professor Layton characters anywhere in this game, even though it’s supposed to be a Professor Layton spin-off.

So…Professor Layton has a brother and sister that we’ve never heard of before. OK. They haven’t gotten English names yet, so let’s call the scientist one “Englebert” and the green one “Luigi.” You can expect to play Englebert and Luigi’s murder mystery puzzle adventure game when it comes out, probably next year.

EDIT: Japanese readers have informed me that Englebert and Luigi are not Professor Layton’s siblings. Instead, they say that Englebert is supposed to be Professor Layton’s son. So…Layton has a son we’ve never heard about before. Ditto for Englebert’s unknown mother. Oh my. Layton’s family tree just got immensely more complicated.

[Article reprinted from Michael Gray's blog.]

OK, look. I love the idea of courtroom brawling with an actual medieval knight as much as anyone, but I’ll be honest—the game’s generic visual style is gonna take some getting used to. What’s the idea between making it look exactly like a Dragon Quest game, anyway? Maybe they didn’t want the game to look too much like Phoenix Wright, or too much like Professor Layton, so they decided to make it look like neither, instead.

Bah, don’t listen to me. I’m simultaneously dejected that we’ll never see a new PW game here, and also tired of talking about PW all the time. (There, I said it.) I need a drink.

I’m all for playing a Layton knock-off while waiting for the real Layton game to appear at an unspecified date this year. Also, I find it amusing that they made sure that Lautrec is an archeologist, just like Layton, but they went out of their way to give him a higher educational degree.

So far, the Internet seems excited about this game because Doctor Lautrec has a righteous mustache. Unlike Layton, he is rocking the facial hair, and it’s definitely paying off for him. His sidekick is a beautiful young woman (a potential love interest?), not just some random kid. Unless the preview is lying, it seems that the good doctor has two beautiful young women as sidekicks. And he has a monkey sidekick, as well. Doctor Lautrec’s house is apparently Sidekick Central.

Also, judging by what we see of the two main villains (shown at 1:22 in the video), it is clear that the game’s producers went out of their way to find the worst British accents possible.

This game has to be a success, and I’ll make sure to buy it when… Wait, it’s only being released on the 3DS? Oh, no way! Give it a dual 3DS and DS release! Actually, they should do that for a lot of 3DS games. I think the results of such an experiment would be surprising.

[Article reprinted from Michael Gray's blog.]

Anyway, Layton fans know all about this game, because it was released in Japan in 2009. It’s about a town that is haunted by an evil specter, who is controlled by a flute. It’s a prequel to the Layton series, and it completely ignores the cliffhanger ending to the previous game.

Probably the most exciting part about this game is the fact that it stars a new main character: Emmy Altava.

She is Professor Layton’s apprentice, she drives a cool motorcycle, and she appears to have ninja fighting skills. And she wears a bow tie. In other words, she is supposed to be all kinds of interesting. I get the sense that they specifically created Emmy for the purposes of replacing Flora as the main female character in the series.

Emmy’s name has not been officially confirmed. I mention this, because they have changed the name of the game itself (previous name: Professor Layton and the Specter’s Flute). So don’t get too attached to the name Emmy Altava. It could be that, in the final game, she’ll be called something like Emily Hunter. Fanfiction where she and Professor Layton fall in love are expected to be written about one month after the game’s release. No, wait, scratch that. Layton/Emmy stories have already been written.

No release date for the game has been announced yet.

Discussion Questions:

• Why does British Luke sound like someone is holding his nose shut?
• Why did they get cut out all references to Pandora’s Box in the American version?

[Article reprinted from Michael Gray's blog.]

I think the reason the 3DS hasn’t sold well yet is because none of the 3DS games available for purchase seem very…good. I mean, from what I hear, the best game they have is a flying sim. Plus, the GameStop I went to has a strict “we won’t let you see what the 3D looks like unless you buy the system” policy, which makes me suspicious that the 3D doesn’t really work all that well.

In Japan, the 3DS sold a lot of units, and their best-selling game was Professor Layton 3DS. See, now that’s a game people will buy. Why don’t we have cool launch titles like that?

Oh, right, because we’re two years behind Japan. For those of you who don’t know about this, check out my handy-dandy recap of the Professor Layton series:

Right now, the big question outside of Japan is, “When is Game #4 going to be released?” No announcement has been made, except for “eventually.” But as the 3DS marches on, and as the Layton series drags behind, it’s starting to look more and more likely that they’ll just skip over the DS titles and go straight to translating the 3DS game.

There are a few lesser-known games in the series, such as the cell phone game, the other cell phone game, the special edition of the first game, and the really short bonus story for the second game. People are most excited about the first cell phone game, Professor Layton RPG, made by one of the companies responsible for Mother 3. It was so popular in Japan that they bundled it with Game #4. They’re going to do the same thing here…right? Right?

…We’re so not getting Game #4. And Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright is going to have something horrible in it, like an awkward kiss between Maya and Layton, or Phoenix Wright and Luke becoming drunken hobos together. And the non-Japan release date won’t be until 2013. I’m depressed now.

[Article reprinted from Michael Gray's blog.]

• Battletoads & Double Dragon
• Tinkle Pit
  

Listen as Alex Jedraszczak, Michael Gray, Michael Ridgaway, and Paul Franzen discuss such topics as  which Phoenix Wright characters should date which Professor Layton characters, Disney sing-alongs, and why Paul hates the original cast of Back to the Future. We also talk about crossover games we wish existed, and the recent marriage of Michael Ridgaway and Vangie Rich Ridgaway!

A screenshot from the new Professor Luketon game!

So, while you wait for Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, you can listen to the podcast!

GC Podcast #32

Do you have a favorite crossover game, or one that you wish existed? Or, do you just have a topic you want to hear on the podcast? Or, maybe you’d just like to tell us all about how much you hate (or love!) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! If you have anything to say about the podcast, please, email us! Please?

Well, it’s official: after ten months of planning, organizing, coordinating, arranging, rearranging, and generally unleashing my Bridezilla Fury upon the world, I have finally attained the status of Gamer Wife. Along with the accompanying name changes and the addition of a new ring to the third finger of my left hand, I’ve noticed that the attainment of this obscure prestige class has caused a noticeable shift in how I view myself. Not only am I now the wife of a gamer, I can no longer deny that I myself have some “more-than-casual” gaming tendencies.

Of course, I make no claim of approaching my new husband’s level of commitment to gaming. Whereas Mike has been “out” as a geek and a gamer for over 20 years, mine is a subtle geekiness, still new and somewhat fettered by my desire to remain a “normal person,” if only for the sake of appearances. While I may spend an entire weekend (or three) holed up in our apartment playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, I am not about to admit it to the world at large. Much as I have come to enjoy gaming, I still have to walk that fine line between those who can argue the merits of platforms vs. RPGs, and those who want to know what the hell “platforms” have to do with rocket-propelled grenades.

The wedding itself was a prime example of trying to strike that delicate balance. I wanted to have a classy and elegant affair; Mike wanted to throw a party that he would actually want to go to. We both wanted a wedding that all of our guests would enjoy, and that meant catering to a rather disparate group of friends and family. Our compromise was simple: I would plan the classy, yet not overly formal, gathering that I had always been dreaming of, and Mike would get representation in small, subtle touches that he and his friends would appreciate, but that my mother would never notice.

We ended up hosting the ceremony and reception at a Victorian mansion outside of Baltimore. The wedding was held in the backyard, with fall foliage providing the majority of the décor; and the reception took place in the ballroom, where staff members in black bowties scurried busily among the impeccably white linens and elegant table settings. The escort cards were printed in a flowing script, the centerpieces consisted of wine bottles filled with gerbera daisies, the cake was decorated with flower tops in a brilliant fall palette. Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong crooned over the speakers while we ate our dinner, and everyone applauded warmly after we performed our first dance to “Falling Slowly” by the Swell Season. It was, quite simply, a lovely event.

Of course, those who were looking closely might have noticed a few odd details that stood out from the rest. They might have seen, for example, that all the tables were named after locations in video games, such as Mushroom Kingdom, Zebes, or Hyrule. The musically inclined may have noticed that a few songs by the Protomen and Jonathan Colton had mysteriously snuck onto the wedding dance mix. The crowning touch, of course, was the cake topper, which was made especially for us by a good friend, and which depicted (depending upon your perspective) either me and Mike, or Paula and Jeff from Earthbound. Either way, it was generally agreed that it was pretty freaking cool.

After the wedding, Mike and I went away to Rehobeth Beach, where we spent a week doing pretty much nothing but drinking, eating leftover cake, and playing video games. The last bit caused some consternation among even our gamer friends, who were worried that Mike might have taken things “a bit too far” when he decided to pack up his PC so he could spend the week playing the newly-released Fallout: New Vegas. “Dude,” one of his friends gently reminded him, “it’s your honeymoon. I don’t think Vangie is going to appreciate you playing games the whole time.” “I don’t see why not,” Mike replied, feigning innocent surprise. “I mean, she’ll be playing them, too.”

And indeed, I was. While Mike hunted down Night Stalkers and pursued a vendetta against Caeser’s Legion among the wasteland of the ravaged Mohave, I played my way through Professor Layton: The Unwound Future, Costume Quest, and Plants vs. Zombies, before I got bored and spent the rest of the week reading the first book in the Millinnium Triology and the latest Terry Pratchett novel. Although I was quite specific about the fact that I didn’t want to watch Mike play Fallout, we did nevertheless end up getting plenty of together time in spite of our independent pursuits. Video games and books alternated with walks along the beach, dinners out, and a trip to tour the local brewery. I don’t know if that kind of vacation would have been right for everyone, but for us, it was perfect.

I guess that’s the thing about being a Gamer Wife that makes it such an obscure class to be in. A lot of people, when I tell them about Mike and his gaming habits, seem very surprised at my nonchalance, or at worst, slightly appalled on my behalf. “Doesn’t he ever pay any attention to you?” “Don’t you think that’s a bit childish for him to still be doing now that you’re getting married?” “Are you going to let him act that way when you have kids?”

I try to explain, but I often end up feeling lame, like I’m not communicating it properly. It’s hard to shift people’s focus away from the fact that it’s gaming; and to make them understand that it’s really not an all-consuming obsession, it’s just a fun hobby that is made infinitely more enjoyable by the fact that it is something we can share. I’m never sure how convincing my explanations sound; but whenever I get frustrated, I try to remind myself that persuading other people isn’t the important thing. The important thing is that I get it, or rather, that I get him. The truth is, I understand why he likes gaming; and I know him far too well to presume that he would ever put gaming before me or my needs. Gaming just a part of my life—our life—and that life happens to be one that I love. It doesn’t really matter if other people don’t get it. For us, it is perfect.

Professor Layton and his friends have all gone to a restaurant on the River Thames to confront Creepy Scientist. Creepy Scientist is evil, has kidnapped Prime Minister Sleeps-a-Lot, and he is desperate need of a haircut. Creepy Scientist tells Professor Layton his long, sad story.

Ten years ago, Creepy was working on a time machine with his assistants, Prime Minister Sleepy (although he wasn’t the Prime Minister, then) and Claire, Professor Layton’s girlfriend. Mr. Sleepy sabotaged the time machine so it would explode and kill Claire, due to pressure from several large corporations. Apparently, there is great demand for exploding time machines in Britain. Who knew?

So, that’s why Creepy Scientist kidnapped the Prime Minister: he wants revenge. He also feels partly responsible for Claire’s death, which is why he’s building a time machine to prevent the death from happening. Great! Now everything makes sense, everyone’s motives are perfectly clear, and there are no longer any mysteries to solve. Creepy Scientist decides to stop being evil, everyone goes back to the present time, and they all live happily ever after. The End.

 From left to right: Professor Layton, Claire, Luke and Flora. Flora’s eyes kind of creep me out during these cutscenes.

No, wait. That’s what would happen if the game made sense. But this is a Professor Layton game! It’s the tradition of the series to come up with completely unrealistic explanations for everything! In the first game, everyone in town was a robot. In the second game, the vampire and the entire town was mass hallucination. And in the fourth game—spoiler alert—Professor Layton reveals that he is actually the Queen of England in disguise.

Following in this bold tradition of wild and crazy plotlines, Professor Layton explains that they are not really in the future. No, instead they are inside a humongous cavern, 100 miles under the Earth, where someone has built an exact duplicate of the town of London. It’s like they’re in the world’s largest movie set. Everyone agrees that this makes complete sense, and Professor Layton gets complimented on his keen deductive skills.

Ah, but who went through all the trouble of tricking everyone into thinking they are in the future? Was it Creepy Scientist? No, it was…CLIVE!

Wait, who?

At this point, Future Luke jumps up and goes, “Raw ha ha! That’s right! I am evil! My name is Clive! Fear me! Raw ha ha!” He then kidnaps Flora and runs off into his Giant Robot of Doom, which is about three times as tall as Big Ben and is shaped sort of like a cockroach with a spiky back. It also shoots out canonballs.

…No, seriously. That’s exactly what happens.

Picture by Colin Greenhalgh

Clive’s monster robot jumps up through the surface of the Earth and starts destroying the real London. Fortunately, Don Paolo has modified Professor Layton’s car so it can fly, and our heroes drive/fly the car up to the top of Clive’s Giant Robot of Doom. Inside, they find the Prime Minister, who is still sleeping. Prime Minister! You’re going to miss the whole game, at this rate!

Professor Layton manages to stop the Giant Robot by turning off the main generator. This causes a ten-minute self-destruct sequence, which is very dramatic and filled with animated cutscenes. It’s so exciting that the Prime Minister wakes up! But don’t worry, everyone; the game has a happy ending. Everyone escapes from the giant robot, and it explodes harmlessly in the fake London, which has been evacuated.

Clive is arrested by Inspector Chelmey, and we finally figure out that the girl who looks like Professor Layton’s girlfriend…is Professor Layton’s girlfriend. Yep, she was sent ten years into the future in that time machine explosion. Alas, the time stream is dissolving (or something like that), and she only has time for a quick smooch with Professor Layton before she disappears. Professor Layton tries his hardest to sob emotionally at this point in the game, but since his eyes are tiny black circles, this doesn’t come across very well.

Layton takes off his hat at this point, and he has a very messy hairdo. Put the hat back on, Layton!

Anyway, that’s basically the end of the game. London is saved, Layton is officially single again, and Flora goes back to doing whatever it is that she does. There are about ten minutes of ending credits, followed by blatant sequel fodder. Luke (who has now moved away with his parents) just discovered a mystery! Boy, wouldn’t it be great if the Professor came to solve the mystery? Stay tuned for the next installment of the Professor Layton series to see what happens next!

Spoiler alert: Professor Layton solves the mystery.

[Article reprinted from the blog of former staff writer, Michael Gray.]

When we last left off, Professor Layton and his friends were captured by the bad guy of the game, who I like to call “Creepy Scientist.” Creepy Scientist has impersonated Layton, kidnapped the Prime Minister, and taken over London. This is all part of his plan to build a time machine so he can go back in time and steal Professor Layton’s now-dead girlfriend.

…Weird, I know.

Well, things get even weirder! Because we then have Weird Plot Twist #9, when a second Professor Layton steps into the room and frees our heroes. Two Laytons? Oh, my!

But instead of capturing Creepy Scientist like you’d expect them to, our heroes let him run away with the Prime Minister. Way to go, Professor Laytons! Professors Layton? In any case, the two Laytons leave along with everyone else, so they can explain the crazy plot twist that just occurred. The explanation was most likely made up on the spot, and it goes like this: the second Professor Layton is Don Paolo, the Master of Disguise from the first two games! It turns out that, back in the day, he was Professor Layton’s buddy, Paul.  He was also in love with Professor Layton’s girlfriend, which is why he’s helping our heroes.

So, to recap…

1. The main villain of the series is now a good guy. Um…yeah! That destroys the entire continuity of the series, but let’s go with that!
2. The Prime Minister spends most of the game sleeping.
3. Professor Layton’s girlfriend, Claire, somehow managed to make three men fall madly in love with her at the same time. I’m starting to have serious doubts about whether she’s the right girl for him.

Speaking of Claire, her younger sister Celeste shows up around this point in the game. Celeste looks just like Claire, she’s a scientist just like Claire, and she’s working on the time machine, just like Claire. But she is totally not Claire, who used the time machine. Nope.  Totally not her. The fact that she looks and acts exactly like Claire is a complete coincidence, by jingo.

[It's pretty obvious that Celeste is really Claire. You'd think that Professor Layton and his friends would be able to figure this out on their own, because they're all super-geniuses, but apparently, they're not smart super-geniuses.]

Here’s Claire/Celeste, Layton’s love interest, come to save the day with her
pneumatic punch phists and Time-Wand™. Picture by Colin Greenhalgh.

Let me see…what else is happening in the game so far?

1. Flora gets to solve puzzles for the first time! I was pretty excited about this new development until I realized she only solves about three of them. Come on, Flora, I know you can solve more puzzles than that!
2. There is a three-minute cutscene featuring a talking rabbit. It has almost nothing at all to do with the plot of the game, and I have no idea why they included it.
3. The Prime Minister is still asleep. You’d think that he would have woken up while being kidnapped (twice!), but no. He sleeps like a baby the whole time. His chances of being re-elected aren’t looking so good at this point.
4. Future Luke mysteriously disappears and reappears, twice. Hmmm…

In my next (and final) installment of this series, our heroes go to the River Thames, where they have another dramatic confrontation with the game’s villain. Professor Layton explains how they’re not really in the future, the Prime Minister wakes up after his ten hour nap, London is attacked by a giant robot, Professor Layton tries really hard to show emotion, and the game ends. It’s an exciting ending to the third Professor Layton game!

[Article reprinted from the blog of former staff writer, Michael Gray.]