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Level-5's Layton-esque 'Sloane and MacHale's Mysterious Story' launches this week in Japan

by JC Fletcher { May 18th 2009 at 6:15PM }

Last year, in the midst of a pile of news from Level-5, the company quietly announced three DS puzzle games called the Atamania series. The first game in that series comes out on May 21 in Japan, and it looks like something worth getting excited about!

Sloane and MacHale's Mysterious Story is, like Level-5's Professor Layton series, a collection of brain teasers wrapped up in an overarching mystery tale. The puzzle content in this game consists of lateral thinking puzzles from Paul Sloane and Des MacHale, presented as both animated scenarios (in a very cool silhouette style) and text. The puzzles seem to involve moving the text of the puzzle around with the stylus to make connections.

Of course, Level-5 has yet to say anything about localization on Mysterious Story. We'd say it's an obvious choice given the success of Professor Layton, but we have yet to see any of the Layton sequels!

GDC09: Professor Layton 2 planned for North America and Europe this year

by JC Fletcher { Mar 26th 2009 at 6:00AM }

Okay, let's take stock. We got a new Zelda, the Wii "Storage Solution" (which is actually better than Nintendo originally made it out to be), and arcade games and Final Fantasies on Virtual Console. How could this GDC get any better for Nintendo fans?

How about Professor Layton 2?

At Level-5's panel, director Akihiro Hino showed a list of current projects, including Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, an English translation of the name of the second Layton game. Later, during the Q&A, someone asked Hino if the sequel was being localized for North America and Europe. Hino responded that he wants to release all six Laytons (including the new trilogy), and that Diabolical Box is indeed in the midst of localization -- he hopes to have it out in six months.

Professor Layton and the Anime Trailers

by JC Fletcher { Mar 9th 2009 at 9:45AM }

In addition to those two Professor Layton DS games that Japan has that we don't, a Layton anime movie, with an original story by Level-5 president Akihiro Hino, is scheduled for release sometime this year. The two short teasers here advertise the movie in true Layton form: with puzzles!

SPOILERS for these thirty-second clips: the first trailer features two animals whose Japanese names together form the word eiga "movie." The animators even drew the DS UI elements on the screen! The second is a riddle: "What is something using light and shadow that many people enjoy?" Movies, of course!

Now here's a quick riddle: what is so much easier than a DS game to add English text to?

[Via Kotaku]

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Layton leads Japanese software charts

by Ross Miller { Dec 4th 2008 at 6:00PM }

No. 042

20 Picarats

Coins: 10

"Luke, why don't you solve this one? Correctly order the following games in terms of their sales in Japan this week."

"Okay professor. I think I've got it!"

Professor Layton and The Final Time Journey (DS): 347K
World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 (PS3): 168K
Machi e Ikouyo: Doubutsu no Mori (Wii): 109K
Chrono Trigger (DS): 80K
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (PSP): 64K
Kideo Senshi Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP): 57K
Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe (DS): 56K
Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha (PSP): 54K
Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (PSP): 46K
Higurashi Daybreak Portable (PSP): 33K

"Good job, Luke! My, that's a lot of PSP. However did you figure it out so quickly?"

"I used two hints: M-Create and Gamasutra."

"My boy, I'm so disappointed with you. To the corner with you!"

"Aww, Professor! For how long do I stay there?"

"Well, I've got three riddles for you ..."

Gaming to Go: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

by Matthew Madeiro { Nov 18th 2008 at 2:47PM }

A game revolving solely around time-consuming, tear-inducing brain teasers likely isn't anyone's first guess for the kind of quick gaming the DS so clearly excels at. Layton might be an unusual choice for this week's edition of Gaming to Go, but it's most certainly not a bad one, as the unique hybrid of puzzling and adventuring makes a number of concessions that'll help even someone who is pressed for time advance through the game unhindered.

Skipping freely through the game's myriad puzzles is hardly ideal, of course, but what can you do? Some of Layton's 135 brain-destroyers can make even a grown puzzle-solver cry, so it's a testament to the solid game design that you can still feel the satisfaction of completing the game even without experiencing all of the content it has to offer. In the mood for a fantastic puzzle game but not so keen on spending hours just to slog through every challenge? Click that big button down there and see why Professor Layton and the Curious Village might be exactly what you've been searching for.

Gallery: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

NEXT >>

Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 5/19-5/25

by Candace Savino { May 30th 2008 at 9:30AM }

After a somewhat stalwart week, DS software recovered nicely and once again dominated the charts. Even though the same amount of games appeared in the top thirty (fifteen in total), they ranked higher on average than they did in the previous week. Good software sales also gave DS hardware a little boost:

PSP: 64,449 (6,087)
Wii: 49,047 (7,475)
Nintendo DS: 37,404 (2,499)
PlayStation 3: 9.071 (1,370)
PlayStation 2: 7,189 (167)
Xbox 360: 1,947 (473)

Four new games debuted in the top thirty, including Sega's Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team!, which nabbed the first place spot from Monster Hunter. The other three games were Glory of Herakles, Scarlet Fragment, and Tea Dogs Room 3. Herakles (or Hercules, if you prefer) is the title that sparks our interest the most, as it's an interesting RPG published by Nintendo. Even so, it's first week sales were (unfortunately) subpar, yet good enough to land it in the top ten.

Check out the sales numbers and rankings for yourself after the break.

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Layton has a puzzle to solve on your mobile phone

by David Hinkle { May 29th 2008 at 7:00PM }

We love Professor Layton. No, not the game, the man. Actually, we do love the game, too. We just love to love things!

Looks like Japan loves the guy enough to warrant the series extending itself over to cell phones. The first game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is already available and even comes pre-installed on Panasonic's new DoCoMo handset, the P906i. This port of the first title features new puzzles not found in the DS game.

Also worth noting is that Professor Layton's London Holiday, a brief DS demo that was handed out to folks at last year's Tokyo Game Show, will be available to mobile phone gamers soon.

[Via Game | Life]

Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel announced for Japan

by David Hinkle { May 9th 2008 at 6:00PM }

Everyone who dug Professor Layton and the Curious Village (see: the entire DS Fanboy staff and its readers), then you'll be happy to know the series continues on unabated in Japan, as Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel has been announced for the region. Level 5 has confirmed that the title will release to eager gamers in Japan sometime in the fall of this year. As it stands right now, this is believed to be the last entry in the series of games.

A teaser site has launched, which you can check out here (or by clicking the "Read" link below). Who else is ready for another dose of Layton goodness?

[Via Go Nintendo]

Miyamoto, DS take home some Famitsu awards

by David Hinkle { Apr 28th 2008 at 7:00PM }

Hey, who doesn't know how awesome Shigeru Miyamoto is? Your grandmother? Shove her to the ground. Seriously, the man is a legend and your grandmother's frail, aged bones need to recognize that.

Speaking of recognition, Miyamoto and select titles on the DS recently got themselves some, as Famitsu dished out awards to the gaming icon and some titles available on his company's handheld system. The games that got the nod were Mario Party DS, Phantom Hourglass, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time and Darkness and Dragon Quest IV. All of these games received an Award for Excellence, where newcomer Professor Layton and the Curious Village got itself a Rookie award.

Miyamoto himself received top honors, as he accepted his time in the spotlight and thanked everyone by stating that he was happy to "get an honor like this, it makes me glad to have worked so hard over the past thirty years. This is going to sound a bit like a lie, but it's like a dream. That said, I didn't think five years ago that I'd be making Wii Fit. I thought I'd be making more Mario and Zelda."

Well, if there's someone who should be used to accepting awards, it's him.

WRUP: Australia gets Layton and everyone else gets nothing edition

by David Hinkle { Apr 11th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Looking over this week's releases, we're feeling a lot like last week: empty and cold inside. Unless you're in Australia, there pretty much isn't anything worth checking out. We're in kind of a GBA mood, though (after reading JC's Virtually Overlooked last night), so this weekend will probably have us dusting off our copy of Metroid Fusion or something.

What about you all? Have any good GBA games that you could play while waiting for some new DS games to enjoy? Or do you have something else in mind? What are you playing?

Gallery: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

DS releases for the week of April 7

by Alisha Karabinus { Apr 7th 2008 at 3:00PM }

Two weeks in a row without much coming out? This is simply unacceptable! What happened to the weeks of five or six games? Wait a minute ... those weeks are hell on the wallet. Maybe these light weeks are better. If nothing else, we can start squirreling money away in nooks and crannies all over the house for those weeks in the latter part of the year, when there are more games than we can afford. Of course, then we'll forget where the money is, and be back at square one.

Maybe we should just give up and pick up Plushees.

Fab 5 Soccer
Plushees

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Professor Layton DLC already on the cartridge

by Griffin McElroy { Mar 22nd 2008 at 1:30PM }

We're sure that many of you inquisitive DS owners out there have spent countless hours with your eyes peeled to your handheld's twin suns, waiting for Nintendo to post the latest downloadable brainteasers for Professor Layton and the Curious Village. This same group of puzzle junkies may be upset to learn that what they're actually downloading is a code to unlock puzzles which are already on the game cartridge -- essentially meaning that there's a set number of puzzles on the game (162, to be exact).

GoNintendo discovered a supposedly complete list of the game's riddles to back up this claim. You can check out every single puzzle featured in the game, and even choose to sneak a peek at every solution as well -- an action we can't help but feel would be frowned upon by the eponymous scholar and his pint-sized associate.

Professor Layton and the Unlocked Content [update]

by JC Fletcher { Mar 21st 2008 at 2:15PM }

Stop all the downloadin'! It turns out that Nintendo had those "downloadable" Professor Layton puzzles on the cartridge all along! When you download a puzzle, all you're downloading is an unlock code. Which isn't a big deal -- it's not like you're paying for the extra content or anything.

One user figured out how to find that content in the game data, and has compiled all 162(!) ~~bonus~~ puzzles, with screenshots, on a single web page. The solutions are also provided, but hidden behind links so you can actually play these puzzles if you want. Or you can spoil a friend's good time every week as you wait patiently for him or her to complete the download and then blurt out the solution.

[Update: this is actually all the puzzles!]

[Via GayGamer]

Buy two games, save ten bucks at Toys R Us

by JC Fletcher { Mar 17th 2008 at 7:00PM }

We'll take almost any encouragement to buy a bunch of games, and there's little better incentive than a package deal, through which we "save" money by buying more stuff. Retailer Toys R Us knows this, and has dangled the carrot of reduced-price DS games at us with a "buy one, get $10 off" sale. The ad says "all DS games," but the sale is actually restricted to a selection of TRU's offerings.

That's fine, though, because there's enough here for just about anyone to be driven into an impulse purchase! Standouts include Flash Focus, Professor Layton, WordJong, Cooking Mama 2, and even some pre-release stuff like Rondo of Swords! Or you could finally pick up the whole Imagine collection.

Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 2/25-3/2

by Candace Savino { Mar 7th 2008 at 5:00PM }

The DS dropped to third in last week's hardware sales, as the PSP inched its way to first. (In case you haven't been keeping track, Wii sales have been above those of the DS for quite some time, but the PSP and DS keep flip-flopping for the week's best selling portable.)

Hardware:

PSP: 73,706
Wii: 64,535
Nintendo DS: 51,922
PlayStation 3: 13,520
PlayStation 2: 10,986
Xbox 360: 2,282

In the software chart, though, Nintendo's portable dominated once again. There were fourteen DS games to hit the top thirty last week, three of which made the top ten. Most of note is the new release Soma Bringer, a game that many of us outside of Japan have been coveting. It debuted in fourth, and was the top seller for the dual-screened handheld last week.

Meanwhile, Professor Layton 2 and Animal Crossing slipped back into the top thirty, while Harvest Moon and Etrian Odyssey II managed to remain in the top ten. Check after the break to see a whole lot of DS games in boldface.

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