GDC stuff: Layton's apprentice saves the day!

As planned, immediately after arriving in San Francisco, I went and picked up a copy of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I was chuffed to find it sitting next to Prism: Light the Way and Pony Friends, both of which, friends of mine worked on.


Nintendo were pushing the game hard, which was very pleasing to see, especially as I would not have considered it a 'first rank' title for them. Apart from bus stop adverts and ones plastered directly onto the sidewalk, they also had these fellows roaming the area handing out postcards (pic courtesy of Ricky)

Ricky has a detailed review of the game up over on Dinomo, so I recommend you check that out. His opening paragraph is about as close to a perfect description of the art style of the game as you are going to get. I got very hooked on it and I finished the game before I left SF for the UK. The art is wonderful, the puzzles are wonderfully varied and the difficulty curve is spot on. "Lovingly crafted" covers pretty much everything in the game. It's well worth importing a copy and I am sure the game will be in my top ten games of 2008 come the end of the year.

The game also caught the imagination of many of the gaming web comics and here are some of their takes on Professor Layton.

Penny Arcade
God Mode Online
Dueling Analogs

If you too enjoyed the game, there is good news on the horizon with the sequel, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, apparently due for release in Japan in November. Nintendic also have a nifty photo of a less than 100% English and rather more excitable Layton from the Japanese TV ad.