Facial hair - the staple of a not-very-popular man.
Sporting an oh-so similar hat, with a similarly shaped head, a similar job title, and a similar penchant for solving mysteries, Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights is a puzzle game set in 19th century Paris, that follows the archaeology professor Dr. Lautrec and his eager young student Sophie, as they solve various puzzles and riddles to unravel the mystery of an ancient map. Sound familiar to you too?
What does seem to set Lautrec apart from his hat-loving counterpart, is his personality. He's not a very popular man at the University, and relies on unusual, apparently less moral, ways of tackling puzzles - which, in turn, don't go down that well with the rest of the academic community - although some of them have shady connections themselves...
I forgot my trowel!
Also unlike the Layton games, Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights will focus more on exploring, with underground, maze-y caves to explore, and even a battle system, where you command various types of 'spirits', from beast, to human to birds (similar to those in the Pokemon games, from the sounds of it). Along with the exploring and battles, the game is said to make use of the 3DS's 3D screen by giving you a fair few 3D logic-based puzzles to solve, as well as letting you view things from all angles, and zoom in on anything in the scenery that looks like it may be of interest...
The battles from Pokemon, crossed with the story and puzzle solving of Layton? If it's as good as it sounds, you can count us in - we'll be awaiting further details with bated breath. According to the official Japanese site, it's due for release over there this spring, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long...
