There's nothing quite like a good Professor Layton game. With the first three games in the series having proved a mega-hit with DS owners everywhere, thanks to their unique blend of logic-based puzzle solving and storytelling, we've been chomping at the bit to get our hands on the latest Professor Layton game ever since it was announced. Called Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call, the fourth instalment in the franchise promises a whole new collection of hundreds of puzzles, and an involving storyline, which acts as a prequel to the first game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, setting up the story for the 3DS game, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle which has yet to see its release on these shores.
The game tells the tale of when Layton met his young assistant Luke, in the village of Mist Haley - a village supposedly protected by a ghost, who can only be summoned by the use of a mystical flute. But when they hear of a shadowy figure terrorising the town, Hershel Layton and his colleague Emmy Atava set off to investigate by doing what they always do - talking to the villagers, and solving puzzles along the way.
I can probably only do the same after several hours of shifting the same shapes round and round in a circle...
Alongside the main story there are a number of mini-games to play, which (if past games are anything to go by) you'll probably need to collect the pieces for as you go along by solving puzzles for people. The first mini-game involves laying a train track for a small model train, making sure it passes through all the stations to reach the goal; there's also one where you'll need to juggle verbs around to say the right things in your stage performance; while the last mini-game involves guiding a fish around an obstacle course to collect as many gold coins as you can. You'll also unlock new 'episodes' as you play, which give you insights into the various characters you meet during your adventure - and, as an added bonus, there's a whole range of extra puzzles to download, which are being released weekly, for free post launch. Some other publishers could learn a thing or two from Nintendo's lead.
What it doesn't have is the hundred hour 'London Life' role-playing game, that is for some reason missing Europe completely - despite appearing in both American and Japanese versions of the game. In 'London Life' you would have been able to create your own Londoner, who wanders round London completing missions for people - like driving a bus or juggling some balls, which when completed unlock more of London.Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call launches in Europe on the 25th November - in other words, just in time for Christmas. And if you can't live without the 'London Life' portion of the game, you may want to look into importing the American version, which releases on the 17th October - as neither the 3DS or DS are region-locked when it comes to playing DS games (the 3DS can only play European 3DS games though), it should play fine.
