The Series Up for DiscussionEven though the Console and Handheld forums have now merged like Nintendo did with the Switch, I still would like to try and alternate the series but up for discussion between the series that are or contain many entries between console and handheld games. Thus, I thought I'd bring up a handheld series that doesn't get too much discussion these days. (Although maybe that will just result in this thread not getting much discussion either.
) That series is the Professor Layton series.
Released back when the DS was red-hot and creating new experiences for handheld gaming with Kirby Canvas Curse, Electroplankton and Brain Age, the creation of the Professor Layton was probably influenced by what was dubbed "casual" games or casual gamers who had seemed to embrace the DS and the different kinds of software being released for it. Professor Layton sort of rode in on the "gaming can be good for your brain" obsession of the time by making a game based around various styles of puzzles and brain teasers. It packaged those puzzles in a point and click mystery story with a bit of a European Animation style flair to provide a bit more puzzling action. Oddly, despite scoring very positively when the first game was released in North America, it would take
Lisa Kudrow of all people to help boost sales of Curious Village enough to make NoA feel safe to keep porting over the other entries in the series that were already being released in Japan.
For awhile, from 2007 - 2013, a Professor Layton release was almost a yearly staple. Then Level 5 made a curious decision. It was announced that the namesake of the series, Hershel Layton, would not be featured as the main protagonist in future games. This basically seemed to end the series as nothing else was made for it until 2017 with the release of Layton's Mystery Journal with a new protagonist featured of Katrielle Layton. However, unlike the early Layton games, another sequel with the Lady Layton has been slow in coming.
Why Are These Games Part of the Series?So far, there have 9 games released for this series in addition to some other media in the form of a movie and tv series. However, we are just focusing on the games of the series for now. There have been two spin-offs of the main series. One has been included in this list of games and one has not. I've included the Professor Layton / Phoenix Wright crossover because it has enough of a Layton element in the game and he's still got a big role. Moreover, there aren't that many Layton games out there to require multiple entries in this Run the Series feature. I'd have included the other spin-off of Layton Bros. Mystery Room if not for one important detail which will now be explained in the next section.
What Games Weren't IncludedAs the text in the Mission Statement mentions, this is "to look at different franchises found on Nintendo systems to see what series the users here like." Because of the Nintendo focus, I've only been interested in the games of a series that were released on or for Nintendo consoles. Up to this point, that hasn't mattered since it has all been first party games and series. However, if doing something like Castlevania or Sonic then there are games I would leave out of the series listing when doing a thread on them. The games left off would be because those games that weren't released on a Nintendo console but on other systems. So now you know my extra interpretation of the rule. I suppose I could throw a non-Nintendo system game up as an optional choice for extra credit but with polls on these forums always getting the options mixed up later on, I'm just leaving them off. If publishers want us to play and buy these games then they'd better put them on Nintendo hardware or they are dead to us, RIGHT?!
Because of this, I left off Layton Bros. Mystery Room which was only released for mobile. Lady Layton was released on mobile too but was later brought over to the 3DS and now will soon be on the Switch. If Level-5 wants to bring over Layton Bros. then I'll add it to the list but I highly doubt that is coming and from the reviews of it, it doesn't seem like anyone is missing much by not having the game ported over. However, if anyone has played it and wants to comment on it in their posts then feel free to do so. I'm just not going to include as part of the series for Nintendo gamers to complete.
So, with that quick little rundown, let's open it up to the rest of you forum users and let's see how well NWR has Run the Series!