Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Message Board

Level-5 has filed a trademark for both the titles "Black Market" and "Akihabara Black Market," which could mean that the developer of Dark Cloud and Professor Layton might be working on a new game based in the shadier parts of Japan's real-life Akihabara "Electric Town" district, well known as a haven for gadgeteers and fanboys. You might remember the area, as we do, from being immortalized in video game form in the great The World Ends With You.

Level-5 also filed a (probably unrelated) trademark for something called "Cyberanimals." These could be the titles the company is working on with Capcom, and/or they could represent projects planned for the 3DS next year. We'll have to wait and see.

Time stands still.

With millions of copies sold, Level-5's Professor Layton franchise is an unquestionable hit. Already, the property has spawned one feature-length film, and is expanding to its fifth game in Japan. (The Unwound Future, which was released two weeks ago in America, is the third game in the series.) Who could have predicted the runaway success of the series? Not even Level-5's president, Akihiro Hino, could have seen it coming.

In an exclusive interview, Hino told us that "I obviously didn't imagine the series would achieve the success it has." But, he attributes the franchise's achievements to Level-5's goal to "make an adventure game that anyone could play." Given the popularity of the games, Hino finds it unsurprising that a number of copycats have since followed, such as Puzzle Agent and Blue Toad Murder Files. "Doesn't it follow that if a game gets popular enough, similar games will start to appear?," he asked us.

Nintendo eventually picked up the publishing rights for a North American release, which posed a number of challenges for the localization team. Hino admits that the first game was developed "without much consideration" for international audiences. As such, "we have had to alter and even remove certain puzzles," Hino explained to us. "The reason is usually due to their use of Japanese, or because a puzzle or joke would work in some regions but not in others. Ways of thinking, language, culture, and even religion differ from region to region, so we remove puzzles we feel wouldn't work, and try to replace them with puzzles that players from that market will enjoy."

#nintendo The sharp-eyed bloggers over at Aggrogate noticed something amiss with today's issue of freebie New York newspaper Metro. Instead of a sexy cover for the pub's Sex Issue, the Metro was wrapped with a faux cover dedicated to the panic in London caused by puzzles. More »

#ds Nintendo DS puzzle master Professor Layton, channeling the fashion expertise of 2009 DS fashion game Style Savvy, in an unexpected tie-in between the recent Fashion Week and Layton's newest game... talks about hats. As do his friends. More »

I was just doing my usual news hunt when I stumbled upon one of these in-line contextual ads. Thought you guys would like to check it out! function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf", "mplayer", "420", "340", "8", "#000000"); so.addParam("wmode","transparent"); so.addParam("swliveconnect", "true"); so.addParam("allowscriptaccess", "always"); so.addParam("allowfullscreen", "true"); so.addVariable("pid", "goni001"); so.addVariable("siteId", "485"); so.addVariable("videoId", "196663"); so.addVariable("autostart", "false"); so.addVariable("file", "http://cms.springboard.gorillanation.com/xml_feeds_advanced/index/485/3/196663/"); so.addVariable("pageUrl", document.location); so.write("flashcontent_485_goni001_single_196663"); } getVideo()

Talk about ruining a big part of the fun! If you’re into Professor Layton games, you love the two major game elements. You dig the puzzle and you want to know more about the story. If you just want to give up on the puzzles and get the story, then I guess [...]

#gameface People puzzling in the streets of San Francisco during Nintendo's Professor Layton and the Unwound Future special event. Be sure to read Kotaku's full review! More »

New Professor Layton and the Unwound Future Game Comes Loaded with Puzzles and Adventure

#review Take part in a thoroughly polite time-traveling conundrum with the newest adventure of Professor Hershel Layton and his puzzle-solving ward Luke in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, a charming, thought-provoking British adventure. More »

In this photo provided by Nintendo of America, consumers gather to play Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the Nintendo DS family of systems on Sept. 7, 2010, at San Francisco’s Union Square in advance of the game’s launch on Sept. 12, 2010. Men and women competed in a puzzle-solving challenge to celebrate the [...]

The Professor Layton series suffers from a curse shared by all franchises which create and define their own genres. While games cut from a less original cloth can change wildly between iterations, a logic-puzzle-adventure-mystery series like Layton doesn't really have much room to mix things up without defying the tropes that made everyone fall in love with it in the first place. In short, don't expect the Good Professor to engage in any first-person deathmatches any time soon.

The way franchises like Layton introduce change between entries is by expanding the game's universe and deepening the player's connections with its characters. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future does so swimmingly -- but wow, does it take its sweet, gentlemanly time in doing so.

Earlier this week, ladies managed to best gents in the Professor Layton and the Unwound Future event in San Francisco. This time around, it was the gents that took down the ladies in Chicago. The Chicago event played host to roughly 150 people, with the average score for guys coming in at 12.4 [...]

A portion of an NWR review… At this point, the Professor Layton games are a known commodity, but that commodity is a finely crafted one. If you enjoyed the first two games, then the third game will be welcome even if it is more of the same.

Can you really turn back time?

Check out more screens/art in our Flickr set Professor Layton Confronts the Puzzling Mysteries of Time Travel Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, receive a confounding letter – from Luke 10 years in the future. But the message inside is even more troubling: London of the future is in disarray, and the only person who can help [...]

We’ve already told you all about the ‘Ladies Vs. Gents’ tournament for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. While that information was posted up last week, here’s the official promo video for those of you that didn’t check it out at the website.

The official website for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future has moved out of the teaser phase and into the full-fledge site status. You can check out a bunch of great content on the game, as well as information on characters and even a bunch of downloadable goodies for PC and Mac users. [...]

Nintendo visits Union Square to find out who's better at solving puzzles – ladies or gents?

If you're in the San Francisco area on September 7, you may want to stop by the Union Square shopping center, where characters from the Professor Layton series will let visitors step into a British phone booth and sample the upcoming Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Combined total puzzle scores for guys will be pitted against ladies' scores as similar events are held in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.

... Hey, wait a minute! A puzzle-obsessed genius is trapping people in phone booths until they complete a battle of wits? Hell, toss in a couple of rotating blades and Cary Elwes and we've got a Saw movie on our hands.

The official North American website for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is now open for business. It makes sense that the site should open now. The game isn’t really all that far off from release! We’re still in teaser site phase, so there’s nothing new to check out, unless you missed [...]

Nintendo ships an image of its next Professor Layton package back in time from September 12.

Professor Layton and the Lost Future coming in October.

Nintendo announced the European release date for Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, the third game in the Professor Layton series today: October 22 (with the slightly altered title Professor Layton and the Lost Future).

If you're in Europe and want to play it sooner, you can either follow in the Professor's footsteps and use a time machine ... or just order a copy from the US, where it'll be available September 12. Of course, European Layton fans have the advantage of being able to watch the Professor Layton movie to help pass the time, so maybe the wait won't be so awful.