Promotional Consideration: Professor Layton and the Japanese Commercials
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
Though Professor Layton and the Curious Village has until next February before the game appears on US shelves, its sequel, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, is already selling like crazy in Japan where it was released just last week.
Nurturing this new and successful IP, publisher and developer Level-5 had no problem with putting some money behind the second entry's advertising campaign, producing a trio of commercials featuring live actors for the Japanese market. Continue past the post break for the set of ads.
Surprise! It's a boy!
Bang, bang. My baby shot me down.
No sun? No moon? Just a riddle.
Our favorite among the three is definitely the second commercial, mostly for that playful exchange between Professor Layton and the model to his left during the scene's last seconds. He's a real lady killer, that guy in the top hat.
The 15-second commercials all follow the same format -- the Professor presents a riddle with the aid of nearby props, and his assistant, Luke, reacts with open-mouthed surprise (Though in the first spot, it is Professor Layton who pretends to be startled). Their extended expressions, held while they wait for the crew to stop filming, are worth watching over and over again. In the third clip, you can even see that the young boy is looking at staring or something off-camera!
