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Layton's Unwound Future and Kirby's Epic Yarn join Nintendo's million-seller club
In a supplemental document to Nintendo's latest quarterly earnings report, the company noted its million-sellers during the past three fiscal quarters (April–Dec. 2010), with Professor Layton and pink power-puff Kirby standing out from the games featuring keywords: Mario, Pokémon and Wii. Through the end of 2010, DS puzzler Professor Layton and the Unwound Future had reached global sales of 1.9 million units since its September 12 debut, while Dragon Quest IX just squeezed into the million-seller club with 1.02 million copies sold (since July 11). The Wii-llion seller list for the nine-month period featured several Mario and Wii [Fill in Blank] games, but Donkey Kong Country Returns was also a popular pick, moving a bananas 4.21 million units since its late-November release. Additionally, Kirby's Epic Yarn managed to stitch up sales of 1.4 million units in two and a half months at retail. Sitting on top of DS and Wii million-sellers for the period were Pokemon Black/White with 5.3 million copies sold (and it's not even out in North America and Europe yet!) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 with a hearty 6.2 million units in mushroom-fueled sales, respectively.
Level-5 files trademark for 'Akihabara Black Market'
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. 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.
Football Manager 2011 debuts atop UK charts, Bond finds quantum of solace in teens
Fable 3 lost the UK sales chart crown last week to not one, but two, footie titles. The football revolution sent Lionhead's Albion simulator to third as FIFA 11 maintained its spot in second and ... oh my, the PC-exclusive Football Manager 2011 premiered at the premier spot. According to Chart-Track, it was only the second PC-exclusive title to reach the top spot this year, with the other being StarCraft 2. Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 maintained its fourth place. If the title has the stamina of its older sibling, 2010 might have a Just Dance representative in the top ten throughout the entire year. Professor Layton and The Lost Future rounded out the top five. Other high-profile premieres last week, Goldeneye 007 for Wii and 007: Blood Stone, had licenses to kill the #13 and #18 spots, respectively. Spy with your double-0 eye the UK top ten after the break.
New DSi XL colors, Wii and DS release dates, and Mario Party 2 for Europe
Official Nintendo Magazine has put together a list of upcoming European release dates for Wii and DS games. For those of you who don't want to wait for the 3DS, three new DSi XL colors (yellow, green, and blue) will be in stores on October 8. You'll be able to use that new DS for Professor Layton and the Lost Future, out October 22, Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, out November 19, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, arriving December 10. Wii owners in the UK can look forward to Wii Party on October 8, FlingSmash on November 19, Donkey Kong Country Returns on December 3, and in the most random announcement of the day ... Mario Party 2 on the Virtual Console some time in December. Better grab some extra Classic Controllers, because you're going to break the ones you have.
Level-5 president on making a better Professor Layton for America
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."%Gallery-95768%
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future review: A slow crawl through time
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. %Gallery-95768%
Solve Layton's puzzles or die in a Bay area phone booth
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.
Find Professor Layton and the Lost Future in Europe on October 22
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.
Professor Layton's future unwinds on September 12
Professor Layton has figured out the secrets of time travel! Though his new game, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, was originally set to be released in North America on September 20, the clever adventurer has figured out a way to move the release date back in time one week, to September 12. Unwound Future begins with Professor Layton receiving a letter from his apprentice, Luke -- from ten years in the future. Layton and Luke must travel to the London of the future for urgent puzzle-related business. Apparently, sending someone through time is easier than some of the puzzles. %Gallery-95768%
Visual overload: Nintendo's E3 DS lineup
If, at any point in the last week, you forgot about the existing DS platform due to all the news about the 3DS, you've made a serious error, and you owe the Nintendo DS an apology. Nintendo brought a diverse selection of first-party (and sorta-first-party, in the case of Dragon Quest IX) DS games to E3, and we've collected trailers and artwork for the whole set. Included after the break is Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. It might be a little ... puzzling, but Nintendo brought two Professor Layton games to E3 (which means, by the way, that this was the best E3 of all time) -- this one, number 3 in the series, for the original DS, and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, which is number 5, for 3DS.
Level 5 trademarks 'Professor Layton and the Unwound Future'
According to Siliconera, Level 5 recently trademarked "Professor Layton and the Unwound Future," which seems to correspond with the Japanese name of the third puzzle-rich Professor Layton game, Professor Layton and the Final Time Travel. This is just ... this is so frustrating. We've told Layton over and over again: When you're tying up the future, you've got to use a square knot. These types of problems are best solved with prevention, sir. Even if this particular title doesn't match up exactly with the Japanese original, the time travel theme seems to feature in both titles. Perhaps Layton will explore his own past, and we'll finally get to learn why he wears such a ridiculously tall hat. That's really the greatest puzzle of all, isn't it?
