Unsolicited Advice

Those of you who have been hanging around for a while know that I am badly addicted to the Professor Layton games. Every time I get a new one, I sit down in the evening to start the story and then whoops! It's dawn. The main series of games have all been for Nintendo handhelds, but the spinoffs all seem to be coming out for Android/iOS, and I have a Kindle Fire, so... To be fair, Layton Brothers: Mystery Room is not really a Layton game. Also to be fair, the Layton name got me to buy it (well, "buy" it -- unlocking all the episodes costs about $5 total, which is the kind of credit I can rack up on Google Opinion Rewards ). What it is, is a rebranded Atamania game, which is how all of the Layton games started. Atamania is a portmanteau of atama  (lit, "head"; atama ga ii , or "head is good", is the colloquial phrase for "intelligent" or "clever") and the English word "mania", and is the title of a series of puzzle ga...

Just as a side note -- yes, I am aware that there are Professor Layton novels/puzzle books out in Japan. To the best of my ability to determine, they have not been, nor are they going to be, published in any other language. The three are: Professor Layton and The Wandering Castle (Layton-kyouju to Samayoeru Shiro / レイトン教授とさまよえる城 ) Professor Layton and The Phantom Deity (Layton-kyouju to Kaijin Goddo / レイトン教授と怪人ゴッド ) Professor Layton and The Forest of Illusion (Layton-kyouju to Gen'ei no Mori / レイトン教授と幻影の森 ) [Edit: Also that there's a manga called Professor Layton and the Cheerful Incident (Layton-kyouju to Yukai Jiken / レイトン教授とユカイ事件), which is aimed mainly at children. And manga adaptations of the games, and anime books for the film.] If anybody cares to send me some of these things -- a legible scan or PDF, I mean; I'm not holding my breath for someone to send me actual physical books, although you can if you want -- I'll have a bash at translating them. Be aw...

I love Professor Layton  games. Loooooooooove them. When I got my paws on the first one, I totally failed to notice that I had stayed up all night poking at it until the sun started trying to sneak in between the slats on the blinds. They're some combination of thinky and quaint and comforting and rewarding that apparently functions much like crack cocaine, as far as my brain is concerned. It probably has to do with the way the things are structured. The series was originally inspired by a collection of puzzle books by Akira Togo, and the fact that the Brain Age  games for DS had sold surprisingly well, so at heart they're really nothing more than a long sequence of brainteasers from a wide variety of genres. Solve a puzzle, get told I'm right! Solve enough puzzles, get to see more cut scenes! It's very Pavlovian. The story, I thought would be a nice little lagniappe, but rather to my surprise, it can get quite involving. The adventures of Professor Layton and his a...