The Professor Layton series has to be one of the most underrated game series.

I have played the Professor Layton games for most of my life. I only had a couple when I was younger but I loved them and played them over and over. Within the last five to ten years, I’ve looked out at any game shop I can (mostly second-hand) to see if they had the games I was missing. In 2020, I finally managed to get all six of the original games, and I felt like it had to be included in this blog series as it is truly an incredible series of games and honestly helped me get through the first lockdown.

The Professor Layton games focus on the archaeologist Professor Hershel Layton as the protagonist and follow his attempts to solve mysteries in the universe the games are set in. His sidekick is a young boy named Luke, whose backstory with Layton is revealed in one of the prequels, in addition to other characters who join Layton and Luke throughout the games and become part of their adventures too. And of course there are the antagonists, the bad guys, a couple of which are reoccurring. Some of the backstories for the villains are really interesting, actually.

So what games are in the Professor Layton series?

The first Professor Layton game was Professor Layton and the Curious Village. It was then followed by Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (Pandora’s Box in Europe and Australia). The last instalment of the original trilogy was Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (or Lost Future in the same regions as above). Curious Village and Pandora’s Box (I’m from Europe and therefore will call it by the name I know it as) were the first two I had as a child and I played them absolutely tons. If I’m perfectly honest, I recognise most of the puzzles when they come up now and I do still know some of the answers. But they’re still very fun to play.

There are three more games that were released for DS, the last two being for 2DS/3DS. Professor Layton and the Last Spectre (or Spectre’s Call) was the first of the prequel trilogy. The next two games were released on 3DS software, which can be played on the 2DS or 3DS, and also the 2DS XL and 3DS XL. I have a 2DS so luckily I was able to play these games. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask was the next game, and the trilogy was finished by Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, the last game released for the DS platforms. This trilogy dived into the background of Layton, including his teenage years – Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy have whole sections that you play in the past. I think Miracle Mask is my favourite Professor Layton game I’ve ever played, although it did take me a little while to get used to the 3DS version, as there were some changes from the original DS games to the format.

There are other Professor Layton games, including some mobile games, a crossover the Ace Attorney series and a Nintendo Switch game, which is the most recent game released and features Katrielle Layton, Professor Hershel Layton’s daughter. Japan also has had different versions of the games that have more content, however a lot of this has been removed due to how long it would take to translate. From here, I will only talk about the first six games, as they are the only ones I have played.

The games are just really fun, if you ask me. Some of the puzzles are really hard, don’t get me wrong, but it’s very satisfying and rewarding when you do get them right. For some of the puzzles, I’ve had to enlist the help of the internet, but I normally try to figure it out on my own for as long as I can before resorting to help. There are lots of different types of puzzles and different ways you can answer them and some of the premises for them are fun. Plus it’s always hilarious to me that the characters in the games just randomly ask you to solve puzzles, often in exchange for things, as if that’s a normal thing to do. Of course, I’m not going to tell you about any of the specific puzzles or storylines because I’d be spoiling the game and I don’t want to do that. However, I will say that I think the puzzles in Miracle Mask are definitely some of my favourites, especially the pizza flipping ones, even though I don’t actually like pizza (I know, I know, terrible of me).

Of course the storylines themselves are also interesting, and the reveals at the end of the games always have a really interesting reasoning for the antagonist’s choices. For some of the games it’s quite easy to guess who the bad guy is, but I’ve never managed to guess the full background and reasoning for their actions. Though not my favourite game for the puzzles or minigames (given that I’ve played it so much for years), Curious Village definitely has my favourite backstory and I never saw that one coming in the slightest. In addition, the minigames are also super fun; unfortunately I don’t like the Azran Legacy minigames that much but most of the games in the rest of them are really fun and creative (especially the ones with cute animals). You unlock extra levels of the games after solving certain puzzles and getting to certain parts of the game, and they add a little something extra to the game that provide a little break from the storyline and doing the puzzles.

All in all, the Professor Layton games are great and totally underrated if you ask me. Not that many people I know have heard of them, and often if they have, it’s because I’ve mentioned it. I know that the DS platforms are pretty old now so I don’t imagine this post will inspire lots of people to play the games. But if you do have any of the DS platforms and are looking for a fun series to play, I’d recommend this series, expecially if you like puzzle solving.