Game Reviews

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.Much like Curious Village and Diabolical Box before it, the third installment in the Layton series possesses equally gargantuan amounts of polish and charm. Level 5's crisp, Miyazaki-esque visuals and dreamlike, accordion-centric melodies return, reminding players that not all AAA titles on Nintendo's platforms require the participation of plumbers, Hylians or interstellar bounty hunters.The premise for Unwound Future is arguably the series' most intriguing to date. The top-hat tutor is asked to help solve a mystery set 10 years in the future -- a request purportedly sent by the futuristic counterpart of his stalwart apprentice, Luke. This chronologically unsound mystery seems to have connections to a disastrous event witnessed by the puzzle-solving duo a week prior, as well as a similar accident from 10 years ago -- one which had particularly tragic consequences for Layton.