You can never have enough Layton in your life! That's the rule. With that thought, Level-5 has announced Layton Brothers: Mystery Room for iOS devices.
Instead of assuming the role of the ol' professor, you'll take command of his son (bet you didn't know he had one) Alphendi Layton and partner Lucy Creila, a pair of Scotland Yard investigators. Also, rather than having you solve bite-sized, brain-teasing non sequiturs, Layton Brothers appears to involve a more direct approach to crime solving. Perhaps the biggest mystery of all is why a male-female duo, unrelated by blood, is referred to as "brothers" in the first place!
This was originally a DS game with no ties to the Layton series; in fact, it was part of another Level-5 puzzle series called Atamania. This change in IP and platform might help to give it a bit more exposure. Hopefully, it'll find its way to Western iThingies.
Tony Ponce (aka megaStryke) is a culturally confused, Canadian-born Puerto Rican who grew up in Japan and South Florida ... yet can only speak English. He specializes in writing features and maintaining an immaculate goatee. Likes: Any and all things related to Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, 2D, PB&J sandwiches, applesauce, and candy corn.
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Ok ok breathe in, breathe out... It really shows that this was another different game apart from the franchise; the art is very different and I'd dare say they just tacked Prof. Layton's last name on the main character (imho he didn't get his father's good looks :P) to tie it to a more popular franchise and get more publicity (it does mess up with the canon I have in my mind though). That doesn't take away that this game looks super interesting and I wish it was available for the ipad. Not because I have one, but my cousin does and I could probably borrow it for a while :D As I said, it doesn't feel like a proper game made with the franchise in mind and it shows, but I'll try it anyways.
Well said, Tony, there's never enough Prof. Layton around! and I mean the father :P
Layton Brothers? Maybe, in some sort of stupid plot twist at the end of the game, after the crazy hentaiphobias have been fapping to Lucy for quite a while now, she reveals herself to be a transgender, and that they were actually twin brothers but was forced to changed to a woman to prevent the total overworld from finding out about her, and then an even worse and crazier plot twist, you find out that your dad isn't Prof. Layton, but actually Luke, Prof. Layton's assistant and that the original Layton was just a madman who thought you were his sons??!!
I don't know. Seems like I just created a new script for M. Night Shamalamadingdong's upcoming movie, though.
@Oishidesu: Don't put yourself down to his level D:
@CrimeMinister: Well if you like detective/mistery stories, this looks pretty interesting, don't you think? I don't like how obvious it feels that they just tacked the Prof. Layton stamp on it to allow an unknown game to ride the bandwagon of publicity and popularity though.
Interesting that when retconning him into the Layton mythos, they went with "son", rather than the traditional "nephew". Heck, even "student" wouldn't require a lick of explanation.
I haven't played the most recent Layton game yet, but I'm curious where this son came from. Perhaps Layton meets somebody after the events of the Unwound Future?
This looks good, but I wish they hadn't shoehorned Layton into the title. Firstly if you played Unwound Future you'll understand why it's so perplexing that Layton had a son, secondly his son looks nothing like him. He looks more like the vilian of Unwound Future.
I'm sure there's an explaination for all this, but I'm starting to get the feeling that they're milking the franchise at this point.
Danzflor: "What I like about this is, since isn't on a Nintendo plattform, now it can be a little more graphiclly violent, which is nice for crime solving game."
The Layton games are low on violence because they are meant to appeal to a wide audience, both young and old; the fact that they are developed for a Nintendo console is completely irrelevant. Just look at No More Heroes, for instance. That games violent as hell and yet it was first released on the Wii.
Personally I think the Layton games are perfectly fine not having blood and gore splashed everywhere.
@Gwendolyn, I suppose I would be ok if it were not Layton branded, but I don't like this idea that there will be franchises that I love moving over to iOS.
@CrimeMinister: Yeah I agree why brand it with the Layton stamp when it's obvious it's not made for the franchise, kinda pisses me off at worst. I'd prefer they not bastardize the franchise (also agreed the iOS port; can't they sell it for the DS?not everyone has an iphone =_=)
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Contest:
3:00 AM on 10.16.2011 | 
*MINDF-CK*
Ok ok breathe in, breathe out... It really shows that this was another different game apart from the franchise; the art is very different and I'd dare say they just tacked Prof. Layton's last name on the main character (imho he didn't get his father's good looks :P) to tie it to a more popular franchise and get more publicity (it does mess up with the canon I have in my mind though). That doesn't take away that this game looks super interesting and I wish it was available for the ipad. Not because I have one, but my cousin does and I could probably borrow it for a while :D As I said, it doesn't feel like a proper game made with the franchise in mind and it shows, but I'll try it anyways.
Well said, Tony, there's never enough Prof. Layton around! and I mean the father :P
I don't know. Seems like I just created a new script for M. Night Shamalamadingdong's upcoming movie, though.
@CrimeMinister: Well if you like detective/mistery stories, this looks pretty interesting, don't you think? I don't like how obvious it feels that they just tacked the Prof. Layton stamp on it to allow an unknown game to ride the bandwagon of publicity and popularity though.
Still, more Layton is always welcome, and it's nice to see the series extending it's canon and it's range to other consoles.
We'll see what they plan to do with this.
Wonder who's Alphendi's mum.
I dunno. "Hershel" is a pretty goofy name to begin with. Makes me think of chocolate.
TIME PARADOX!
I'm sure there's an explaination for all this, but I'm starting to get the feeling that they're milking the franchise at this point.
The Layton games are low on violence because they are meant to appeal to a wide audience, both young and old; the fact that they are developed for a Nintendo console is completely irrelevant. Just look at No More Heroes, for instance. That games violent as hell and yet it was first released on the Wii.
Personally I think the Layton games are perfectly fine not having blood and gore splashed everywhere.
@CrimeMinister: Yeah I agree why brand it with the Layton stamp when it's obvious it's not made for the franchise, kinda pisses me off at worst. I'd prefer they not bastardize the franchise (also agreed the iOS port; can't they sell it for the DS?not everyone has an iphone =_=)