professor-layton-and-the-diabolical-box posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Gamers certainly aren't strangers to memorabilia, doubly so for figurines, but this Professor Layton statue from NCSX has one thing going for it those others don't: you can actually afford it. We're used to seeing those high-dollar Samus statues and Capcom's ridiculously-priced (and ridiculously nice!) Street Fighter series, so when we caught wind of this $30 Professor Layton companion, we knew we had to post it up. So ... yeah, that's what this is.

What? You were expecting more? OK, here's a riddle: What's 120 words, loves you and thinks you're the sexiest person on the planet? Head past the break for the answer!

[Via Go Nintendo]

Nintendo must've had some luck with its Great Lakes and Wii Sports Resort tours recently, as the company has announced the Nintendo Mall Experience tour. Starting next week through December 20, The Big N will be stopping at shopping centers across the country to get some of its Wii and DS titles in the faces of holiday shoppers.

On the Wii side, Nintendo will show off its top three games for the holiday season: Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus. For the handheld crowd, Nintendo will be pushing the new Style Savvy, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Head past the break for the full list of stops on Nintendo's Mall Experience tour.

It would appear that Nintendo made the right decision in finally getting around to releasing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box worldwide, as the company was able to trade that box for one filled with cash money. The company released a supplement to its earnings report, listing the million-selling first-party Wii and DS games of its Q3 (April-September), and Diabolical Box made the list with 1.26 million units sold. The entirety of that 1.26 million comes from outside of Japan, since it wasn't a first-party game in Japan, and it was released in 2007.

The other new additions to the million-seller club on DS: Tomodachi Collection, the Mii communication game, and Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, which mysteriously managed to rack up 10,000 overseas sales despite not having been released outside of Japan. Is Nintendo tracking import retailers differently somehow?

On Wii, Wii Sports Resort has reached 6.97 million units worldwide, and Wii Fit Plus has already sold 2.13 million, a nice complement to the 4.28 million that the first Wii Fit sold in the last quarter.

Source (PDF)

FIFA 10 -- the Madden of Europa -- had the most successful "all formats" launch since Grand Theft Auto IV in the UK, according to Chart Track. First week sales of the footie fiesta grew by nearly 48 percent over its predecessor's opening week a year ago. This was the highest-selling launch of a FIFA game ever, with the Xbox 360 generating 48 percent of sales, PS3 46 percent, and the remaining formats making up six percent.

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (the Diabolical Box in the States) held onto the number two spot from the week prior, while Halo 3: ODST sales dropped 75 percent to the third spot, after holding last week's crown.

Source -- FIFA 10 scores BIG (Chart Track)
Source -- All formats chart (Chart Track)

It appears that Professor Layton is in Boston today, working the streets to promote his latest adventure, The Diabolical Box. Those who track down the professor will receive a "fun Nintendo gift," as well as entry into a draw for five Nintendo DSi systems. Check out the official rules for all the details.

The latest clue at 11AM EST states: "Professor Layton is wandering on a cobblestone promenade similar to the one in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and watching a street performer." That means the professor is very likely right outside of Quincy Market. If you get a lock on Layton, holla back. Also, send us pics! The professor will hop on a flight and be in Seattle tomorrow.

Despite being absent from the August NPD figures, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box managed to be somewhat of a success in the US. Gamasutra obtained some data from NPD that shows the game sold 65,700 copies in the month of August, which isn't all that bad considering the game went on sale August 24.

On the flip side, the figure can also be seen as a failure for Nintendo, based on how much money the company sank into the marketing machine trying to get ladies interested. Regardless, we're hoping the game fares better in September, because we'd like to actually play the other Layton games.

Update: The giveaway has come to a close. Keep an eye on your email to see if you won!

Now that we've finished reviewing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, it's high time we sent the game to one of you -- and that's where Joyswag comes in. If you want to get your hands on the game and an actual diabolical box, follow the directions below. Good luck!

• Leave a comment telling us what you plan to store within the Diabolical Box
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec)
• Limit 1 entry per person per day
  
• This entry period ends at 1:00PM ET on Monday, September 7
  
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box on DS ($35 ARV)
• For a list of complete rules, click here

In Level-5's homeland of Japan, the top-hat wearing sleuth Professor Layton is well past his originally planned trilogy, but North American gamers have only recently caught up to the second game in the franchise. According to Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino, a combination of localizing the game's puzzles and images and giving each title enough room to breathe at retail are contributing factors to Layton's slow release schedule Stateside. "We want to let each title have time to perform on the market before releasing the next game," Hino told Wired.

As for the recently released sequel Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Hino estimates the game features "roughly double" the amount of data than the first. Not only is Layton's new tea-sipping adventure bigger, but it makes more sense contextually. "One lesson we learned from the first title is that some puzzles seemed irrelevant to the storyline," Hino said, noting the Professor's second outing actually works the puzzles into the game's story to give them a purpose. "For instance, you may have to solve a puzzle about a key in order to enter a locked chamber."

If Layton's adventure piques your interest, make sure to check out our review of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Nintendo has made a bold move with Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. Instead of having plastic or cardboard (see: fake) people promote the game, Nintendo has put it into the hands of real flesh-and-blood individuals. Will it pay off for the company to promote the game via the everyman, or should it have stuck with its usual people who have too much money to play games?

Hit the jump for this week's content on the Nintendo Channel.

After more than a year, Nintendo has deigned to grant the second Professor Layton game to a DS audience clamoring for gentlemanly puzzle adventure. Is Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box worth the wait? Unless, for some reason, you were expecting a dramatic reinvention of the gameplay, yes.

To be clear, this is not the Zelda II of the Professor Layton franchise. It features the same combination of woodgrained old-world feel and Osamu Tezuka-style character designs, a similarly puzzle-minded citizenry, and a storyline intriguing enough that, somehow, the player manages to be drawn into a world that ostensibly exists only as a puzzle delivery system. There was absolutely no reason to change the formula after the magical Curious Village, and developer Level-5 knew it.
The Layton series is proof that almost any activity can be grafted into a video game to make an engaging experience. These games do for brain teasers what RPGs have done for menus.

Nintendo has been on a roll with its games shipments lately, as Joystiq HQ just received the package you see above containing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and ... a real Diabolical Box. We quickly threw the small, wooden thing into a corner and made for the Professor Layton, but, in a move most cruel, Nintendo shipped us an empty game case. It was then we realized that the game was located in a wooden prison, so we were forced to solve a puzzle before we could play this game about solving puzzles.

Nintendo E3 2009 checklist:

• Mario? *check*
• Zelda? *check*
• Metroid? *check*

Are we missing something? Head past the break to find out!

After years of literally hearing nothing from Nintendo about the release of any of the Professor Layton sequels, it's got a release date: August 24. A two-month wait for the North American release of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box doesn't seem so bad after all that agony. Not that Nintendo actually said anything about releasing the game. It was a bullet point on a list of games on the press site, and nothing more.

Like the last one, Diabolical Box will feature downloadable puzzles every week for 33 weeks. Thanks, Level-5, for the steady drip of Layton puzzles -- let's hope it doesn't run out before at least an announcement for the next one.