Running a little layt

There were many excellent handheld games last year, and one of my favorites was Professor Layton and the Curious Village, for DS. This title puts you in the shoes of an aging English sleuth who is joined by his faithful child companion, Luke (best not to question), in an effort to solve the mysteries of the Curious Village. Peel away the story and European-cartoon-style visuals, though, and what you're left with is a puzzle game, pure and simple. It's chocked full of logic and visual problems which are (loosely) tied into the story, and this is where the real thrill of Professor Layton lies.

Well, it's just been announced that a sequel is on the way. Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute has been teased in the latest edition of Famitsu, which would bring the total number of games in the series up to four. Hang on! Surely I mean 'two', right? Unfortunately, this is another case of an eastern developer being very cautious of bringing their franchise to the western world. Japanese players have been lucky enough to enjoy both The Devil's Box and The Final Time Journey in the year-and-a-half since the launch of the first game, but neither of these have made their way anywhere else yet.

This is similar to what happened with the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series. By the time the first one made it's way to the US, two sequels had already been released in Japan, albeit for Game Boy Advance, not DS. This meant that while they were preparing the second and third games for the western world, we were already hearing about game number four in Japan, which took some of the excitement away from our upcoming releases.

Now, I don't usually get too excited about sequels, but in this case, I really hope they make their way over to this part of the world. I wouldn't expect much evolution in terms of gameplay, but that's not really the point; I just want a chance to solve more of the mind-bending puzzles. The original made it to the top of the DS sales chart upon release, so there's plenty of incentive to bring the others over, but it's been over a year since then and no word yet. The instruction manual of the first even teased at a sequel, so we know they have it planned; it's just taking a bit longer than expected.

So what's the deal, Level-5? Are you going to bring the further adventures of our favorite professor over to the US, or did you give up on that idea? Maybe once the movie is completed, you'll be able to shift some resources over to localization, and those of us with a serious puzzle jones will be able to get our fix.