Layton Brothers: Mystery Room Preview

With the recent release of Scribblenauts Remix on the iPhone and iPad, it seems like the floodgates have finally opened on great DS games making the jump to the App Store. Up next? Arguably the most successful franchise on Nintendo’s portable platform, Professor Layton. But unlike Scribblenauts, this won’t simply be a port or mash-up of previous Layton games, but an entirely new experience. And, from what we can tell, it may not even feature Professor Layton!

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The Professor Layton family is finally coming to iOS!

With the recent release of Scribblenauts Remix on the iPhone and iPad, it seems like the floodgates have finally opened on great DS games making the jump to the App Store. Up next? Arguably the most successful franchise on Nintendo’s portable platform, Professor Layton. But unlike Scribblenauts, this won’t simply be a port or mash-up of previous Layton games, but an entirely new experience. And, from what we can tell, it may not even feature Professor Layton!

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room is set to star Alphendi, an investigator with Scotland Yard that also happens to be Professor Layton’s son. In place of Layton’s boy sidekick is a new investigator with the Yard, Lucy Creila.

Not a great deal about the game itself is known yet, but Andriasang are reporting that it had its roots in a previously announced game for the DS starring two different detectives, but also called Mystery Room. However, that version of Mystery Room was announced more than two years ago, slated for a 2010 release, and never quite made it to store shelves. It looks like the bulk of the project may have been re-imagined to feature the progeny of the popular Professor.

The brain-bending puzzles, riddles, and conundrums put forth by the Professor Layton games are a perfect fit for the iPhone – so much so that a myriad of games have tried to duplicate its success. Still, with none of them managing to reach the same level of quality and polish as Layton, we couldn’t be more delighted to see that it’s finally going more widely mobile.

 Mystery Room Mystery Room

 Mystery Room
 Mystery Room

Layton Brothers: Mystery Room isn’t the only Layton title coming to mobile phones, either. DeNA is collaborating with Level-5 to bring Professor Layton Royale to their Mobage service – a game that will combine the Layton franchise with DeNA’s own Kaito Royale. Whether or not this one will ever be released outside of Japan, though, is up for debate.

If you’re wondering what’s taken the Layton family so long to come to iOS, TechCrunch is reporting that Nintendo had an exclusivity deal with Level-5, and that deal has finally run out. If that’s the case, the same might be happening with other developers. Let’s hope so, because we could be in for a real treat over the coming year as more and more DS classics come to other mobile devices.

Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.