Simply a Gentleman's Game

There's just about fifteen minutes left before the local Best Buy opens and I can walk in to pick up the new Professor Layton game. I haven't been this excited about a game release for a while. There's not many times now where I'm going to the game store, the first thing when they open, to wait in line for a game. I guess you could say it's my most anticipated game of the year. I'm actually contemplating if I should spend the entire day trying to finish it before the show tonight. It's very tempting but then I wouldn't have anything to play on the airplane tomorrow or in Japan. Plus I have tons of stuff I need to prepare before I leave.

So maybe you're wondering, What is it about the series that makes me want to drop everything to play what is essentially an adventure game with a middle aged professor protagonist and a possibility pedo boy sidekick who are going around solving mysteries and puzzles?

To put it quite simply, it's because Professor Layton is a game series fit for gentleman and I am just that, a Gentleman. I hold the door open for ladies. I help the elderly cross the street. I never double cross somebody, unless they are a double-crosser, making it a quadruple cross and therefore canceling each other out. And finally, I NEVER stab someone in the back, always in the front. Which I guess explains my lack of ability in stealth games. I've never been keen to all that sneaking around lurking in the shadows business.

So I offer you this, those who don't understand Professor Layton, can't figure Professor Layton out, or see no interest in playing Professor Layton games, you're simply not gentleMANLY enough. The muscles in your brain quite simply haven't developed like us others. And you're simply better suited for games with titles having to do with simple shapes like circles and those games about nature telling you when to go to the bathroom. Think about it. If the answer doesn't come to you immediately, you've proved my point.

It's nothing to be ashamed of. You can still aspire to become great. For example, Nicholas Scott Henderson recently completed the first Professor Layton game, Curious Village. It took him a while but he was finally able to do it. I think a congratulations is in order.

I mean, you still haven't completed the second Layton game, Diabolical Box. Which by my calculations would make you half as gentleMANLY as me. And I guess with the new one coming out that would make it one third as gentleMANLY. But still an accomplishment is an accomplishment, a celebration is in order. We'll have tea and crumpets and whatever else floats your fancy. Tally-Ho's all around.

For those of you at home who are interested in joining this fine Gentleman's Club, you could simply recreate the experience by picking up the new Professor Layton and the Unwound Future which came out today for Nintendo DS. If you're able to finish it, you would have my acknowledgment which is worth it's weight in gold.

Yours Truly,
David Liao, Jr.