Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Review

Despite the killer robots, masked megalomaniacs, and evil scientists in Professor Layton's universe, there's something endearing about a place in which all problems can be solved with a puzzle. If solving a riddle could defuse any situation, the world might very well be a better place. This kind of whimsical concept, coupled with a charming plot, is one of the largest appeals of the Layton games. And thankfully, that charm remains intact in Professor Layton & The Miracle Mask. The series' shift to 3DS has allowed developer Level-5 to revitalise the top hat-wearing hero, casting him in a bewitching new outing that makes fantastic use of the 3DS hardware with clever, rewarding puzzles and imaginative visuals. Miracle Mask is Layton at his intellectual best, and this thrilling adventure proves that he still has what it takes to crack the toughest of cases.

Layton's first 3DS outing is a series high point.

The plot of Miracle Mask follows on from last year's Spectre's Call (known as Last Specter in the US), with Layton, Luke, and Emmy being summoned to the mysterious tourist town of Monte d'Or, a Las Vegas-like city in the middle of a vast, arid desert in England. Clearly, Level-5 are happy to use some creative license in regards to UK geography, but that's part of the charm. The neon glowing signs and bustling main streets of Monte d'Or stand in stark contrast to Layton's academia and Luke's 19th century Cockney chimney sweep demeanor.

If it seems unusual to wax lyrical about the locations in a Layton game, all becomes clear once you see Monte d'Or rendered in glorious 3D. Gone are the (admittedly gorgeous) 2D backdrops, replaced by bustling three-dimensional areas that are rendered in a way that shows off the 3DS's more subtle capabilities. Areas appear on the top screen while you slide your pointer around using the touch screen, allowing you to peer left and right, up and down in 3D. The magnifying glass cursor pops into and out of the screen, disappearing off into the distance as you examine a building at the end of the street, then jumping to the foreground as you scroll over a character standing by you. At first, the new control method feels inaccurate since you're dragging and not tapping, but very soon it becomes second nature, and the tiny loss in accuracy is a fair trade-off given how great the system is.

The Miracle Mask's puzzle design is tighter than in the previous games.

This neat system even creates an illusion of depth with the 3D turned off by tilting the image and adjusting the cursor size. You can zoom in on points in the environment, often in order to peer around or behind objects. There's a real feeling of the world coming to life, and the use of 3D space is some of the most impressive to date on the handheld.

Additionally, the characters are now three dimensional models. This change allows for more cinematic moments, with in-engine cutscenes cropping up that enable the characters to interact with each other a little more dynamically than the traditional Layton method of putting conversing characters on either side of the screen, although there's still plenty of that too. Thankfully though, Level-5 hasn't done away with the gorgeous 2D animated cinematics either, and the fabulous Layton art style looks better than ever in subtle 3D.