professor layton & the diabolical box

This is a great week for game releases, mostly because today is the ship date for one of the year's most anticipated DS titles, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box! The long-awaited followup to the runaway/sleeper hit of 2008 Professor Layton and the Curious Village is actually the second title in a trilogy chronicling the adventures of Layton and his young apprentice Luke. The series sells like crazy in Europe and the third one is already topping Japanese sales charts. The original title was one of the first games I played after getting my DS and it remains one of my favorites, and one of a select group of games that I actually repurchased after trading in initially. The game is full of challenging brain-teasers (some easy, and some insanely hard) and is set against a beautiful Euro-themed village setting. I have been replaying the first game to remind myself of its plot and have found it immensely enjoyable to see the lovely animation style and listen to the adorable atmospheric soundtrack again. I have already paid off my copy of Diabolical Box and plan to pick it up tomorrow after what will most likely be a very long day of working both jobs from 9 am to 10 pm. But at least with this release I have something to look forward to taking home once my shift's over!