Professor Layton und die Maske der Wunder (Germany)
also known as Layton Kyouju to Kiseki no Kamen
Nintendo 3DS
🇩🇪
Reviewed in 2012
78
✪ Reviewed on July 19, 2023
72
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on 3DS, first Layton on the console. New character Descole and mysteries in Forbodingen. Successful transition to 3DS with magnificent animated cutscenes.
Your verdict
Category
Adventure1 player7+
Description
Professor Layton investigates miracles and curses in Monte d'Or in this first 3D entry revealing the professor's mysterious past. Published by Level-5, released in Germany in November 2012. Varied logic puzzles, storyline revealing Layton's youth, cel-shaded 3D visuals. German version.
Professor Layton und die Maske der Wunder review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
This is where the series leaves flat drawing for volume. The characters are now modelled, but the studio keeps their picture-book line by flattening the shadows and holding on to marked outlines, so that the difference shows above all in the walk and in the turns of the head. The settings, for their part, gain a depth that at last allows you to move around a place.
A single town, dozens of hours, and yet no weariness. The Monte d'Or theme is not a short loop but a long piece in several sections, which wanders away from its main melody, passes through a lower bridge, comes back by a detour, so that you never land in the same place at the same moment. Writing against repetition like this demands a care that is rarely noticed.
A long chapter goes back to the professor's school years. You play an awkward adolescent, you watch a friendship between three take shape, you witness the accident that breaks it, and that parenthesis takes up a considerable part of the adventure. The present becomes entirely dependent on it: what the masked man holds against the professor goes back to those years, and the case can only be understood by having lived them.
Gameplay
"Solid"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Captivating"
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Long"
Technical info
💾0,74 GB📅23/11/2012
Published by Level-5
Professor Layton und die Maske der Wunder (3DS) price, value & rarity
Is Professor Layton und die Maske der Wunder still worth playing in 2026?
The saga's first 3D entry, known in the West as Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, this chapter opens the prequel trilogy by revisiting the professor's youth in Monte d'Or. The formula of logic puzzles nested in a serial plot stays impeccably honed, and the move to modelled 3D preserves the charm of the art direction. The measured pace and the writing quality carry the whole. For a puzzle game fan or a Layton fan, the title keeps all its pulling power and a careful craft.
