The Ladies Vs. Gents Puzzle Challenge

Today I went down to Union Square in San Francisco to check out Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the Nintendo DS. As described in my last blog post, the whole marketing gimmick is to have the ladies and the gents compete in a puzzle challenge.

Game on. We're divided into opposing forces for battle.

This poor lady was forced to hang balls below her neck.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw the British style phone booths set up in the center of the square. There was a small line to begin with, but as I was leaving there was a decent amount of people standing out of line deciding whether it was worth going in. The people managing the event were nice enough but they were'nt over zealous in giving details about the challenge. That Job was given to two people dressed up in what I would call "English Attire" and they were the ones getting people in line. I assumed that they were representing some characters in the game.

Talking to the people managing the event, I found out that all our scores are being tallied and averaged throughout the day. The final scores from all the players and events will be tallied and post on the Professor Layton website on September 12th. You were given a brief explanation about the game and a total of 3 minutes to do as many puzzles as possible. Sadly I must say that my time with the game went by fast and I scored no points for the Men's team. I broke under the intense pressures of the red phone booth. I must say in my defense that the first puzzle involved color and it was hard to see the screen in the daylight.

Welcome to the mental torture chamber.

Overall there isn't much I noticed different about this third installment to the Professor Layton series. All the bells and whistles felt the same, as well as the visual style of the menus. All that is really new other than more puzzles is the story and that wasn't presented at all in this quick look of the game. As you left you were handed a little pamphlet with a paragraph about the story and a T-shirt. In Unfound Fortune, Professor Layton receives a letter from the future and it sounds like London is going to get the shaft in a bad way. Of course its up to the Professor to figure out the clues and save London. 

It was a small little event and I'm not sure how many people Nintendo may be reaching with this ploy. Maybe they will have some grand plan for the finale online. As I left Union Square with my tail between my legs, I did notice a lot more woman in line than Men. I may be wrong, but from the looks of it I think the ladies may have this competition in the bag. That will teach me to talk smack.