Best Of 2022: Professor Layton And The Lost Franchise: Where Did The Beloved Puzzle Series Go?

This reminds me of a puzzle…

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


From the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, my gaming experience was all about learning to become a gentleman. This was a central topic which ran throughout the Professor Layton series. If Professor Hershel Layton wore a trench coat, I wore a trench coat; if he drank fruity tea, I drank fruity tea; if he was reminded of a puzzle during the most inappropriate of times…well, you get the idea. This is to say that the Professor Layton games were a huge part of my formative gaming and indeed, my self-education. So why is it that, today, my views of the series are so often tainted?

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Best Of 2022: How Stardew Valley Grew The Farm Sim While Harvest Moon Went To Seed

The Concerned Ape and the Golden Egg.

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


In August of 1996, the same year that Spice Girls released their debut single and The English Patient swept awards season, a little game called Bokujō Monogatari came out in Japan on the Super Famicom. All signs pointed to it being a flop: its development had been plagued by bankruptcy and downsizing; it came out on a last-generation console just after the release of the Nintendo 64; and worst of all, it was a game about… farming. This was an era where kids wanted to fly spaceships and save princesses, not till soil and pull weeds.

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Best Of 2022: “No Man’s Sky Will Never Run On That” – Sean Murray Talks Defying The Odds On Switch

“I have a good history of being right sometimes and totally wrong other times”.

Over the holidays we’re republishing some choice features from the last 12 months. A mix of talking points, interviews, opinion pieces and more from NL staff and contributors, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, frivolity, retro nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!


Anyone who has played or has even been remotely interested in No Man’s Sky over the past six years will most likely have heard of Sean Murray. The founder of development studio Hello Games and creator of No Man’s Sky’s ever-expanding universe, Murray’s name sits above the game’s official Twitter account – a fitting reminder that he is one of the lead brains behind the intricate operation.

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Talking Point: What Game Do You Replay Every Year?

New year, old game.

We did it everyone! 2022 is finally behind us and 2023 stretches happily into the great beyond. This is to be a year full of promise, a year of hope, a year of enough Nintendo releases (with any luck) to squeeze out an almost literal cry from our bank accounts.

But for the moment we’re not thinking about the future, we’re looking to the past. Ah, the good old days. The days of yore. Back when life was easy and games were easier (because we were better at them, not because they were actually easier, you understand). Back when we were first playing the touchstone titles which would go on to inform our every comparison today.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com