Nintendo celebrated their launch of their highly anticipated, “Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box;” the follow up to 2008′s acclaimed “Professor Layton and the Curious Village” with a posh tea party at the Carlyle in New York City. Upon being seated, beside a teacup and a dessert dish at each table was a DS Lite, for us to try the game on. While being served a variety of pastries, scones and tea, I noticed nearly all of the guests present were women, interestingly. We opened our DS Lites and were given a chance to try the game.

Fans of “Curious Village” and gamers new to the series alike will not be disappointed. Boasting over 150 unique puzzles, including brain teasers, logic, sliding, memory and even math oriented mini games, to name a few. The game opens with Dr. Andrew Schrader, Professor Layton’s mentor and friend, inviting him and Luke to come witness the “Elysian Box,” a rare artifact he recently acquired which is rumored to kill anyone who opens it. Upon their arrival they discover Dr. Schrader dead, and the box is no where to be found. Dr. Schrader had asked Layton to finish the task of finding out the mystery behind the box, and our story begins with Layton and Luke setting out to do so.

The game has fully voice acted cut scenes for all major characters, and like “Curious Village” players advance through the plot via visual novel style game play mechanics. The game has an extremely wide variety of puzzles. When a player completes one, they will be awarded “Picarats” which vary in quantity by the difficulty of the puzzle. Throughout the storyline of the game, players can find “Hint Coins” which can be spent to earn up to three hints per puzzle.

As we sipped our tea and compared hints on puzzles, it was announced to us that people seated with us were actually our teammates, and which ever tabled collected the most Picarats on a specifically designated DS Lite, would win a round of DSi’s for everyone at their table! While my team, aptly named “The Picarat Counters” didn’t win, everyone had a great time. Look for “Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box” on August 24th of this year.