At a press conference last month, Fukuoka-based game studio Level-5 dropped an unexpected bombshell. Its upcoming "Professor Layton" puzzle game would have a very different feature from its previous games: the appearance of Capcom's lawyer sleuth, Phoenix Wright. Fans of the series were reeling.
The "Professor Layton" games are incredibly popular in Japan and have already spun off a feature animated film. Likewise, Capcom's "Ace Attorney" series is a hit within Japan and abroad. The franchises are unrelated and both companies are independent. But the Nintendo 3DS collaboration makes sense: Professor Layton solves puzzles, Phoenix Wright solves cases. Perfect!
Capcom is on a roll with high-profile collaborations. Earlier this year, monsters from the Osaka-based Capcom's hugely successful PSP franchise "Monster Hunter" popped up in Konami's PSP stealth game "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker." (This is hardly a first for Konami, as back in 2008 the "Metal Gear Solid" character Snake popped up in the Nintendo fighting game "Super Smash Bros. Brawl!"). The addition of "Monster Hunter" characters to "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker" isn't an ideal fit. Both are big PSP games, but the swords and fantasy "Monster Hunter" monsters seem out of place in the military setting of "Metal Gear Solid." It was as if Konami just hoped to jump on the "Monster Hunter" bandwagon. Yet, the collaboration won fans over and "Peace Walker" ended up a hit. Mission accomplished.