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As a game developer, I — and I genuinely mean this — really have to admire Capcom’s business strategy. Over the past decade, the gaming giant has managed to navigate some rather choppy waters; on the whole, games have become more and more expensive to produce, and with large swaths of gamers’ time being devoted to a small number of live service titles, it’s harder than ever to stand out and actually turn a profit, particularly in the triple-A space. Capcom’s solution has been simple: balance their release schedule with a mix of new entries in long-running franchises with remasters and re-releases of older titles. It’s a strategy that probably won’t change anytime soon. Still, in an age where a sizable chunk of Capcom’s back catalog is playable on modern hardware, one cult classic remains nowhere to be seen: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m incredibly pleased with Capcom’s output over the past few years. As a self-professed Ace Attorney fan, it’s an absolute godsend that nearly every game in the franchise is now playable on current hardware. Next month sees the arrival of the first official localization of Ace Attorney Investigations 2, a game I helped localize as part of a massive fan translation effort a decade or so ago. Still, it’s hard not to pay attention to the one game in the franchise that hasn’t made its way to modern platforms, even if it is just a spin-off title.
A Surprise Collaboration
For those who aren’t intimately familiar with this crossover game, here’s a quick rundown. Back in the late 2000s, when both the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton series were reaching new levels of popularity on the Nintendo DS, the CEO of Level-5 (Akihiro Hino) approached Capcom with a new proposal. He pitched a crossover game between Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright, and shortly after, Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi was talked into giving it his seal of approval (it also helps that he was also given creative control over the game’s overarching narrative).
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was officially announced in 2010, though it was only confirmed that it would be coming to the Nintendo 3DS in Japan. After a few more years of fan polls, unconfirmed rumors and statements, and a dedicated effort by both series’ fandoms, the game was eventually given the proper localization treatment, and was released in 2014 in Europe and North America.
I Like Those Odds
While it’s by no means impossible to give Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney a go in 2024, it’s not an easy task. Assuming you have a working 3DS, and live in Europe, a used, complete in-box copy will run you around $80 USD, according to PriceCharting.com. If you happen to speak Japanese, you can snag a copy for even less (around $30). For those living in North America, here’s some bad news: copies are hard to find in the wild, and while you can certainly have some luck on sites like eBay, you’ll have to pony up around $120 for a complete copy.
Of course, there’s always the chance that Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will get the same re-release treatment that every other Ace Attorney game has received, and the odds don’t look half-bad. With a rumored seventh mainline Ace Attorney title in the works, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam due out next year, it’s a perfect opportunity for both Capcom and Level-5 to boost interest in their respective IPs.
Naturally, there are a couple of hurdles that might get in the way. The game was a joint venture between the two companies, which means that both Capcom and Level-5 would have to sign off on a re-release. To further complicate things, while Level-5 handled publishing duties in Japan, Nintendo stepped in to handle distribution and marketing for the worldwide release, which means that they might also have to be involved in any ports or remasters. On the technical front, I’m not entirely sure what engine Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney uses. It doesn’t seem to be Capcom’s MT Framework (which would have been nice, since several games built on MT Framework have been ported to new consoles), so there’s a chance it uses a proprietary engine developed by Level-5. Seeing as how Level-5 has slowed down its output over the years and has yet to port any Professor Layton game to modern consoles or PCs, this could serve as a roadblock.
For now, we’ll have to remain hopeful that Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will see the light of day again. I think there’s a strong chance that a remaster will be announced for release next year, but given how turbulent the gaming industry has been over the past two years, nothing is a sure bet.
