Professor Layton Games in Order: Release Order and Story Order

There are eight mainline Layton games once New World of Steam arrives, plus a couple of spin-offs — and they weren’t released in story order. Here’s the whole series laid out both ways, so you can decide where to start.

Professor Layton games in release order

Dates are for the first release in Japan, North America and Europe on the original platform.

#	Game	Original platform	Japan	North America	Europe
1	Professor Layton and the Curious Village	Nintendo DS	Feb 15, 2007	Feb 10, 2008	Nov 7, 2008
2	Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (EU: Pandora’s Box)	Nintendo DS	Nov 29, 2007	Aug 24, 2009	Sep 25, 2009
3	Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (EU: Lost Future)	Nintendo DS	Nov 27, 2008	Sep 12, 2010	Oct 22, 2010
4	Professor Layton and the Last Specter (EU: Spectre’s Call)	Nintendo DS	Nov 26, 2009	Oct 17, 2011	Nov 25, 2011
5	Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask	Nintendo 3DS	Feb 26, 2011	Oct 28, 2012	Oct 26, 2012
6	Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy	Nintendo 3DS	Feb 28, 2013	Feb 28, 2014	Nov 8, 2013
7	Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy	3DS, iOS, Android	Jul 20, 2017	Oct 6, 2017 (3DS)	Oct 6, 2017 (3DS)
8	Professor Layton and the New World of Steam	Switch 2, Switch, PS5, Steam	Dec 10, 2026	Dec 9–10, 2026*	Dec 9–10, 2026*

* New World of Steam has one global date of December 10 in Japan time; on PS5 that’s December 9 in the Americas and Europe. See the release date page for exact times.

Mystery Journey’s mobile version launched worldwide on July 20, 2017, the same day as the Japanese 3DS release.

Later versions and ports

Game	Version	Release
Curious Village	HD for Mobile (iOS, Android)	Worldwide Sep 25, 2018
Diabolical Box	HD for Mobile (iOS, Android)	NA/EU Jun 20, 2019
Unwound Future	HD for Mobile (iOS, Android)	Worldwide Jul 13, 2020
Layton’s Mystery Journey	Nintendo Switch	Japan Aug 9, 2018; worldwide Nov 8, 2019

Spin-offs

Game	Platform	Japan	West
Layton Brothers: Mystery Room	iOS (later Android)	Sep 21, 2012	Jun 27, 2013 (iOS)
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (with Capcom)	Nintendo 3DS	Nov 29, 2012	EU Mar 28, 2014; NA Aug 29, 2014

Professor Layton games in story order

The Professor’s adventures split into two trilogies, and the second one (by release) is set before the first:

1. Last Specter — the earliest story in the series, where Layton first meets Luke.
2. Miracle Mask
3. Azran Legacy — wraps up the prequel trilogy.
4. Curious Village
5. Diabolical Box
6. Unwound Future — the end of the original trilogy.
7. New World of Steam — set one year after Unwound Future, with Luke now living in America.

Layton’s Mystery Journey stars Layton’s daughter, Katrielle, rather than the Professor, so we list it separately instead of slotting it into this timeline.

Which order should you play them in?

Our suggestion: release order. The puzzles and the presentation improve game by game, and the twists of the prequel trilogy land better if you already know the original characters. Every puzzle stands on its own, though, so there’s no wrong place to start.

• Brand new to the series and want to play the new game? Go straight to New World of Steam. If you have time first, Unwound Future is the most useful one to know, since the new story picks up a year later.
• Want the classics on a phone? The first three games have HD for Mobile versions.
• Prefer Switch? Layton’s Mystery Journey is on Switch, and New World of Steam launches there in December 2026.

A note on European titles

If you’re in the UK or Europe, three games have different names on the box: Pandora’s Box (Diabolical Box), Lost Future (Unwound Future) and Spectre’s Call (Last Specter). They’re the same games, though the puzzle line-up can differ between regions in places — our puzzle guides will flag those.

Puzzle guides

We’re building hint-by-hint guides for the classic games, starting with Curious Village, alongside full coverage of New World of Steam from launch.

Release dates were checked on November 14, 2026 against the sources listed for this page. Opinions in “Which order should you play them in?” are ours.