Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is not only the first 3D installment in there series but also marks the first 3DS game. The transition to 3D is as graceful as it could've been I suppose but that doesn't mean it's perfect. The core fundamentals of the Layton gameplay style we have become accustom to for the last four games remain largely the same, but have been turned on their head in such a minor way that it can throw anyone off. Previously the main visuals resided on the bottom screen of the DS while in this entry the main visuals find their home on the top screen, also the navigation has been completely overhauled as movement has been changed from tapping corners of the screen to instead tapping locales on the map. This in of itself is not a fault of the game in anyway and functionally works as intended but leaping from four games that function that exact same way into a new take on the control scheme is sure to throw anyone off. Also this game tries to mix up the Layton formula further by adding things such as on rail horse back riding, and dungeon crawling which is actually a welcome addition in my eyes to help break up the regular point and click and puzzle solving. Going back to the visuals for a second, while seeing the wonderful and zany character designs of Layton portrayed in 3D certainly is novel, I can't help but feel in this entry that some of the 2D artwork lose some of it's finer detail in translation. It's certainly not game breaking or ruins the rest of the series for me but I will kind of miss the illustrated character portraits from the first four entries. The story this time around tries to give us an emotional look back on the life of Layton much in a similar vain to Unwound Future, and while there are certainly some emotionally impactful stuff in here, a lot of it kinda falls flat thanks to the inconsistent pacing throughout the entirety of the story. I will say however my favorite chapters in the game are the ones where we get to live in the shoes of a teenage Layton as he attends school and lives in his small village, in fact I wouldn't mind a whole game like that but I digress. The main plot twist at the end of the game is perhaps the most predictable out of the whole series, certainly doesn't mean it's bad, in fact I quite liked it, but you can definitely see it coming a mile away. All in All Miracle Mask isn't the most smooth transition to 3D i've ever seen but it isn't a failure by any means. It is still up there as one of the better Professor Layton titles, and I strongly recommend it to any fan of the series who may have missed out on it on release as it certainly does not disappoint.