Let me share my favorite moment from London Life, an extra mode bundled with Professor Layton and the Last Specter, with you. I was talking to a lady behind a desk inside a huge department store. She was telling me how elevators in England don't count the main floor as the first. Instead, it's called the ground floor, and the level above it is the first story. After this detailed explanation, the clerk casually concluded, "It differs from the system in the U.S., which I, of course, mention just out of interest since we're all English here!"

How delightfully self-aware! That line gave me a bigger laugh than any other game this year (well, if we don't count Portal 2), and it's just a sample of how charming London Life is. Sure, it may not be the most hardcore experience for the DS, but this extra offers a lot of fun for a bonus mode.

London Life plays a lot like Animal Crossing; you move into a new town, make friends, buy clothes, fish, decorate your room, and participate in a bunch of other mundane activities. Of course, unlike Animal Crossing, developer Brownie Brown, who previously made Mother 3, filled London Life with Professor Layton fanservice, including the opportunity to run into the professor himself. But the humor really sets London Life apart from other life sims.

This game was originally unlocked by beating Professor Layton and the Last Specter's story mode in the Japanese version, but it's available right from the start in the North American release. Publisher Nintendo claims that London Life offers over a hundred hours of gameplay. I haven't played that much of this title, but I can easily see this life sim sucking dozens of hours away from me. That's not bad for a "bonus" mode, especially one that teaches me about English elevators in the process of stealing my life away.