Hoodwinked by the Fake Professor Layton

Fake copy on the left, real copy on the right. Notice the "WiFi" icon is missing from the fake, plus the instruction manual has overlapping text.

I guess I’m posting about this because I didn’t even Fathom it.

I recently bought my wife Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS through the Amazon Marketplace as a birthday present (I ordered a brand new copy through the Marketplace to save about $10).

After playing it, my wife started complaining that it wouldn’t remember her saved games, plus there was no option to download new games through WiFi, as advertised. Like any good (okay, bad) tech support person, I disregarded this as her not saving properly.

When it happened again, I tried to save the game personally with no luck. My wife also noticed that the instructions manual wasn’t a manual–but rather a critique of the game (neither of us have ever seen a manual that actually complains that the “game’s music is so distracting”).

Notice how the fake (left) reuses the same image as the cover.

Further examination of the packaging made it clear that this was a pirated copy, so I went out and purchased the real version for comparison.

Fortunately, the Marketplace vendor is promising a refund, but the experience has [sadly] rattled my faith in ordering new games through third-party vendors