Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a spin-off of both the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney game series. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2014. Chronologically speaking, this takes place between the events of Professor Layton and The Diaboloical Box and Professor Layton and The Unwound Future; in the Phoenix Wright series, it takes place between Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

The story follows Professor Hershel Layton, his apprentice Luke Triton, as well as Phoenix Wright and his friend Maya Fey, as they all investigate the mystery of Labyrinthia. Labyrinthia turns out to be a strange old book which transports its readers to a medieval village, where witches and magic are all real.

This blends the gameplay styles of both games. If you're unfamiliar, the Professor Layton series are mystery games in which you solve a bunch of interactive puzzles. In Phoenix Wright, you typically investigate a crime scene to collect evidence, which you then present in a courtroom. You cross-examine the witness and point out and contradictions with the evidence you've collected. Each chapter in this game has you going back and forth between the two lead characters, so sometimes you'll be solving puzzles, and at other times you'll be in a medieval court setting.

The puzzles in this game are neither too easy nor too hard. I found them, on the whole, to be easier than some of the games in the main series. Likewise, the courtroom gameplay was also moderately difficult, presenting no alarming challenge. The courtroom gameplay is different from that of the main series because you will be cross-examining more than one person at a time, so each person will say something, and then it will go to the next person. Someone else may then chime in and disagree with what someone else has just said.

The animations are very nice and colourful, and I think all of the characters worked together quite well. It didn't feel odd to have the two different gameplay styles together in one game. I do think it was a bit short in comparison to some of the other games in each series, which detracts a little from the value, but overall it's a nice gaming experience, and certainly a joy for fans of either series, particularly as it was lucky it even made it overseas from Japan. Now if only they would release the Sherlock Holmes spin-off here...