UPDATE: Professor Layton's Twitter, @TopHatProfessor, is no more.

The past few weeks have seen a strange occurrence: everyone's favorite puzzle solver, Professor Layton, has signed up for Twitter. Several times a day, the good doctor would update with puzzles, bringing a bit more entertainment to the typical "tweets" about shoes and sandwiches. Sadly, it turns out that Layton and the other characters to show up aren't official.

When contacted for a comment, Nintendo of America issued the following statement:

"Nintendo of America does not have an official Professor Layton twitter account. The profiles you listed below are not operated by Nintendo of America by any means."

Even worse, Apprentice Luke's Twitter has vanished. Whether or not Nintendo is behind this is unknown, but it would be sad to see it go. So far Layton's is unchanged, but he has mentioned Nintendo's comment for the first time, saying, "We hope this garnered the hype Nintendo needed behind this new Professor Layton title and if even one of you fell in love with the series..." and later going on to mention that he hasn't been sued, as of yet. It is free publicity, after all, and as long as he doesn't start trying to make money or talk dirty I think he'll be in the clear.

We'll keep you posted (and check out our Twitter, too!).