It's all tea, biscuits and smiles at Nintendo as the Professor Layton franchises passes a pretty big milestone...

It transpired today that Level-5 and Nintendo's puzzletastic Professor Layton series has shipped a total of 8 million units worldwide to date.

All in all, that's not too shabby for a franchise that kicked off in 2007 and has only received a handful of iterations. To date, only the first two entries have released in the west - both to surprise commercial success (particularly in the UK). Last month saw the fourth game, Professor Layton and the Spectre's Flute, release in Japan. A fifth title is confirmed to be in development.

Are you a fan of the Layton oeuvre? Let us know your thoughts on the franchise by dropping a comment...