The wait is almost over! One of the year’s most anticipated titles finally comes out this week:

Professor Layton and the Last Specter!

Wait, what? Batman: Arkham what now? Oh, right. I guess that Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to the wonderfully received Batman: Arkham Asylum, also comes out this week. Whoop dee doo. Batman can’t hold a giant, bat-shaped, shadow-dropping candle to Professor Layton’s detective skills. Blasphemy? Hardly. This is all a matter of logic and critical thinking. I present the evidence!

Professor Layton’s kid sidekicks don’t die.

Both Batman and Layton love keeping kids handy to help do their dirty work. While this practice probably makes the average social worker a bit uncomfortable, at least Layton has the decency to keep his "boy wonder" alive.

You see, Batman has been through a bunch of sidekicks. The Joker actually murdered Jason Todd, the second Robin. And trust me, the Joker didn’t give Todd a clean death. He beat him with a crowbar and then blew him up with a bomb. Bruce Wayne blamed himself for Todd's untimely demise. Well, duh! Wayne took a kid along to help battle criminal psychos! What did he think would eventually happen? And then what does Batman do? Does he learn from this terrible mistake? Nope! He finds another troubled youth and dresses him up in those stupid yellow and red tights.

Professor Layton doesn’t depend on money and gadgets.

Batman gets a lot of credit for being the world’s greatest detective. You know what? Maybe if I had computer goggles, a secret hideout filled with futuristic technology, and millions of dollars worth of other convenient gadgets, I’d be the world’s greatest detective, too.

What does Professor Layton have? He's stuck with just a teacher’s salary and a sharp mind. So you tell me what’s more impressive: Batman using "detective vision" to follow a fingerprint trail or Professor Layton making a machine gun out of a slot machine?

Yeah, I thought so.

Let's see Batman solve this puzzle.

Professor Layton isn't a failure.

So Batman's goal in life is to rid Gotham City of crime and murder. How's that going? Last time I checked, Gotham was still full of psychotic criminals. Maybe I'm being too hard on Batman. I mean, he's only had 72 years to work on this.

When Professor Layton saves a town, everyone residing there lives happily ever after. Well, assuming that they aren't all robots or hallucinations. The point is that Layton's London seems like a generally nice place to live. The worst you'll have to deal with is the occasional difficult puzzle. Meanwhile, you're lucky to walk a block in Gotham without stepping into the middle of a crime scene.

OK, I know you're all going to buy Batman: Arkham City. Hell, I am, too. But all I ask is that you don't overlook gaming's real greatest detective this week. I know he doesn't have the bells and whistles that the Dark Knight has, but Hershel Layton knows how to get business done.