THE GOOD:The quirky characters and strange situations they get themselves into. Every character you meet in the game will have a distinguished personality.
The game has length. Some court sessions can last for an hour or so; just like the real thing!
The gameplay is simple but sweet, requiring players to think out of the box for a change.
THE BAD:
The lack of voice acting, but considering it’s a GBA port, there is no use whining.
Hitting dead ends can force you to abandon the game sometimes; also the lack of checkpoints in court cases forces you to save your game regularly.
SUMMARY:
When the DS was launched quite a while back now, the first thing I noticed is that it had the expected releases such as a Mario, Zelda and Metroid game, however there was also a very long and pending list of experimental titles which you would have never have thought of before. One example of this experimental type of game is of course Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training for the DS, that became a sounding success and of course led to the sequel: More Brain Training. Nintendogs was also a game that fit into this new category of titles, though I never really got into it myself. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney could also easily fall under this category; a completely different concept of game, but manages to come up trumps one just about every aspect.
The original Ace Attorney game was released in Japan on the Gameboy Advance, on which it may have accumulated a small fan base, but the real support came flooding in with the dawn of the Nintendo DS version.
Firstly, the story pits you as Phoenix Wright, a greenhorn lawyer who has just entered the occupation. Of course, as a lawyer, you job is to try and protect your defendant from prosecution. The game opens straight away with a murder case afoot; a woman is killed in cold blood at her apartment, and now Phoenix’s long time friend, Larry Buttz, is the accused. The game consists of the story and context behind each case as well as the meaningful sections of dialogue between court cases. Phoenix encounters various characters in his time as a lawyer, including close friends such as Mia and Maya, fellow lawyers such as Miles Edgeworth, and of course tricky customers and their false alibis. There will be plenty of revelations that unfold in each of the five cases, and the story behind the game, alone, can be the sharp hook that clamps your sweaty palms on your Nintendo DS.
There is no actual structured gameplay in Phoenix Wright; it’s all mainly claim and response based. When in court you will have to cross examine witness’ testimonies for contradictions and then you can either press them for more information or present them with evidence from the case in hopes that you can extract the truth. When you find a flaw in a testimony, the witness will have to rethink it and then give another one which you must cross-examine again until your observations allow you to come to a decisive conclusion. It may sound extremely dull on paper, but once you’re actually in the swing of things, it is very addictive and provocative. The first case you participate in doesn’t require you to collect statements or court evidence; but once your first case is over, each case will come accompanied with sections in which you search the crime scene and surrounding areas for clues that could be useful in upcoming court sessions. Though sometimes you can hit a dead end when looking for clues, it is mostly easy and fluid. The build up to the actual court session may seem a little dull too, but when you are unravelling the truth behind each case, there is an uncompromised feeling of achievement.
The graphic layout is all in 2D screens, which you swap to and from as you change your location. The main reason 3D graphics wouldn’t be employed is because Capcom already has the source material with the GameBoy Advance version, but to be fair, there is absolutely no need for it in a title such as this. The soundtrack picks up on every tense moment in the game, and occasional cry of “Objection!” also adds a stir, though a bit of voice acting would have been swell.
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