Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Ever wanted to be an Attorney? Ever wanted to defend the innocent? Do you love watching the bad guys sweat and break under the pressure?

If the answer is 'yes' to any of this, then you're in for a treat.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, is the first an the Ace Attorney series of Nintendo DS games where you play up and coming rookie Attorney, Phoenix Wright. The game itself is in essence a point and click adventure game only with less clues to find and more of the puzzles are oriented towards you using your own head.

Overview

The overall premise of the game is simple: you have to defend your client from a guilty verdict by finding clues that prove his or her innocence. The proof of innocence is made even harder by witnesses blatantly lying while in the witness stand and it is up to you to find evidence that unmasks their lies.

The Ace Attorney series of games actually started out as Japan only releases on the Nintendo Game Boy Advanced. In the case of the English versions of the games, they have been ported to the DS which has stronger graphics processing and larger EPROM storage. As well as being ported, an additional, DS exclusive chapter is added to the DS version. The additional chapter makes strong use of the DS's touch screen and 3D rendering capabilities.

In the original chapters, you could only look at still images of evidence where as the bonus chapter allows you to zoom in and even rotate evidence to find more clues. There is even a finger print feature that uses the screen to place powder and the microphone to blow it away.

The main feature of the game is you get to shout "OBJECTION" or "TAKE THAT" when you go to present evidence for find a contradiction in the testimony of a witness. This has been made possible either by touching the command on the touch screen or by shouting into the microphone.

However, as I haven't played the original series I cannot tell what the difference is. Thus the question on any audio and visual improvements is going to have to remain unanswered from me.

Game Play

While episodic, Phoenix Wright only has two game modes: investigation and trial. In investigation mode, you get to interview witnesses, see the crime scene and gather clues. It is in this mode that you get the chance to find physical evidence to help you prove that the witness is lying.

The other mode is trial mode, were the game plays out in the court room and you have to cross examine a series of witnesses. As well as the witnesses lying, proving your clients' innocence is made difficult by your in game opponent: the prosecution.

While you are there to defend your client, the prosecution is there to prove your client guilty. Some case, the prosecution will do anything to get a guilty verdict. Seriously, there is not stopping them.

Prosecutors set aside, you are able to find lies in the witness testimonies by presenting evidence whenever they say something they you believe is false. Failing that, the player has the option to 'press' the witness. This is where their current line of though is questioned harder to find any more contradictions. It is even possible to greatly discredit a witness just by pressing him or her.

Story

The basic formula for the story to the game is someone gets accused of a crime and it's up to you to run between the court room and the crime scene to find evidence to prove your client innocent.

While the game has one prologue (to teach the player how to play the game) and four stories, they are all both independent yet connected. At its most abstract, the player works through three seemingly independent cases but through out each case there are references to yet another unsolved case which finally is drawn to a close near the end of the game.

As the story progresses we learn more about the main protagonist, Phoenix, and though around him. Of interest to players is how Phoenix slowly reveals why he became an attorney in the first place, and why others have taken their own paths.

Graphics and Sound

Porting set aside, the graphics of Phoenix Wright are 2D all the way (except for the evidence and some scenes in the latter chapter). The characters are anime/manga styled and they are back set by almost water colour still scenery.

It is the sound and music to Phoenix Wright adds to the mood of the game. Each character and witness you meet has his or her own theme and the tone of the background music becomes more fast paced and high pitched as your draw near revelations or stress out your witness.

Overall

In short, Phoenix Wright is a game one can play in short bursts. Though that can be hard as the game has an appeal that keeps one playing long until the evening. There aren't many adventure games these days out there thus Phoenix Wright is easy to stand out thanks to the narrow pool of its genre.

That set aside, the game itself is fine piece of work. Deep thinking puzzles, strongly styled characters, atmospheric music. All of this in one little cartridge that doesn't require large time commitments.