Ace Attorney Review

Capcom is a giant in the world of computer games. No one out there can claim to be a gamer without being aware of at least Street Fighter, Megaman, Resident Evil or Devil May Cry. However, most of the groundbreaking titles that this gaming Goliath has produced over the years seem to fall into the same pitfall; weak storytelling. As much as it has improved as the gaming world has evolved, one series of games holds storytelling at its very core and without it would be less than nothing.
The Ace Attorney series of games are probably the closest thing to a lawyer-sim that we are going to get and is one of the most popular series of games available on the Nintendo DS today.
For the majority of the games, starting with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you take on the role of the titular greenhorn defence lawyer Phoenix Wright in his quest for truth. He finds himself defending a myriad of characters from accusations of murder (it’s always murder) and does this by conducting investigations and using evidence to expose contradictions in witness testimony.
The system in which the game works means that the game is essentially a story that the player simply follows with little input. Essentially the game plays itself until you get to a point where evidence needs to be presented or an investigation needs to be made. As far as presenting evidence is concerned, it is simply a question of logic. The witness says that they saw the defendant clearly beating the victim to death with a large golden hammer. Simply present the silver hammer, which you know to be the real murder weapon and all of a sudden their tall tale falls apart and the story continues.
The only way that the player can deviate from the set story path is by getting things wrong too many times, resulting in a guilty verdict for the defendant. This causes the game to abruptly end, except for the final case of the second game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, where a guilty verdict leads to an alternate ending.
There’s a very distinct lack of player participation in these games, they seem to show the other extreme of the gameplay and storytelling balance that all games wrestle with. When playing it, you find yourself going with the flow and although you need to concentrate and keep tabs on all your information, it sometimes feels as though you could put the DS down and the game would happily carry on playing itself regardless. This game could have easily been a comic book or a cartoon instead, but perhaps the faint illusion of control is what helped the series become as popular as it has.
Being a group of games that essentially leaves the player in its narrative dust, disguised as a pretty manga styled session of trial and error. The Ace Attorney series is for fans of the adventure games of old, and those who aren’t too bothered about being able to leap over the stand and slap the prosecution at the cheeky press of a button. These games are serious about their storylines and will be most enjoyed by people who are just as serious.
The games have a huge fan following on the internet, with their hub being www.court-records.net. The unexpected incredible reception of the games has led to them being re-released on the PC, the Nintendo Wii and the iPhone.

- Witten by C. Rose.