I think it's pretty safe to say that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, for the Nintendo DS, is a one-of-a-kind game. The player takes control of a "rookie defense lawyer" named Phoenix Wright, and is required throughout the game to interview witnesses, gather evidence, examine crime scenes, and finally, in what are typically the game's most exciting and pivotal moments, carefully cross-examine witnesses in order to punch holes in their testimony and ultimately get Phoenix's clients off (the charge is invariably murder, and I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that Phoenix's clients are always wrongly accused). The game really isn't as sophisticated as most descriptions of it imply (it's more of a Japanese "graphic adventure" than a full-blown lawyer simulation), but the premise is quirkily compelling and original, the translation is solid, and it really requires you to think critically at times, in ways that most games don't traditionally demand.





Phoenix Wright is the main character, a spiky-haired defense attorney. Personality-wise, Capcom really nailed this one: Phoenix is instantly identifiable, being intuitive, clever, and possessing a good sense of humor about things, while remaining somewhat naive. His primary courtroom opponent, the prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, is meanwhile depicted as haughty and arrogant, but is eventually shown to be a generally good person who is, like Phoenix, only trying to get the bottom of the mysteries himself. Other characters include the seventeen year-old spirit medium Maya Fey (essentially Phoenix's gal friday), her older sister Mia, who is Phoenix's boss, and Detective Gumshoe, who often provides clues and helps out during investigations. It's a good cast; I know my first thought upon getting a sense of all the characters was that Capcom had yet another winning franchise on its hands.

The game features two distinct modes: in the first, the player takes on a role similar to that of a detective by visiting crime scenes, talking to witnesses, and sometimes finagling evidence out of the cops. The second mode takes place in the courtroom, where, after the initial testimony of a witness, you are allowed to cross-examine, going over everything they say and presenting the correct contradictory evidence at the most opportune times. Additionally, sometimes the judge or the prosecuting attorney will ask questions directly in order to gauge whether or not the player is really on the right track. It's not exactly the most interactive game in the world (this was one of the major criticisms of reviewers in the gaming press, along with the fact that it was so text-heavy), but I wasn't bothered by it; as in Konami's cult classic Snatcher (another, similar graphic adventure title) getting to the bottom of the various mysteries kept me plenty interested, and besides, the game is good at fooling you into thinking you have more control over it than you actually do.





As I said, though, the game isn't as sophisticated as it might seem at first. Most pieces of evidence are accompanied by only a small paragraph describing their relevance, which is disappointing: the intellectual challenge is there, but it's not as deep as it could be; usually, the details you need are merely hidden in plain sight. On the other hand, the game's mysteries aren't so transparent that you wind up figuring them out immediately...although the real murderers (or conspirators) are usually pretty easy to spot, and are sometimes plainly revealed before the cases even begin.

There are a total of five cases in the game: the first four tell a larger story, while the fifth (exclusive to the DS version; the first four cases comprised the original Japanese GBA game) takes slight advantage of some of the DS's more advanced capabilities, allowing you to examine evidence more closely and to use some different crime scene investigation techniques. Don't be fooled by the brevity of the first case; that one is only an introduction, and later cases can take a long time to solve: the courtroom scenes alone, which usually breeze by pretty speedily compared to the rest of the game, can frequently take more than an hour to play through, especially if you're having trouble spotting contradictions in a witness's testimony.

In short...well, this is a heckuva fun game. If you're into graphic adventures, or good old-fashioned mysteries (being portable, you can carry it around like a mystery novel), or simply like the idea of indignantly yelling "Objection!" into your DS's microphone, then by all means buy this sucker. (Be prepared to look around for it, though, and possibly pay quite a bit; even though it just came out last year, it's already fetching relatively high prices on eBay. Capcom appears to have either discontinued the title, or to have not anticipated demand, leading to a temporary shortage). I just hope they come out with a sequel or two.

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