Keep It or Trade It? Fallout 3: GOTY Edition (XBOX 360)
Keep It or Trade It?: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Keep It Or Trade It?: Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ed. (PSP)
Keep It Or Trade It?: Dragon Age Origins (360)
Keep It or Delete It: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (Wiiware)
Phoenix Wright has now had the chance to make his case on three Nintendo consoles. First, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney came out for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. Then, in 2005, it was ported to the Nintendo DS and included a bonus case at the end of the game that took advantage of the DS’s touchscreen capabilities. Now, Capcom has once again ported the title, giving it a new life on the television screen. Is the third time the charm for this underrated series?
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you take control of the eponymous Phoenix Wright, a fledgling attorney at the Fey & Co. law firm. The game starts in court with Phoenix’s very first case defending his close childhood friend on the charge of murder while his boss Mia Fey watches on. Your goal as Phoenix, being a defense attorney is, of course, to keep your clients from being convicted; however, don’t expect things to go like a normal court case. In the game, courts are run under the “initial trial” system. Due to the high number of cases that occur in Phoenix’s version of Earth, the court system has chosen to expedite cases by limiting them to three days in court. There are no juries, instead a judge alone makes the final verdict, and this judge isn’t necessarily as wise as he looks. Wily prosecutors and witnesses can sway the judges favor with the right words, occasionally making things a little tougher than they need be to win. After completing the intro case, Phoenix faces three more major cases where the game play is split between time in court and interviewing witnesses and examining crime scenes. As the game unfolds, you eventually gain the help of Maya Fey, Mia’s little sister, a spirit-medium in training who works as your secretary and assistant at the crime scenes. You’ll also encounter a cast of characters during your cases, many of whom have been given silly names such as Detective Dick Gumshoe, Global Studios director Sal Manella. Between these and some of the dialogue, the game offers silly bits of humor mixed in to keep the game interesting. Without them, the game could get old quickly.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is essentially a point-and-click mystery adventure mixed with a visual novel for story purposes. During the investigation phase, you move from area to area, looking for clues and having conversations with witnesses, suspects and police. All the dialogue is text-based, the only voice acting is in court when the lawyers shout “Objection!” While trying to get information from people, you can ask them about set subjects chosen from a list or present evidence to them to get them to talk about specific items. Sometimes, key witnesses won’t talk without proper encouragement, and it’s up to you to find out what it takes to get them to open up. Once you’re in the courtroom, it is pretty systematic. The prosecution calls a witness who testifies, and then it is your job to press the witness and provide evidence that contradicts the witness’ testimony. Apparently, perjury is not a crime in the world of Phoenix Wright, because just about every person on the stand will lie or “forget” an important detail that would help exonerate your client. During the investigation, you can move fairly freely and try presenting everything to everyone without penalty, but once you are in court, you have a limited number of chances to get things right. Generally, anytime you give the wrong evidence or improper arguments, you are penalized by the judge. You get five major penalties before you get a game over and your client is convicted. Generally, the proper course of action in court is understandable, but there are occasions where you must make a leap of faith and hope for the best. The gameplay is pretty linear, which gives it more of a visual novel feel than a straight adventure title.
The graphics were not updated from the DS when it was brought to WiiWare; so, there is some definite pixellation to be seen on larger televisions. It doesn’t impair the gameplay in any way, but if graphics are important to you, you may be turned off by the dated looks. The Wii port did update one of the game mechanics, too. In the DS version, you had the option to shout “Objection!” and “Take That!” in court to present evidence, in the Wii version, this has been traded for waving the wiimote. The mechanic is a good idea in theory, but there were a few times when it wouldn’t trigger properly, and I found myself shaking it around randomly to get it to work. Pressing the minus key has the same effect, but it’s not nearly as fun as waving around like a lunatic. Unfortunately, the point and click ability of the wiimote was not built into examining the crime scenes, instead you move a small cursor around with the directional pad. That’s something I would like to see in the future ports. The music and sound effects are also carried over from the DS version; so, distortions that aren’t necessarily picked up by the DS speakers can be heard with a good sound system.
In my opinion, playing the DS version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was a little more enjoyable because the graphic and sound quality were not the issue they are on a console, but it is certainly still a good game, and certainly worth the 1000 Wii points it is currently retailing for. If you have already played the DS version of the title, you aren’t missing anything by skipping this one, but for those who haven’t it’s worth it. Hopefully good sales on the Wii might lead to a console based Ace Attorney title someday.
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