Ace Attourney's twists, thrills and subtle humour all add up with the end result being a surprisingly solid title.

User Rating: 8.3 | Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Limited Edition) DS
By hama666 | Review Date:
Phoenix Wright is a heavily text-based game in which players take the role of the protagonist; a defence attorney burdened with the practically impossible tasks of proving his clients' innocence in 5 different cases in which the game is split into, the storyline stretches itself vividly between the cases. One feature that has raised eyebrows over this game is the its' heavily-text-based nature. Many including myself were dubious to whether there would still be a tolerance to such heavy use of text for a game on the supposedly next-gen handheld console, the Nintendo DS. However within completing the first case the gamer should without doubt welcome this feature; the sacrifice of dialogue for mere words can bring a sense of imagination to the gamer, just as a book does to the reader. The game itself might not be an example of the Nintendo DS's maximum graphical capabilities (The game itself is merely a port from the Japanese GBA version with extra added features such as microphone use) but it's no doubt that Ace Attorney portrays an attractively colourful presentation. The environments are well presented and really do engage the player in the atmosphere of the locations. The music despite repetitive at times is excellently timed in relation to events in the game: for example the music will turn more intense as a sudden twist in a court trial is revealed.

The game makes excellent use of the DS's microphone and touch-pad. For example at times you will be able to blow dust away by blowing into the microphone and at other times be asked to draw a picture in court using the touch pad and stylus. The only complaint I'd have to make is that sadly the voice recognition feature is implemented rather poorly: during court cases you are able to object in testimonies by shouting "OBJECTION" down the microphone, but unfortunately most of the time the microphone for some reason refuses to recognise the player's voice and instead leaves the player rather frustrated, repeatedly screaming the word "OBJECTION" down the microphone again and again. Luckily there is an "LB" substitute command for this feature.

The Storyline itself is well written and fits nicely to the structure of the game. From the very beginning of the game a whole series of mysteries and questions needing to be answered are thrown at you, and as the game progresses these mysteries and questions are slowly revealed and answered. Of course accompanying this is a series of shocking, surprising and at times humorous twists. Despite being a lengthy adventure, Ace Attorney has limited re-playability due to the simple fact that after the completion of the game the player is made aware of all the mysteries and twists and hence giving little reason for players to go back and quite literally play through the story again; however players might have found that they have not clearly understood some cases and these so called 'plot-holes' occur in their minds, hence justifying their reason to play through certain chapters again (Exactly as you would re-read certain chapters in a book to fulfill your understanding of the story). The DS version actually includes one extra case (chapter) than the Japanese GBA version in which it was ported from.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the whole proves that text-based games if executed well can bring a great deal of enjoyment to the player. And it is no doubt that the game does this feature rather well, hence I can proudly say that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an excellent lengthy adventure which I can easily recommend to Nintendo DS owners to add to their library.

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