Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Review

Oddly enough, the sound effects are what really capture the essence of this game in terms of just being plain weird. Anytime that someone is either insulted or proven wrong with evidence in or out of court, you will hear a very painful sounding *SNAP*. It’s quite humorous too, because it’s with that sound that you see the most hysterical facial expressions you probably ever have. Other things you may hear in the court room are actually normal. This includes lawyers hitting their hands on their particular table, the judge using his gavel, as well as the various things that can be shouted out. This includes the phrases “Hold It!” and “Objection!” While it isn’t exactly your voice that you hear, it’s very cool to be able to use the microphone like that.

However, the one string of sounds that you will hear rather frequently throughout the game is what makes it really feel like a law-based game. Anytime you visit an area outside of court that carries some significance in helping you find more clues, a small message will display. This is basically the current date and time, and where you are. This message appears and sounds as if an older typewriter is actually writing it on your screen. This is how older law shows on TV used to do it in terms of showing where actors were, so that is indeed a very creative idea.

So truly, the music and sounds deliver one of the most unique experiences to date on the Nintendo DS. Strange they both are indeed, but that is what the whole atmosphere of the game is anyway. It may carry a rather serious tone in terms of the crimes being committed, but the music and sounds help keep a level of loose tension. Sure the action during the game can be dramatic and very tense, but that doesn’t mean the actual atmosphere always has to be that way. Really the only thing that could be criticized is there being more of it. Instead of having the generic themes, have different music for everything. It could definitely be possible, so it’s not completely out of line to wish for it.

Now while how you actual play the game is an area that suffers just a bit in overall quality, Phoenix Wright is still one fun game. Even though you’ll end up doing pretty much the same thing the whole time, using the gameplay mechanics in all the different scenarios is very entertaining. To help it along though, the last two scenarios offer a little more for you to do in terms of actually utilizing the DS’ features to solve cases.

So let’s start with how the game works outside of the court room. You can go anywhere the game will allow you to, and use the four main functions of the touch screen to gather your materials. You can Examine, Talk, Move and Present. Examine brings up a target for you to move around on the touch screen and you simply tap the Examine button to have the game show or tell you whatever it may be. Talk obviously has you enter conversation with whoever may be on the top screen in front of you. This can be anything from learning about the case itself to actually pulling vital information from them. Move allows you to “move” from one location to another, imagine that. Then Present allows you to show anything you may have in your Court Record to a witness outside of court. That is actually very important as most of the time it will be the tool you use to get most of your important evidence.

Now for the actual court room, there’s some similarity and quite a bit different with how all the controls work. In court, you can perform four different actions as well. There is Press, which is more or less trying to pull more detail out of a witness’ testimony. You also have Present again, but when you actually go to show evidence with this, you’ll end up saying “Objection!” The same goes with Press, as that action is coupled with the phrase “Hold It!” You simply have to be careful to present relevant contradictory evidence, you will receive a penalty. You have five total, so you have a lot of room for error, which is slightly unrealistic. Then to utilize the DS’ microphone in an entertaining fashion, you can actually hold Y and say either phrase depending on what you may desire. Now unfortunately it won’t actually determine whether you said the phrase or not, it simply reacts to the sound of your voice and nothing else. So if you say anything else besides those two phrases, it will still work.

When it comes to actual witness testimonies, they work in pairs in terms of how you interact with them. The Judge will always ask the witness to present their testimony, and that’s when the game shifts to such. The witness will deliver their testimony, and you read it as you tap the touch pad to make it progress. Afterwards, either the Judge or the opposing prosecutor will speak a brief phrase. Then it’s your turn to do the Cross Examine. Now this does actually make things a little awkward, as law would never work this way in court. But because this is a videogame, there really isn’t anything that could be done to get around it. In your cross examine, you go through the witness’ testimony yet again but this is when you are able to Press them or Present contradictory evidence.

That is in effect how you go about solving cases and proving that your clients are innocent. You actually know that before each new scenario begins because that’s how the game works. You personally know Phoenix Wright’s client is innocent, but you have to use Wright to prove that. That is where all the questioning of witnesses and examination for evidence at crime scenes comes into play. At any time during a witness testimony while you are cross examining you notice a slight or obvious contradiction, you bring something out to prove that. Now of course that won’t always immediately break them down and have them confess, you’ll have to work harder than that. Many times witnesses will change their story by “elaborating” on something they may have either “forgotten” or “mistook”. So trials won’t end the moment you present a little piece of contradictory evidence, because the story will progress much deeper than that.