Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Old-school"

Two of the most memorable quotes you'll easy to remember in the whole game and most likely they'll mentioned if you're going to a convention will be "Objection" and "Hold it". This is the first instalment in the Phoenix Wright series for the Nintendo DS. Ace Attorney is the first instalment where you play as the rookie defence attorney Phoenix Wright who tries to defend each case and find out who the real culprit is when it comes to murders. His first trail that is under the watchful eye of Mia Fey during what do so you're think of a tutorial stage through Chapter 1. Then when it comes to Chapter 2 Mia is murdered and your new partner will be her sister Maya and helps you investigate on clues throughout the rest of the game.

Gameplay: With it being a text-dialog game it makes a great feature for the Nintendo DS, one half of the game will be reading a dialog carefully when it comes to trails and testimony's when it comes to listening to the witness/defendant who tells their story on what happened. Using the touch screen you can tap on the screen you'll hear "Hold it" where they'll give you a few hints and clues, you can say "Objection" if you have a piece of evidence if you have it on you, this will help get closer and closer to what really happened to a case. Around near the end of each trail/case you can really hurt them where it hurts if you mention "Take That" but you'll know when that happen when it comes nearer towards the end of the trail, but however you'll only get 5 chances if you mess it all up it'll be game over.

The other half of the game is during each chapter you'll be going around various places talking to other people and finding clues and evidences lying around various places. These will help you when it comes to cases, during Chapter 5 this where things will really get interesting when it comes to clues and cases and making it more addictive for a touch screen game. Another clever feature being added in is if you hold down Y button during cases/trails you can shout to the DS microphone and shout "Objection" or "Hold it" this is quite enjoyable thing to do for a DS game.

Graphics and Sound: I've already mentioned that it's a text-dialog game but Phoenix Wright does have some of the best animation and Manga/Anime visuals for the DS. Very well drawn but the character animations are limited to rigid Terry Gilliam-style paper doll movements, you can skip dialog if you want to that badly by holding down the R button. A few spoken words during the trial, but most of the audio focus goes into the nicely rendered energetic or moody soundtrack which will you keep you motive during each case.

Overall: This is still a great throwback on its old-school point and click game but this time on a handheld instead of it being a PC game. The game's script is worth the price by itself there is a movie which has been released in Japan already; intriguing characters, unique situations, and well-written and humorous dialogue keep the interest level high all the way through the multiple chapters.