Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2810 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• Released on: 2006-03-31
• Rating: Universal, particularly children
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of items: 1

Manufacturer's Description
Phoenix Wright, a rookie defence lawyer with the wildest cross-examination skills in town. Take on five intriguing cases to reveal dramatic, stunning, and even comical court proceedings. Use both the dual screen and touch screens to investigate crime scenes, question witnesses and present shocking evidence.

In all five cases, players defend clients accused of murder. Courtroom scenes carom at a tennis-match pace as magna-style action slashes back and forth, the prosecution and the witness on the stand. After the prosecutor concludes the interrogation, they'll cross-examine, picking apart the testimonial sentence by sentence, demanding further explanations and slapping down evidence to reveal contradictions.

Although the scenes can be intense, they're never entirely serious. The writing is very clever, which is key for such a talky game. Histrionic mangastyle touches like sweat drops the size of bowling balls and bug-eyed double-takes underscore the tomfoolery.

Customer Reviews

Final adventure earns the fifth star
"Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" is the most fun I have had so far on the DS. You play Phoenix Wright, a rookie defence attorney, who has the option to shout "Objection!" far more often than real lawyers ever get to do (sadly, I am one, and so can vouch for this!) Although marketed as a "lawyer" game, it is not very realistic about the legal profession, although some reviewers seem to have unfairly marked it down for not reflecting the legal system with which they are familiar. For example, I read one review noting that the jury is nowhere to be seen. This game began life in Japan, which has not historically featured jury trials, so it's not surprising that you don't see the jury here. Much of "Phoenix Wright"'s gameplay in fact goes on outside the courtroom, involving investigating crimes in order to try to build up the case for the defence for your client.

I am surprised just how clever some of the dialogue and puzzles are in this game, as I was expecting something significantly more simplistic. The game benefits from an amusing, intelligent script and storyline, and engaging characters. It is fair to say that the structure is linear, but that is what you get with this type of game, as with the "point and click" adventure games and going back even further, the text-based only adventures (showing my age...) There are a few problems, though.

Firstly, the courtroom scenes are a lot more fun than the investigative aspect, and every time I saw the court appear again, I was happy to stop wandering around examining scenes and finally get back to challenging testimony and spotting contradictions and the other aspects of gameplay that make this title original. From time to time in the investigating, I found myself engaged in the typical adventure game "try every object on everyone and everything and see what progresses the story"-type exercise. On a few occasions, the way in which the story was moved along was not exactly logical. In one adventure in particular, I was required to show a particular character an item that no sane person would wave in front of said character, but the game demands this action to progress. On the courtroom side, in a few places, the game insisted that I had to challenge particular dialogue, or present an item in response to a particular statement, with no real basis for this being the "right" time to do so over any other. A little bit frustrating, especially when I was penalised by the judge for supposedly doing something insane!

However, these problematic instances were thankfully in the minority. In most cases, thinking through what to do provided me with a nicely logical answer and a satisfying animated pay-off for my efforts.

It is the game's final chapter that is the most enjoyable, which contains the most depth, and finally ensures that this title earns five stars. Up until this last story, I was going to give this four out of five, but it is in the end adventure that many of the aspects of the game properly come together. Perhaps some playable features in the final chapter, together with this story's sense of complexity, should have been introduced to the game at an earlier stage.

Nevertheless, this is a hugely enjoyable adventure game with an original slant, and some very clever little touches.

The graphics, whilst nothing mindboggling, are nicely drawn and effective, and in particular the reactions of Phoenix and his courtroom counterparts on the prosecution side are very entertaining. The music is simple but works well enough, too.

The Best Game on DS
I actually bought a DS in order to experience this game series, I didn't have one before. Having finished them all by this stage I can say that it was all worth every penny. A fun, intelligent series with colourful characters and interesting messages.

Some people say it's too linear and yes, the structure in the games remains fundamentally the same, but why change a good thing? If you've had enough of it for a while, stick it on the shelf, forget about it for a few months and then crack it out again when you've half forgotten the plot, it's worth playing twice!

This is a game that always brings a smile to my face and really, I suppose what I wanted to say was, there's hype about it for a very good reason!

Who said being a lawyer isnt fun!!
I simply LOVED this game! and had to play it non stop to the end!. I liked the story line and the funky characters! and its great doing an OBJECTION!. It's not so hard that you get fed up and have to start looking at cheat guides but it is challenging enough to keep you thinking. I liked the way the charaters started to wear down as you questioned them and you could tell you were getting somewhere. Its a really good adventure game and the best thing is there are several titles in the series! once you played one you will be hooked! go Phoenix!