User Review : Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

The Ace Attorney series is back once again, except this time it's taking bite out of the big Apple

Wait a second, hold it, what's this? An Ace Attorney game released on something other than Nintendo? Yup, the Ace Attorney series, with its cast of zany characters, loud outbursts of “Objection!”, finger wagging, and its outrageous flair for dramatic character reactions is hitting the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Although Phoenix Wright is making his debut on the iPhone, gamers have followed his exploits before on the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance. The experience on the iPhone doesn’t differ all that much from what has come before it, with a few additional, minor features that cater to the iPhone's unique hardware.

Just like the DS version, you are presented with a point-and-click interface as you, in the role of Phoenix Wright, a fresh out of college defense attorney, investigate crime scenes, question people and present your case in court.

As a new defense attorney you might find the courtroom a bit daunting at first, but no worries, as the first case acts as a tutorial easing you into the gameplay mechanics, such as how to examine your court record for evidence and press witnesses to uncover the truth. The following case introduces other gameplay mechanics, such as traveling between and examining crime scenes.

Fans of the Ace Attorney series have nothing to fear about any changes made, as the structure and story remain unchanged. You are still tasked with proving the innocence of five different clients accused of murder. So you still have to prove that your friend is innocent, the sister of your mentor didn't do, that the big, hulking actor wouldn't hurt a fly, that your lifelong rival is really a good guy and that even in dire situations, your client is still innocent!

Now for a little background on the original Ace Attorney game, released on the Gameboy Advance (GBA) way back in 2001 in Japan-only as Gyakuten Saiban (Turnabout Trial). Originally the game consisted of four cases, which concluded with a case where you had to prove the innocence of your rival, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth.

The game was later re-made for the Nintendo DS with slightly upgraded graphics and new gameplay features. For instance, on the GBA there was only one screen in which to display the actions and events of the game, your evidence, character profile, and controls; the DS, with its dual screens, was able to separate the in-game actions, controls and information between the two screens.

The re-make also made use of the DS' microphone to allow players to interact more closely with the game by shouting "Objection" or "Take that" into the microphone.

Not only were new features added, but a new case was thrown in, "Rise from the Ashes", that introduced forensic investigation techniques, such as dusting for fingerprints, and viewing evidence in 3D on the screen.

Although, both the Nintendo DS and the iPhone feature a similarly-sized touchscreen the way in which they were utilized differ. On the DS you can choose to navigate the different menu options either by using the directional pad or by using the stylus on the touchscreen display, whereas with the iPhone you can only use your finger, which acts as the stylus, to navigate the different menu options.

Unlike the DS, where you are presented with a list of actions to choose from, such as Examine or Move, on the iPhone you are present with icons to represent actions. For instance, when you are investigating crime scenes you have two icons, an icon in the upper left showing a notepad and another in the centre of Phoenix Wright holding a magnifying glass.

The icons seem to represent their actions accurately, however the weird thing is that you press down on either of these icons and then drag your finger down or across the icon so that you can access other features; such as accessing the Court Record or moving to a different location.

I find that this control scheme isn't natural and seems confusing at first since there are no hints as to how to use the different icons.

It really puzzles me as to why the menu-driven nature of the DS version of the game wasn’t retained for the iPhone port, especially considering that both devices’ total screen size is nearly the same.

Although the game does make use of the iPhone's touch screen interface, there is a bit of flair missing in the game due to exclusion of microphone capabilities, which I believe is due to the lack of the microphone on the first generation iPod Touch.

Almost in spite of the gimmicky, albeit fun, nature of using the microphone to shout out “Objection!”, the developers decided to replace it with a gimmick that feels very tacked on. The feature I am talking about is the accelerometer, a piece of hardware in the iPhone that detects the orientation of the device. In Ace Attorney, the accelerometer is used to navigate through your Court Record by tilting the iPhone to the left or right. Thankfully this is a feature that is turned off by default.

Now I realize that this game is at best a port of the DS version, yet I can’t help but be a little disappointed with the final result. When I first heard the news that this game was being developed for the iPhone I had hopes that the developers might try to add something new, such as adding a new case or even adding some unique feature that caters to the iPhone’s hardware.

Considering the storage space on the iPhone, which is considerably higher than that on Nintendo DS game cards, I was really surprised that the developers didn't at least try to expand the story by maybe adding new content, such as new scenes during the original cases or even introducing cases where the crime wasn’t just murder. I truly think that the developers missed out on a golden opportunity to refresh the original Ace Attorney game a little here.

The control scheme and use of the display space on the iPhone’s screen in the final version of this game wasn’t what I expected either. I had envisioned that the screen would display the events of the game with a small, un-intrusive menu present that could perhaps be accessed by making use of different finger swipes. Instead we got the weird tap-and-slide controls and are forced to play the game in portrait mode (where the iPhone is held vertically).

Now, I might be nitpicking a little now on the drawbacks of Ace Attorney on the iPhone, but there is noticeable lag at times during the game when you present evidence to the judge and even some issues with precision when examining evidence. I am not sure if the lag is just a bug, poor programming or something else, but I noticed it right away.

I had hoped that this might have been fixed in an update, however we have yet to receive an update in the North American App Store despite the presence of an update to the game on the Japanese App Store. If the update does fix the lag, I am at a loss as to why Capcom hasn’t released after the game has been out for nearly 3 months.

Besides these hardware-related changes, there was one change that didn't really fit, the artwork that is displayed for each case.

In the DS version, when selecting which case to play you’re presented with a beautiful case-related piece of artwork. For example, the third case, which revolves around a murder that takes place during the production of a TV show, the corresponding artwork features an epic clash between the hero and villain with the other characters involved in the case appearing above and below this image. This artwork sort of reminds me of the original Star Wars movie poster which focused on the primary characters of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia while the supporting characters, the main villain, space and spacecraft are relegated to the background. In the iPhone version you still see a piece of artwork, but it's from in-game footage and is covered with text that has the potential to spoil the case, and game, before you even start.

Despite these minor detractions in this version of Ace Attorney, the basic gameplay, funny and interesting characters with their wild reactions and the story make up for them in the long run. For those who are fans and for those who haven't played the Ace Attorney games before, they're worth playing, especially considering the low price of $4.99 and how readably available this version of the game is over the Nintendo DS one these days.