"Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations" Nintendo DS Review (3/5) -Richard

For the past few weeks, whenever I had a minute of free time, my DS has been in my hands and I have been playing through the third game in the "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney" series.

For those of you not familiar with the games, you play a young defense lawyer named Phoenix Wright. A man hell bent on uncovering the truth. The game takes place in "America" a land that only the Japanese could conceive. Actually this is a lie. It is painfully obvious from the characters, geography and legal system that Capcom just replaced the name "Japan" with "USA" and made a few changes to names and currency.

The legal system in the Phoenix Wright games is warped to say the least. There is no such thing as juries, "innocent until proven guilty," reasonable doubt, or even bail. The beginning of most cases start with a vague cut scene featuring the victim, the accused, and usually a shadowy figure in the background. This shadowy figure be presented as the prosecution's "star witness" near the end of the trial, and will almost always be the real killer. That being said, the games are immensely enjoyable and can be enjoyed by gamers and non-gamers of all ages.

"Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations" is not a new concept at this point. The series has been around since late 2005 stateside on the DS, and since 2001 on the Game Boy Advance. At this point playing a Phoenix Wright game is like slipping into an old pair of jeans or some old tennis shoes. You have been around the series long enough to be comfortable with it.

Most of the stock cast returns for at least a case. Phoenix is still the main character, he still has to deal with former rival Miles Edgeworth and prosecuting prodigy Franziska Von Karma. Spirit medium and assistant Maya Fey and her younger cousin Pearl are still tagging around helping/annoying him. The late Mia Fey still pops up in the form of a channeled spirit to help him at trail every once in a while. Even some of the old witnesses and clients make a return in the form of Larry Butz, Adrian Andrews and Maggey Byrde. Newcomers include the masked prosecutor "Godot" and reoccurring villain Dahlia Hawthorn who try and make Phoenix's life a living hell any chance they get.

There are two parts to the gameplay and both are pretty straightforward. When not in court, Phoenix is collecting evidence and talking to witnesses. This part is reminiscent of the old NES game "Deja Vu" and involves scanning the screen and reading about anything that sticks out and then questioning the witnesses about these things. Sometimes this is as simple as finding a scrap of paper at their feet, other times it requires you to look inside of a bookshelf and then take something Phoenix found across town. The biggest problem here is that you only get a few options of where to go at each screen, so getting across town means that you have to wait for 3 or 4 loading screens just to get there. Luckily this is a cartridge game and the load times are fast.

The other part of the game, the trials, tend to have more flaws. The trial starts with a little banter between Phoenix and whoever he is facing in the prosecutor's seat. The judge will say something inept and the first witness will be called. After a witness testimony Phoenix gets to "Cross Examine" the witness while involves either pressing the testimony for clarity or presenting a piece of evidence that contradicts the testimony. the problem here is that you have a limited number of mistakes you can make; this is represented by a life bar. Pressing a witness generally does not cause a penalty, and when it does it is made very clear by the judge that there will be consequences.

The problem here is that the contradictions will either be painfully obvious (i.e. a witness calling something red when it is blue or talking about a piece of evidence that was destroyed before they should have seen it) or so random and obscure that you either have to look at a guide or sit around presenting every little thing at every statement.

Other flaws include the forgettable music and the fact that the game has zero replay value. It's like the board game "Crack the Case." Once you know the answer to the question, the mystery of it is gone. Everything in the game is on a preset script, making no variation. And the joy of the game is finding things out.

That being said the story is fun and the characters are great for a laugh. Most people are going to clock at least 20 hours playing the game, and with the price of DS games, it is worth the $29.95 you are going to pay for it.

Overall I would give the game a 3/5. If you enjoy puzzle games with witty dialog and entertaining storylines I would strongly advise a playthrough.

-Richard