Capcom has released Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for the Nintendo 3DS, completely remastering the first three titles of this beloved lawyer series. Is it worth revisiting these games? Hold it...
Phoenix Wright should never have been a hit on these shores. The games are too weird, too Japanese, and there’s really no action in them. They’re basically books, interactive stories that only have a few moments of gameplay in between all that reading that gamers seem to find so hard. Hardly a recipe for success over here!
But somehow the Nintendo DS port of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney proved the naysayers wrong- it turns out that there is room for quirky, original games. Capcom didn’t even seem to believe it as it was happening- the first title was released in small quantities and was almost impossible to find soon after its North American release, with many merchants boosting prices for the rare title. Another shipment of games sold out within a week and Capcom continued to crank them out, the game eventually going on to sell over 100,000 copies.
Such success guaranteed the rest of the series getting localized, and we’ve received another six sequels and tie-ins over the years (not to mention a live-action Takashi Miike film!) as we grew to love yet another spikey-headed videogame protagonist. Watching a mystery unfold, finding new evidence and interviewing suspects, screaming “Objection!” into our little DS mics to stop a witness from lying during their testimony- there’s a lot of charm to this game. The courtroom drama sections are the most exciting part of the games, as Wright manages to not only find his client innocent but find the true culprit every single time. It’s just how lawyers do.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations is easily the best game in the series, offering the most well-rounded story of them all. If Wright’s tale had ended here (and not inevitably resulted in a new 3DS title and Professor Layton mashup) it would have been a fitting finale for the Wright trilogy. It acts as both prequel and sequel, first letting you play as Wright's mentor Mia Fey and learning about her past. You’ll find out why Wright got interested in being a lawyer in the first place, and during one case even control Wright’s rival Miles Edgeworth when the main man is framed for murder- a nice role reversal from when Wright ended up clearing Edgeworth’s name in the first game.
Considering how sappy and sentimental the other titles can get this one is even more so (there are SO MANY endings), but we’ll allow it.
All three titles are incredibly linear and once you know all the twists and turns of a case there’s none of that wonderful surprise as everything starts to fit together, so forget about replay value, but they’re also incredibly long games. There’s probably about 60 hours of playtime between all three, so expect to be solving cases for quite a while.
By this point Capcom’s expected to keep re-releasing their old titles in slightly revamped form, but it’s been so long since these games came out that we have absolutely- you guessed it- no objections to this title. This is a must-have for any Nintendo DS owners. If you’ve never experienced the Phoenix Wright series prepare to sit back with the 3DS like you’re curling up with a great book, and find out just how hard lawyers really have it.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was reviewed from a download code provided by Capcom. As with Dual Destinies it's available exclusively as a digital download via the Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS, for $29.99.
