I liked the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. While point-and-click adventure games made up a healthy portion of the Nintendo DS’ library, the Ace Attorney series always offered a charming and humorous take on murder mysteries. Part of this comes from the witty and playful dialog, but the large and expressive character sprites livened up the game’s tone.
The series’ court room setting was unique, but the franchise never did anything to catch my attention again. I was aware of each new release, but I never felt the need continue. I’m sure they were as good as, or even better, than the original, but simply offering new cases and a new feature here or there won’t sell me.
The franchise is still chugging along on the Nintendo 3DS and I love what they’ve done with the 3D character models. They completely capture the ridiculousness and style of the original releases. I dare say that they look even more expressive than the 2D sprites. But I still haven’t found any significant change to the fundamental structure to convince me to invest in the series once again.
Instead, I found that the developer’s other title, Ghost Trick, carried the spirit of the Ace Attorney series while in some ways being an entirely different game. I’d love to say Capcom was rewarded for breaking the mold, but it’s pretty well known that Ghost Trick was a flop.
