GENRE
	Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Capcom
	PUBLISHER
	Capcom
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	No
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	No
	MICROPHONE
	Yes
	BUY NOW AT

Followers of the Ace Attorney series may have thought a sequel to Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney would be the next legal-themed adventure game to come from the creators of the Phoenix Wright trilogy. Yet Capcom instead gave us an unexpected "turnabout": Apollo is out, while Phoenix's frequent opponent in courts, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, gets a game of his own. Now that gamers have a chance to play as a prosecutor instead of a defense attorney, they'll find another well-written adventure, full of laugh out loud moments, tricky cross-examinations, and some fresh gameplay modes.

Granted, Ace Attorney Investigations does follow much of the formula previous Ace Attorney games had, but the biggest surprise for series fans is that each of the game's five mysteries are not solved in the midst of a courtroom battle, but at the crime scenes themselves, often within hours of the crime's occurrence. Phoenix and Apollo would go to crime scenes after the initial police investigation, look for clues and talk to witnesses, but always return to the courtroom for intense cross examination sequences. Miles, conversely, canvases crime scenes alongside the police force, gathering clues, figuring things out and getting into on-the-spot, informal cross examinations that play just as if he were in court. The difference is Miles only has to break a criminal's will and force a confession, while previous games made victory seem to hinge upon not only breaking a criminal down but also convincing the prosecution and judge. Not seeing a criminal legally declared guilty or innocent by a judge does remove some of the gravitas of solving mysteries-- something feels less finished as Miles goes from case to case-- but Miles seems much more a part of the world he's investigating and is frequently put in harm's and suspicion's way more often than Phoenix or Apollo were.

Also, the cases Miles faces are anything but simple. The first case-- a shocking murder in Miles' own office-- is rather brief and a bit of a tutorial, but each subsequent case becomes more complicated, and the final case, as expected for the Ace Attorney series, is lengthy and full of plot twists as good as any other Ace Attorney mystery. The best part is that all the cases, whether concerning a smuggling ring or a mysterious Robin Hood of evidence, are intertwined, and seeing how everything ties together is incredibly satisfying. Like many movies and television series today, the cases are not presented chronologically, instead jumping forward and backward in time, yet the order is perfect for putting everything into a logical sequence while also showing that someone as dry, haughty and egocentric as Miles can actually have a small bit of character growth. Gamers will even see how much better a person Miles has become when given the treat of seeing him involved in one of the first murder mysteries he ever got caught up within, many years ago.

While Ace Attorney Investigations is the second Ace Attorney game made from the ground up for DS (all the Phoenix Wright games were GBA ports), it doesn't have all the visual splash Apollo Justice had. A smaller amount (over half) of the evidence is presented as 3D models that can be spun around and examined from multiple angles, and there aren't any FMV cut scenes, either. Nevertheless, Ace Attorney Investigations is the first in the franchise to actually represent all the game's characters-- both intrinsic to the case and non-essential-- as large, animated sprites that walk around the game's hand-painted environments. The sprites don't have the detail of the beautifully designed and animated character portraits that appear during conversations and cross examinations, but they go a long way in making the Ace Attorney world feel more alive. Previous games featured a "pseudo-first person" perspective that seldom had any humans represented on the screen until a conversation began; gamers would just tap points of interest in a scene to look for a clue. Miles actually has to walk around to places of interest to inspect them. While this is a bit more time consuming, it feels right. Just don't waste your time trying to move him around with the incredibly clunky touch screen interface: using the D-pad and face buttons is much more efficient, especially since the game tends to be picky about Miles facing a precise angle before he will notice an item.

Miles' story and gameplay is also a bit less supernatural than the extrasensory abilities Phoenix and Apollo flaunted. Instead of relying on a mystical amulet or microscopic body language observations, Miles works with logic. As he investigates a scene and gathers physical evidence, he'll also make mental notes of important details-- sometimes as many as six will be collected at once. Then, to move things along, tapping the "logic" button will present all these thoughts in a cloud: by tapping a pair of clues that are logically related and tapping the "connect" button, Miles will draw a new conclusion that gives him new ammo to interrogate a suspect with, or move to the next scene. A "deduce" element has also been added to Miles' abilities: when investigating a portion of a crime scene up close, he can point out a detail that is related or contradictory to a piece of evidence he has. These new types of gameplay, while not as mystical as Phoenix's or Apollo's, help gamers feel they're a part of the logical deduction process and not just a shepherd of it.

That's not to suggest there isn't a lot of passive reading as each mystery unravels. As with every Ace Attorney game, Miles' tale lives and moves solely by its conversations and inner monologues. Aside from gathering clues and coming to conclusions in his head, Miles must also get into conversations and full-on testimony/cross-examination/rebuttal sequences like Phoenix and Apollo did in the courts. Each statement made by an interviewee can be pressed for more detail, and by presenting the "right" evidence at the "right" sentence in a testimony, Miles can reveal a lie or misunderstanding, which sometimes leads to a new testimony, a new scene or all-out breakdown and confession.

All this plays out via dialogue appearing letter-by-letter, often at different speeds to represent characters' speech patterns. Most of the 12 - 16 hours of Ace Attorney Investigations will be spent devouring these lengthy interchanges as they tick across the screen. And what makes this far from arduous is the brilliant localization and the constantly animated portraits, full of countless expressions and physical movements as the dialogue dictates. The mysteries alone are well crafted and seldom predictable, but the characters participating in them are as engaging as they ever have been, thanks to both what they say and how they're acted out. Further, while playing of previous Ace Attorney games is not at all mandatory here as it was with the Phoenix Wright sequels, long time fans will be delighted by the number of returning characters both in significant and cameo roles.

The main weakness in the game is the same as previous Ace Attorney titles: sometimes, the game's idea of "logic" and the gamer's are at odds. A certain piece of evidence may make abundant sense to present against a suspicious statement, but it won't be what the game wants you to do. So, your life bar on the top of the screen will lose a chunk, and if you continue to make "incorrect" leaps of logic the game will end. Fortunately, the life bar is refilled after major investigations are completed, and the game can be saved at nearly any time, but the trial and error nature of randomly presenting evidence to progress can occur more times than would be liked.

Also, while offering plenty of hours of gameplay, once Ace Attorney Investigations ends, it does so with a degree of finality. A gamer could replay a previously solved case if desired, but there's no incentive to do so as there's no point system in play. Were there some kind of scoring, it'd be interesting to find out how much of the dialogue had been seen, or how many times the wrong evidence was presented before getting things right. On the presentation side, considering how fantastic the artwork is that embellishes this game, an art gallery of scenes, concept art and character portraits would be welcome after finishing the game. Ace Attorney Investigations also has yet another terrific soundtrack (an ongoing staple of Ace Attorney games) that is at times Mega Man and at times an unforgettable mash of piano and strings augmented by electric guitar, sax or even accordion-- being able to listen to a jukebox of these great tracks once all the cases were solved would also be welcome.

Alas, we can't have it all-- maybe in the next game. In the meantime, we have Miles' adventure, and it's just as fun as its predecessors, even without the ticker-tape celebrated, gavel-pounded verdicts Phoenix and Apollo got. Newcomers to the series will be well-treated if jumping into the series at this game, and long time fans will also be immensely satisfied, left only with a wonder of who will headline the next sequel that cannot come too soon.

8.0/10