Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games had not appealed to me before, but after playing the fourth game in the series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS, I can see some of the attraction. The game is less of a traditional game and more of an animated graphic novel. My review of the game has been published over at Kombo.
The best thing about Apollo Justice is its intriguing storyline. Set seven years after the previous game in the series, the story begins with Apollo's first day in court and the charges against Phoenix Wright. As the game unfolds players will learn about the new Justice character and figure out what happened to Wright between games that led him to fall from talented attorney to bar pianist. Other supporting characters come in and out of the plot to provide new clues or just general exposition.
A Kombo reader called into question whether or not I'd actually played the game based on my comments about heavy use of the DS's microphone to call out things like "Hold it!" to advance the gameplay in places. Apparently it's possible to pull off the same commands with buttons instead of shouting. This is the kind of thing I miss out on when I review games without an instruction manual. The game prompted me to use the mic, so I ran with that. I don't care much for the accusation ("Objection!"), but it's always good to seek out more information when something in an article doesn't seem to add up. I wish now that I'd known about the button options when I was playing the game. I'd have received fewer odd looks and reactions while defending my client.
