Sunday, April 6, 2008

Apollo Justice : Ace Attorney

I'm on the last episode of Apollo Justice : Ace Attorney, and it's gotten very difficult. But, this last case is starting to have that epic feel that the last case in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney : Trials and Tribulations did. There's a larger meta-plot going on behind the scenes and I can't wait to see how it all ties together.

There are several innovations in Apollo Justice, it being the first Ace Attorney game designed for the DS. The three Phoenix Wright games were all designed for the Game Boy Advance over in Japan, and were ported to the DS here. Some of these innovations turned up in the first one, in a bonus episode specifically designed for the DS game.

These innovations include filling in footprints with plaster and taking a casting, dusting for fingerprints, and using an X-ray scanner to read letters inside an envelope, all done with the touch screen. In addition, Apollo Justice wears a bracelet that gives him the ability to "perceive" subtle things about people giving testimony - nervous habits and the like that give away the fact that they're hiding something. Using this ability creates some psychedelic effects on the screen around the witness that are just amazing.

Also amazing in the third case was a fully animated video segment of a singer's performance, used as evidence, but so very well done that I had to watch it a few extra times. It's not that this series needed any new features or innovation - I would probably keep playing them if it was just more of the same - but it's welcome nonetheless. Hopefully future games featuring Apollo Justice (one is rumored to be in the works in Japan) will continue with these types of advances.

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