Objection! Ace Attorney Titles

"Objection!"  The famous pointer finger thrust!

This past week, I got to spend a good amount of time playing the most recent Ace Attorney title, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.  The series focuses on titular attorney, Phoenix Wright (featured above), and his experiences (which, per its Japanese origins, unsurprising involve a half dozen under-age girls) in defending the innocent from vindictive, perfectionist, whip-happy, coffee-addled prosecutors.

The first three titles, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, start with a crash in the murder of Phoenix's mentor, Mia.  Phoenix defends her younger sister, Maya, who is framed as the murderer.  Framing is an intense motif with the series, whether it be Phoenix's best friend, Larry Butz, or even his rival (or friend?), Miles Edgeworth.

Detective Gumshoe, the cutest detective ever.

The series also greatly utilizes the notion of spirit mediums, particularly Maya and her young cousin, Pearl.  This fun supernaturalism really completes the overall un-seriousness of the series.  It's goofy fun at its best, especially when Maya channels her dead sister to enhance her bust in order to get a witness to spill the beans.  A story mechanism, the Magatama, also allows you to "unlock" the secrets of people's hearts to better find the truth.

The end of the initial trilogy is some of the best interactive fiction I've had the opportunity to play through.  The conclusion of each episode is incredibly dramatic and heart-warming.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney follows the series with Apollo Justice, a young new attorney who ends up working for the now unemployed Wright and his "daughter" Trudy.  Justice has an ability to sense people's lies using a special bracelet.  The story only briefly keeps with the original trilogy, but continues to be good fun.  This game in particular makes great use of the DS touchscreen by completing scientific tasks (finger print analysis, luminol testing, etc.).

Apollo Justice, a.k.a. Herr Forehead.

Another joy of the series is the music and sound effects.  During pivotal court scenes, the music becomes incredibly dramatic to the point of raising my heart rate, and both your character and current prosecutor will shout out "Objection!" to indicate a turnabout in the case.  The "voice acting," such as it is (the few one word shouts) is actually brilliant.

Finally, the most recent title released (and why I started this epic review in the first place) focuses on Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix's first rival prosecutor.  This game is a significant departure from the original games as you actually move Miles through third person crime scenes.  Also unlike the other games, there is no courtroom drama, instead rebuttals about Edgeworth's logic play out, requiring you to use evidence in order to find the truth.

Edgeworth, and his weird ruffle thing.

All in all, the series is a blast, especially if you're into interactive fiction.  The first three games are incredibly difficult to find, even at GameStop, but they are available on Virtual Console for the Wii.

Want!: Pokemon Black/White

Just about every so often, I remember my first experience into the world of Pokemon: the highly addictive narcotic of handheld video games.   My great friend Wyett had given me his copy of Pokemon Crystal, having accidentally destroyed his game file.  I was enraptured with raising my precious Chikorita to power and finding all sorts of other cute/creepy monsters to play by my side.

I was fortunate that it was almost time for a new iteration of the series, Ruby/Sapphire to be released for the GBA.  Since then, I've been hooked by the series, picking up a rehash of Red/Green for the GBA, and even convincing my husband to play Diamond/Pearl with me!  The fourth generation, however, seemed to be the end of me.  Despite to joy of exploring a new world (and yet more of the damned creatures), I was becoming wary of the new facade on an old game.  I didn't even beat the Final Four, bringing shame to my household.

And then HeartGold/SoulSilver came out.  It was a remake of the first Pokemon game I'd ever played, with Gen IV graphics and an exciting perephiral device that allowed my Pokemon to level as I walked around in the mortal coil!  I was instantly back into complicated breeding schedules, and IV calculations (all in time to spectacularly take 4th place in our work Pokemon tournament), like I had never left them!  A Pokemon fanatic!  Nothing could strip me of my love for my carefully raised Forretress.  Go, Lulz: use Spikes!

Shortly thereafter, Black/White was announced - a whole new, Fifth Generation.  I was incredibly disiniterested at first.  The excitement of HG/SS was more nostalgiac than anything.  I wasn't really ready for another Pokemon game.

However, as the date of March 5 approaches, the saliva in my mouth froths.  I am genetically anticipatory of a new Pokemon game.  I scour the internet for images of what might be my next companion.  And this sudden flood of interest is what qualifies me to put Pokemon Black/White in the Want! column.  At a pricetag of $35, it's not all that expensive for a new game, but I might have to settle for actually beating Diamond/Pearl before justifying a shovel out for it right now...