So I saw this game I wanted to play on the iPhone, made by Capcom, called “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.”

It’s a port from the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, originally released in Japan in 2001, and then in 2005 for the Nintendo DS.  It’s one of those adventure games that reminds me of Deja Vu on the NES — the evolution of point-and-click adventures that evolved from the old text-adventures that came before it.

I basically like the game, but abhor the interface.  It appears that Capcom took the DS version and ported it to the iPhone with as little work as possible. I cannot compare this to the original, as I have never heard of the DS version until last month. That said, the controls on the iPhone seem clunky and slow. They require too many taps to get things done. Also (I’ve made it to Episode Three), traveling to different locations leaves a lot to be desired.

Plot:

You play Phoenix Wright, rookie trail lawyer. He begins the game at Fey & Co. Law Offices, successfully defending longtime friend Larry Butz as his first case. But after the tragic death of the owner of the law firm in Episode Two, Wright is put on trial. He successfully defends himself and becomes the lead (and only) attorney for the new Wright & Co. Law Offices. Apparently, the rest of the game is just more trials. Mia Fey, the original owner of the firm, is dead, and her sister Maya — a spirit medium who channels Mia in times of great need — becomes his assistant.

By the way, every single character in this game except for Wright (whom you play) is pretty much a whack job. So far, anyway, it seems that the only sane characters are Wright and the Judge. This makes for a great game for a ten-year old. At my age, it’s just a nostalgia for when I was ten and played games like this until bedtime.

Gameplay:

Here’s where the game turns into something of an interactive Perry Mason movie. Phoenix Wright is like a combination defense attorney/private investigator. Gameplay is broken down into two phases: court and investigation.

Before the trial, Wright ventures out of the office to investigate the case (except in Episode One, which takes place entirely in the courtroom). He questions witnesses and other people who are in some way related to the crime, and finds clues along the way.  All of the clues equate to evidence that he can use in court to prove his case, and therefore prove his client (or himself, in Episode Two) innocent.

The courtroom is where all the “action” is. Witness testimony is given, and then torn apart by Wright so many times that you wish all courtrooms were like this. Obnoxiously brash, “Objections!” fly from the little iPhone speaker! “Take that!” Complete with anime-style explosive dialogue exclamations. You present the evidence found in the investigation phase, or press the witness for more information (or to reveal lies). It’s great. Seriously, I could play the entire game like this.

More specifically, here’s how it works.

The prosecutor calls the witness, who gives their testimony of the event, incriminating the defendant in the process. Then the testimony is played back line by line as part of the cross-examination. At any point during cross, Wright can interrupt the testimony to press the witness or present your evidence. This goes on for several rounds through each witness, until Wright either wins the case, or court adjourns for the day.

But watch out! Or, rather . . .

Take care in what you do before the court! All mistakes can be held against you in this game. Wright gets what looks like five exclamation points to represent the “health meter.” Present the wrong piece of evidence (or at the wrong time) and the judge will take away an exclamation point. Once all five are gone, you can bet it’s game over.

Graphics/Sound:

The sound is a direct port from the GBA, and the graphics appear to be on par with said technology. Beautiful VGA-rendered anime drawings of the characters stand proud, cower in fear, flaunt assets, and lash out in anger. OK maybe there’s only 64 onscreen colors but it’s still a nostalgic feel for the 90′s when games were simpler, and you had to read what everyone said instead of listen to voice actors. And I love the Japanese anime music that rattles by whenever Wright is about to bring the case crashing down. The sound effects are like a classic anime, too. The witness flashes surprise — literally flashes, as the screen pops to white and fades back in — as their calm facade is sliced away — literally sliced, as Ninja Gaiden sound effects cut through the music just as their tiny pixelated eyes shoot wide.

Sure, you can have full orchestras playing the theme and background music, and but that’s when it feels like an interactive movie and not a game. When you have a 32-bar loop using PCM synth, you know you’ve taken a step back about 10 years, and you just have to love it. This may be my love for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World talking, but these old games have such a charm to them (even though this one is barely ten years old) that it’s very hard to dislike the game.

Controls:

Here’s where I want to throw something at the programmers. As I had said, this game is a direct port from the DS. Your iPhone screen is split across the middle, where all of the dialogue occurs on the top half, and all control happens on the bottom half.  Instead of using your stylus on the bottom screen, you tap your finger everywhere along the bottom half of the screen to control the action.

And this is the main gripe I have with the game.

The DS game seems to have been designed pretty well, but when you bring it to a new platform, you should really take advantage of its strengths, not develop to keep the strengths of the old platform. The DS and iPhone 4 are not the same thing, by any stretch of the thought. Dual-screen setup shrinks the viewing area and the control area so much that investigation mode is so much of a chore, especially when examining the scene. Big, fat, clunky fingers such as mine cannot get the precision of a tiny, almost pin-like stylus, and the developers didn’t bother giving you the entire screen to work with.

Little animation techniques done to make the game look cool and fluid on the DS are just slow and unnecessary on the iPhone, plus it could take you five taps (okay, four and a swipe) to perform one action which should take three or less. Granted, this wouldn’t be such a big deal if you didn’t have to wait for each animation frame to finish.

I mean, maybe it’s been a while since I’ve played old-school video games, and maybe I’ve been spoiled by the UX that goes into games made today, but come on! A little bit less old-school and a little bit more ease-of-control would be nice.

Overall:

I do like the game a lot. The best parts are the courtroom.  They’re so good that the investigative phase seems like a . . . . The best way to describe the game is like a freight train. In the court room, you’re on the freight train, conducting it with speed and agility. During the investigation, it’s like you’re in that car, waiting for the freight train (which is now going about 2mph) to finally cross the road.

I feel like this would be a solid DS game, but on the iPhone . . . well, not so much.

Rating: 4/5