Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Written by Kris Rosado  on February 17, 2008

Hands-On Preview: There's a new Ace Attorney in town and we join him in his first trial.

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Debuting later this week (Wednesday in fact), is the latest chapter in the Ace Attorney series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. All glimpses so far point to this one being played out exactly the same as the last one with one notable trademark change to the series? Phoenix Wright will no longer be our man.

Instead of the pointy-haired defense attorney (who still be making small appearances), all of the court room drama is left in the hands of a rookie defense attorney, Apollo Justice.



In the hands-on demo we played, Apollo Justice was gearing up for his first case; which was (you guessed it!) a murder case. Seems that someone was a sore loser at poker and killed a man with a grape juice bottle. The scene opens up in the familiar lobby of the courthouse where Apollo is ?psyching? himself up mentally. He is then greeted by his own mentor, a man named Kristoph Gavin. After some dialogue exchange and Apollo announcing himself as the ?the new Ace Attorney in town?, we meet the defendant. Who is later revealed to be none other than Phoenix Wright.

We also learn the prosecutor for this case is none other then Winston Payne, the man who was basically cannon fodder in the previous Ace Attorney games. While not much has changed about Payne's wit, he sure has grown out his hair.

We then entered the hands-on attorney work pressing and presenting evidence to the suspect's testimony. Fans of the series will be happy to know that the mechanics of the game are the same as the last two incarnations. While this is a little disappointing, it just goes to prove that the Ace Attorney games are all about the fine writing, which this one still incorporates.

Unfortunately, the demo was rather short and that is all we learned about the game. We do know that there will be a new cast of characters including the magician sidekick of Apollo Justice: Trucy Wright. Ema Skye will also be returning to the series as Apollo's contact in the police department, for those of you who have forgotten who Ema Skye is, I recommend replaying the first Phoenix Wright game.

There will also be the addition of ?Crime Recreation Mode? which will allow players to prove theories on crimes by altering the crime scene via a map, much in the same vein as when Phoenix had to point to a specific location on a picture. Though at this time we have not tested this new application, we do look forward to some presence of innovation.