A game about the world of law may seem like strange territory for Capcom to tread but do not be fooled, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is one of the most anticipated DS games of the year and it is quite simply brilliant.

So, is this a game that only the law students will want to get their hands on? Absolutely not. You don’t need to know a thing about courtroom procedure, cross-examination or law itself. In fact, the game takes some massive liberties with legal procedure. I don’t know that much about law but I’m pretty sure some law students will be surprised by how easy it is to acquire a case and always find the killer. Regardless, the result is an addictive, challenging and often laugh-out-loud legal adventure.

Ace Attorney Investigations is actually a spinoff game of the very popular Phoenix Wright series but you don’t need to have played the previous games to understand the plot of this one. It makes very little reference to the events of the original three games that centred on Phoenix Wright, Edgeworth’s rival, with the exception of some cameo appearances of characters from the original game. I can guarantee you, however, that after you’ve played this game you will be buying the other Phoenix Wright games!

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is separated into five distinct chapters, each concerned with a different case that Edgeworth unfortunately always becomes wound up in. In each case there is a murder, multiple suspects and it’s up to you to figure it out. As the game progresses the cases become longer, more challenging and eventually all come together to reveal a dark, sinister and very dramatic plot.

Essentially, Ace Attorney Investigations is your typical ‘point and click’ game. You investigate crime scenes and search for clues that will lead you to the killer’s identity by controlling Edgeworth across the scenery and using the DS stylus to zoom in on anything suspicious to gather evidence. Unlike other DS games, Ace Attorney Investigations makes full use of the stylus and dual screen function. You also get the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses and suspects by pressing their statements and presenting evidence at a contradiction. These are the key words you will need whilst playing this game: ‘evidence’, ‘contradiction’ and, of course, ‘objection’!

Like all other DS games, Ace Attorney Investigations comes with a fanciful soundtrack. Obviously, it’s not as wonderfully high quality as it would be on a console such as the PS3 but it sets the mood of the game very well. As might be expected, the important characters have their own theme tunes and as you get closer to the truth and press witnesses for more information, the music becomes faster paced and somehow manages to get the player more exited as well. There’s no feeling sweeter than solving a mystery (or, perhaps that’s just me) and Ace Attorney proves that with its soundtrack of all things.

The characters deserve a mention of their own because Ace Attorney Investigations has a wonderfully colourful cast, most of them with rather bizarre costumes. The prize for this obviously goes to Edgeworth himself, who seems to have stepped straight out of the Victorian era with those ruffles. Having said that, he is wonderfully British and the sort of cold prosecutor you wouldn’t actually mind sending you to prison. Along with him are Detective Dick Gumshoe, a somewhat bumbling but loyal accomplice, Kay Faraday, the stereotypical teen sidekick, Franziska von Karma, German prodigy prosecutor equipped with a whip (see for yourself) and Shi-Long Lang, Interpol agent and Edgeworth’s rival. As you can probably guess, Ace Attorney Investigations is full of humorous stock names.

So, how does Investigations measure up? In Japan it was the second best-selling DS game last year, having been beaten only by Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (part of the massive JRPG series), but, more importantly, the choice of Edgeworth as main character has been wonderfully pulled off and is true to the original series. If you’ve heard of the Phoenix Wright series, you’ve probably already bought Ace Attorney Investigations, but if you have never heard of its predecessors, don’t worry because Ace Attorney Investigations is very inviting for new players and just as riveting. Expect to be buying the rest of the series after completing this, though!

Published on page 19 of the Core in Volume 32, Issue 10.