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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
by Chloboshoka
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an unusual roleplaying game released by Capcom. The first three of the series where originally released for the Gameboy advance in Japan. Because the games where a success, they where re-released for the DS with an extra case and met with some critical and commercial acclaim. The game has also been ... released as an Ipod Touch App.
Out of all the formats it's been released for, the DS is the most suitable because. the game takes full advantage of the consol's controls, microphone, double screen and touch screen. Using the touch screen to investigate crime scenes, talking to witnesses, presenting evidence and using the microphone to object. Saving is a bit tedious, where you have to pause what your doing and quit the game to save.
The game centres around Phoenix Wright working on his first five cases which includes the death of his mentor, Mia Fey, meeting his old-school-friend-turned-rival, Miles Edgeworth and joining forces with Maya Fey. The English version is set in California while the original Japanese games is set in Japan, so fans like to merge the two locations together and call it Japanifornia. Phoenix's task is to prove his clients are innocent of their crime to a corrupt court and also discover the true culprit behind the crime. His cases often involve murder.
One of my main critisms for the second case is that they just arrest Maya just because her name is written in blood. They don't even show a motive. They just try to make the most out of what evidence they have because it's guilty until proven innocent. If you're going to arrest someone for murdering their sibling, you need to figure out a motive.
I also find the first case far too easy. Even though its a strong tutorial presence, I thought revealing who the killer was before we even started spoilt the case for me. I think we should discover it for ourselves to make it more mysterious.
I really like the anime style of the games because it's colourful and the sprite actions seem to flow really well. The anime styles blend with the backgrounds. Since I like the manga style, I consider it really visually stunning because it makes full use of the DS' graphics capacity. The music is very decent, I prefer the music from the sequels, but the music here isn't too bad either. I think it's catchy and it suits the atmosphere of the game.
The gameplay itself is very text reliant. I think this help makes the game stand out and bring out unique features that other roleplay games may not have, but at a price. When I'm in court stages, I feel like I'm reading a visual novel because the graphics are so colourful. On the first gameplay the text is really slow but once you've played it twice you can speed the text up.
So sometimes I feel like I'm not playing a game, I feel like I'm watching a movie or reading a highly illustrated novel. The game is really long but it hasn't got a lot of replay value because you know what's going to happen so it's not so good the second time around.
I really love the plot twists and characters here even some of the minor characters such as the murder victims were interesting. Cases 4 and 5 are my favourite from the game because they where fun, unpredictable and also intense.
If I could my favourite moments in the game, it would have to be the breakdowns in the courtroom. After all your objections, questioning and presenting evidence it all comes to down to ridiculous, over-the-top mental breakdowns. So overall, it's a very good game. I think the sequels are a lot better in quality, plot, characters and suspense. I would recommend the game if you're looking for an unusual and wacky DS game that contains a crazy but lovable community fanbase.
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Lifesigns: Hospital Affairs (DS)
by kat1234
I bought Lifesigns:Hospital Affairs for my DS as it seemed to be a mixture of the game types that I enjoy - puzzles and the 'real life' where you take control of a character and follow their life.
STORY
The game is set in a hospital and you become a young intern, keen to practice his new skills and impress his ... bosses. You need to interact with other members of staff to gain clues to help you along your way as well as exam, diagnose and treat patients. There are clues to collect and solve as well as social interaction.
PLAYING THE GAME
Control of the game is most often using the stylus and tapping on the screen. For operations etc, you have to use the stylus precisely and draw zig-zags and circles and perform stitches. You have to select which room in the hospital you go to next and talk to whoever is in there and offer answers to their questions by using the clues that you have already collected. It can be difficult working out what you need to say to whom sometimes and this affects your progress in the game.
To diagnose a patient you have to perform tasks such as listening to the heartbeat, breathing and examining wounds. The controls are simple and easy to understand and pick up.
MY OPINION
Personally, I find the game really slow paced. There is far too much dialogue to work through and it can sometimes be ages before you actually get to do anything in the game. It can feel like you are just reading through a story at times. When you do actually get to do something, diagnosing a patient can be a challenge - this is good because I don't want a game that I can simply work through without thinking,but equally can be bad if you get stuck because there are no extra help options and you find yourself going round in circles.
Operations can be tricky but they are not difficult. By this I mean that you are completely walked through the procedures and not left to figure anything out for yourself. For example 'stitch here' and the position that stitches need to be placed are marked. You then simply have to trace over this with the stylus. Where it becomes tricky is that the DS does not always recognise where you have placed the tip of the stylus or you have not pinpointed the exact position you need to be in.
Another thing that I find frustrating about the game is that it is divided into chapters. Each are quite lengthy and involve a lot of dialogue. There are only certain places in the game that your progress will be saved from. Therefore, if you need to stop playing you either have to continue to the next save point or lose all your progress since the last one. Also, if you go wrong somewhere, for example a patient dies on the operating table, the chapter is restarted. This means you have to work through all the dialogue again - boring.
All in all, I would say there are better games out there that offer similar things. This one takes a lot of perseverance with and I could not see many younger children having the patience for this. There is no real excitement to the game nor any great challenge, it has not held my interest at all.
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