On the other hand for some reason, you’ll find that most characters on the witness stand don’t change into that extremely agitated pose as you near the end of a court session. You’ll still get those unique shocked expressions once you find something contradictory but, you won’t see those complete contrasting evil looking angry faces. Pity because such transformations were fun to see and that’s probably one of the things that makes the previous cast a lot more memorable than the new one. Characters are still uniquely designed and animated such as a man with a bowl of noodles as his hair but a lot of the characters don’t make much of an impression. For example, Odoroki’s rival Kyouya snaps his fingers to a beat and plays his invisible electric guitar in court as if he doesn’t care if Odoroki wins the case or not. In contrast, in the previous cases you knew the prosecutors were there to bring Phoenix Wright down to his knees when you saw them.


At least the character designs are still pretty unique.
What’s also new is that crime scenes have now been modelled in 3D. Unfortunately, you don’t actually get to walk around in them when you’re out scouting for evidence. It’s still just the same old pixel hunting when you’re out doing that. These grey 3D models are only shown during court sessions as a reconstruction of the crime that took place and partly for you to point out where a suspect might have been from a top-down view. It’s still pretty interesting to watch compared to the old still flashback scene. Don’t worry though, cases still end with those illustrations when the culprit reveal their story. Besides that, you’ll find the developers have decided to use a number of short video clips. They’re not amusing to watch mind you, especially when they were shown countless times just like all the flashbacks!


Crimes scenes are now reconstructed in 3D.
Gyakuten Saiban 4 has an excellent story going with all the twists they’ve put into it but it seems they have concentrated too much on the past. Events that’s taken place over the 7 year gap is such a great focus in the game that it pretty much completely overshadows the new hero, Odoroki and the cases he takes on. Not much of a good start for our new protagonist. What’s more is that most of the new characters are missing the flare that made the old cast memorable such as all those strange and crazy reactions. For that reason, PW fans will probably miss the old gang as they play but, while the expanded forensics mini games and the new body language reading Minuku system won’t make up for it all, GS4 should still be an enjoyable experience.


I’m afraid there is no English option in this latest instalment of Ace Attorney. In the last two DS remakes, an English option was only added in as an incentive to Japanese players who already played the GBA games. Since the game depends heavily on text, you’ll have to go through a lot of trial and error if you want to make progress!

• Still have detailed 2D backgrounds.
  
• Better usage of the DS’ features such as 3D graphics and stylus.
  
• Interesting storyline with twists right from the start for PW fans.
  
• New “Minuku” system adds another level of depth to solving cases.
  
• New collection of mini games gives a break from the text reading.

• A few too many flashbacks.
  
• New cast of characters aren’t as memorable as previous ones.
  
• Link to the past overshadows the new hero.