*spoilers included*

I might have been looking forward to this game for a while. I might have been threatening to import the Japanese version (and launch an attempt at the world Fastest 0 - Fluent Japanese record). There might also have been gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts when the release date was set back a week. As I say, I might have been anticipating this title a little.

For those unfamiliar with the first three titles in the Phoenix Wright/ Ace Attorney series, they really don't sound like blockbuster games. A strange combination of manga, law simulation and comedy, the best way to summarise these games are as interactive novels and accordingly if you're the sort of person who doesn't want to spend 80% of the game reading then these games aren't going to do a great deal for you. A "Sonic the Hedgehog" stylee adrenaline rush these games ain't. It also means that once the ganmes are complete there is next to no replay value at all. What they are, however, is fabulously entertaining with characters that really get under the skin. Rumour has it that the only reason Miles Edgeworth was included in all three Phoenix Wright games was due to the *ahem* admiration that Japanese ladies had for him. People get mighty attached to these characters.

This is onprevious ace of the first worries I had with this game. Although from the same stable and same "setting", only a select few characters make it into this game, of which the most significant is Phoenix Wright himself - and even he is very different to the Phoenix we've come to know and love. Do the new roster of characters compare? The answer is an emphatic yes. The characters are bold, colourful, funny, touching and dastardly and a huge part of this is achieved through what are ultimately pretty short and reasonably basic animations well done on fixed backgrounds. There are some small changes. As mentioned before, Phoenix has developed into a very different character and even the adorable Judgey has become more intelligent (albeit not that much more... but he's also much, much funnier. The number of laugh out loud moments I had to explain to my Dear Beloved was getting a little embarassing).

The scriptwriters have also managed to maintain the quality of the cases. Whilst initially I was unsure about this game, it quickly reaches full speed and by the final case your jaw will be dropping for the mother of all revelations. Lateral thinkers everywhere, and those who still hold a candle for Lucasart point and click adventures will have a field day with the cases, working out apparently impossible scenarios.

The music is a little bit of a let down in context. It never really reaches the heady heights of the previous games (Steel Samurai anyone?) and for those who loved those games, you should look into the orchestral versions. There are no classics to add to the roster but this still offers a better than most soundtrack regardless, that suits the tone of the game perfectly.

I think the best summary I can offer is that, like the previous three games before them, this game took up my every waking free moment for about three weeks until I had completed it. And I loved every minute of it.

Basics:

* 4 episodes
* Approx 20 hours gameplay
* New scientific tools for the investigation phase, including fingerprinting, foot print taking, luminol testing and a weird xray machine for reading the contents of letters within envelopes which noone seems to know what it's called.

Graphics: 7 - Basic, but imaginatively executed.
Scripting: 10 - Baby, why else do we play this? Laugh out loud moments, tears, shock s and revelations - it's like a Mexican soap opera.
Gameplay: 9.5 - It'd get a full 10 if only it wouldn't be so damn anal retentive about missing irrelevant evidence - but this is few and far between.
Music: 8.5 - Very good. Just not the previous games.