Here's some good news for those folks who've yet to hear of the Ace Attorney series. Capcom is now working with Daletto to port the three Gyakuten Saiban games for play on the PC.

Instead of selling a full game, however, they'll be cutting each game up into episodes for the player to go through. More on this after the jump!

 

First off, I am not a big fan of courtroom drama. And I do admit, I feel as if sitting through courtroom scenes in movies is just about as engrossing as watching a fresh coat of paint dry up on the wall. I've always found it boring. So what happens when a copy of Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney finds itself lodged in the court record of QJ blogger Gino's DS slot-1? Addiction, that's what. (Oh, and new video game character crushes, too)

Prior to actually getting to play the game, I always thought Phoenix Wright was a total joke. Lawyer-sim; who'd've thunk? Japan is known to come up with the silliest games anyway - with a certain few of those titles actually sending waves of interest in the market. This game is one of them, leaving throngs of gamers clamoring for more in its wake.

The object[ION!] of the game is simple: use your head. You play as the ace attorney himself, Phoenix Wright ("Nick" as some would fondly call him) and go through cases to prove your client "Not Guilty." Every case in the game (with exception to the first one, where you're shown the ropes of lawyer legalese and courtroom jargon), will start with investigation and will lead up to the the actual court scenes of witness testimonies and cross-examinations.

So, what is the verdict? We talk more about proverbial boxes, addictions and obsessions, pwnage by an oldbag, pop culture, frying pans, l33t sp3ak, and a certain Dick. Check out more of the evidence right behind the "Full Article" link!

 Capcom has a contest up wherein they're asking folks to use the comic panels and the talk bubbles they've provided and plead their case why Capcom should bring Ace Attorney 3 to America.

The deadline for the contest is March 1, 2007, and the three winners should be able to get themselves a bunch of Phoenix Wright-themed swag, including the nice figure you see on the right.

We're thinking that this is either a weird way to test if there's enough demand to warrant an American release, or it's a rather nice, gamer-friendly way of hyping up their game. Contest details, contest materials, and instructions are to be had via our "read" link below.

And so, after having been made to wait for quite long enough, the European release date for Capcom's DS game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (a.k.a. Gyakuten Saiban 2, if you're picky about it), has finally been pinned down to March 16.

So, with your hands on this game, you can finally start practicing your lawyer suave and logic in four different cases which our attorney-in-the-blue-suit has to handle. Either that, or you can start rehearsing your utterly convincing rendition of Phoenix's trademark "Objection!" which you can use in case someone at HMV messes up your PS3 pre-order, or someone steals your spot in line during the imminent PS3 camp-out period.

Now, if only they'd release those Japanese Phoenix Wright goodies as well, then we'd really be able to announce it all as "case closed"...

In an interview with C3 News the development team of Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All mentioned several things worth noting. First is that although they're very much interested in the Wii hardware, they currently have no plan for the series to appear on any other consoles apart from DS. Second is that Phoenix Wright: Justice for All will contain brand new episodes and it will be about the same volume as Ace Attorney. They said that they very much wanted the Western players to play a new game rather than just slog through another port of a game already released in Japan.

When it comes to the DS's Wi-Fi connection service, they did mention that they are interested in it, but they have no plans of adopting the service for the series. They said they'll let the gameplay of the series evolve first and focus on that before adopting online capabilities.

What really gets to me is that they mentioned that they'll be very honoured if they will be allowed to feature any of Nintendo's other famous characters in their Phoenix Wright games. This in particular just reminds me too much of Harvey Birdman Attorney at law. Much possible craziness.

As we reported earlier, an orchestrated soundtrack for Capcom's Gyakuten Saiban (the series we know as Phoenix Wright) is coming out in Japan. Nintendo's official website has some samples of the soundtrack, and it's absolutely beautiful. We're listening to some of them as we type this now and it's just awesome. Anyone who's played the first game will love it!

If you want to stream the songs from the website instead of downloading, click "Read" for the page with the tracks and scroll down to where it says "GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA". I can't wait for the actual soundtrack! The music is taken from the first three games in the series.

According to Angela Liu of NeoGAF, the English names of the songs are as follows:

Download: [Naruhodou's (Phoenix) Theme]
Download: [Ayasato (Fey) Theme]
Download: [GS1 Trial Mix]
Download: [Godot's Theme]
Download: [Village Remix]
Download: [Gyakuten Saiban 3 End Credits]
Download: [Hero Medley]

Pre-orders of Madden NFL 07 scores four touchdowns as they lead the pack of current best sellers in four out of seven platforms, while remaining in the top ten at numbers 2 and 8 in two others. Ranking first among games for PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, and Xbox, Madden edges out over tight competitors like Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus of Square Enix (PS2), Tekken: Dark Resurrection of Namco Bandai (PSP), Dead Rising by Capcom (Xbox 360), and Sid Meier's Pirates! by 2K (Xbox).

Nintendo superstars, however, are unstoppable with the Super Smash Bros. Melee dominating GameCube, while Madden has to content itself with only the number 2 spot. The New Super Mario Bros. continues its streak at number one in the DS chart with Brain Age, also from Nintendo, at number 2.

Two World of Warcraft titles meanwhile, invade the top two positions in MMORPG: World of Warcraft by Vivendi sits at number 1, while World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade exp. pack (pre-order), also by Vivendi, settles at number 2. Madden inches its way up slowly at number 8, while Nancy Drew: Danger by Design of Her Interactive loses grip of the top spot from last week to number four this week.

The top three games this week for PSP are: 1)  Madden NFL 07 (pre-order) - EA; 2) Tekken: Dark Resurrection - Namco Bandai; and 3) GTA: Liberty City Stories - Rockstar. For Xbox 360: 1) Madden NFL 07 (pre-order) - EA; 2) Dead Rising - Capcom, and 3) Madden NFL 07 Hall of Fame Ed. - EA.  In DS: 1) New Super Mario Bros. - Nintendo; 2) Brain Age - Nintendo, and 3) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney  (re-stock pre-order) - Capcom.

  

Phoenix Wright has been one of the most beloved franchises to appear on the Nintendo DS. Although the franchise has been going on for years in Japan, we never had a chance to experience it until last year. Now, in Japan, Capcom is getting ready to release an soundtrack full of orchestrated music from the game! The OST will feature two different covers depending on where you get it. If you buy it online at tanomi.com, it will feature the Fey sisters, Phoenix, and Harry Butz. If you get it at the Tokyo Game Show or buy it in retail stores, you'll get the cover with the prosecutors and police officers! The soundtrack will feature music from the first three games so it should be a hot buy!

Being a game developer might be the when-i-grow-up profession of choice for kids nowadays, (with all the parties developers are throwing, who wouldn't want to be?) but there was a time when we all dreamt of becoming either a doctor or a lawyer. If it came true for you, well and good. But if you decided to take on a different path, then you can relive your childhood dreams with the re-release of Trauma Center: Under the Knife and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Amazon.com has Atlus Software's Trauma Center: Under the Knife for $29.99 to be released on August 22, 2006. While, Capcom USA's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney gets released sooner at August 10, 2006 with the same price.

According to Bessatsu Young Magazine in Japan, Gyakuten Saiban (or what we know as Phoenix Wright) will be made into a manga! Mangas are what the Japanese call their comic books. The man in charge of the script will be Kenji Kuroda while Kazuo Maekawa will be in charge of the art. Remember that mangas are often the first step towards Anime. I would love to see a Phoenix Wright animated series! Speaking of which, Tales of Symphonia is getting an anime mini-series. It's not related to Phoenix Wright, but I figure many of you are ToS fans and we don't have a GameCube blog, so the news may please you!