i recently played through the whole Ace Attorney series for the DS. the last two games were imo a bit of a letdown, apparently contrary to the general concensus.
phoenix wright: ace attorney (1) & justice for all (2) & trials and tribulations (3)- i have the first one on my phone as well, and i've played through it several times. it doesn't technically really have that much replay value but it's a fantastic game of a very uncommon genre so i've kept coming back to it. i want to outline here that i never expected even liking the game before i tried it, so i recommend this for anyone with a DS or iphone... if it sounds even somewhat interesting, you'll probably like it.
all the cases in the individual games are often somehow connected in clever ways. the execution, generic atmosphere, characters and the music all work really well. figuring things out in the game gets really addictive and is really fun when you get the hang of it. out of these three, i think the second game is the weakest link, but in no way bad. 9/10
apollo justice: ace attorney - it's of the same type as the first three games but with the change of the protagonist. the graphics look somewhat better but all in all the mechanics are the same. the game gets better towards the end when things start clicking in place, but the first two cases, notably the second, weren't too amazing and even sort of lame at times. somehow, this game is really happy-go-lucky compared to the other games by the music and characters. perhaps the intention was to try and reach for younger players. now i'm not saying that the rest of the series would be dark, but they sometimes have surprisingly dark themes, characters and events which give some of the situations a lot of impact. this game just... doesn't have it. it was entertaining to play through and it tells you the story of phoenix wright's later life though which alone makes it worth playing if you like the other games. 7/10
miles edgeworth - ace attorney investigations - this game is completely set outside courtrooms, which i never grew completely comfortable with since the courtroom parts were my clear favorites in the previous games. this game sets phoenix wright's prosecuting opponent miles edgeworth as the protagonist, which is a cool character to play. overall though, it seemed like the writer team had changed or something, possibly the whole dev team, and the game never reached true authenticity to the series in my eyes. i played it through, but i probably won't play it again. 4/10
