The port looks super great, too

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney will be hitting the 3DS at the end of the month and the Japanese collector's package comes with a soundtrack CD. Included on that CD are some brand new songs based around the diffe?rent characters in the game, including the exceptional prosecutor Klavier Gavin. Capcom has uploaded some short clips to YouTube and they are definitely worth a watch.

If you don't fancy the music, at least you'll get a good look at how the new 3DS port compares to the DS original. That sprite work looks quite great and it actually makes me interested in picking up the Ace Attorney Trilogy alongside thi?s. I do think the original DS versions are mo??re than competent, though.

As a refresher, Apollo Justice will be hitting the 3DS eShop on November 21 in the US, November 22 in Japan and November 23 in Europe. Japan will also get the aforementioned collector's package, which does look nifty.

3DS『逆転裁判４』 MV 王泥喜法介(CV KENN) [YouTube]

3DS『逆転裁判４』 MV 牙琉響也(CV 楠田敏之) [YouTube]

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Excellence in a clamshell

The Nintendo 3DS is gradually being put out? to pasture, now that it's bulkier, flashier half-brother is taking over. We're bidding adieu to a console that had a pretty impressive back catalogue, and dominated the handheld market for a good number of years. 

But what if you're not ready to say goodbye? What if you want to get more use out of the little pocketbook marvel? Or what if you want to get an older console for the first time? Well, the 3DS is backwards compati?ble with the original DS's games, and if you never tried those out, then you're missing something special.

[For where to buy the games/hardware, I've linked to Amazon and eBa??y sellers, but that's not an endorsement for buying off of ??these sites – you might find better deals elsewhere.]

Hardware

If you're interested not only in playing your original DS games on your 3DS, but in actually getting some hardware, there are three different versions of the DS that you could purchase: the original DS, the DS Lite and the DSi.

I would recommend the DS Lite, as it is more elegant and compact than the unwieldy original. The DSi comes with an internal camera and very small selection of exclusive games, but is crucially missing the Game Boy Advance slot in the bottom of the console. It's your choice – between messing around with a by-now pretty low-grade camera, or opening yourself up to Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, just fo??r starters. I would ta?ke my pretty white DS Lite any day of the week.

The staples

I got a huge amount of use out of my DS Lite, and I still do today, because some of the more popular titles are replayable, distracting fun. One o?f my favourite aspects of the original DS is that the games were so whimsical; I value a game that can completely pull me out of any stress going on in my personal life.

As with a lot of consoles, the tit?les that are popular have earned that pos??ition due to their quality. There are six of these titles that I would recommend above any others.

1. Trauma Center: Under the Knife (Atlus, 2005)

This game came out around the time I started watching House, M.D. I'd always been fascinated by medical shows, whether it was catching snippets of ER as my parents watched it (I'm still haunted by the surgeon getting his arm chopped off by helicopter blades), or being warned not to run with scissors after watching a particularly grisly episode of Casualty with my grandma. Theme Hospital is als?o one of my favourite games of all time, so why not take the action a step further and actually remove lumps of tissue from patients' chest cavit??ies? Heck yes!

In Trauma Center, you conduct surgical examinations of patients and treat a range of illnesses and injuries that span the mundane to t?he outright bizarre. Frankly, only Atlus could make draining abscesses with a syringe this c?ompelling. Needless to say, it's not a game for people who flinch at the sight of cartoon pus, but it's hardly a gorefest, either. A sequel was released in North America and Japan (not an issue for us PALsters, since the DS, aside from DSi games, is region-free), but the original is absolutely worth giving a go first.

2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo EAD, 2006)

Getting back to the roots, how can you collect for a Ninty console and not buy a legitimate Mario platformer? Not including this one on the list would have raised a few eyebrows, and for good reason. New Super Mario Bros. is probably one of the more definitive entries to the Mario platforming series. It has very few quirks and twists, though it's undeniable that games that ran away with a theme, such as Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy, are some of the best games ever released for their respective consoles. It's just a simple box-headbutting platform game, which was invaluable for those of us who had long since consigned our Game Boys to the car boot sale. I think this and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins are the two entries I would give to someone if I wanted them to have an immersive experience with Mario games in a single afternoon.

3. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Capcom, 2007)

OK, I get it. Why pick a game from the Ace Attorney series and not go? with the real G, Mr Phoenix Wright? Did I not enjoy those games? Did Maya cast some sort of befuddlement hex on me?

No, I am deliberately selecting Apollo Justice above any of the originals, as great as they all are. I remember tearing through the Phoenix Wright games as an activity I did every year, when I went on holiday to Majorca with my family. All of the Ace Attorney games I've played (Justice for All, Trials and Tribulations, and Apollo Justice) have been equal parts taxing and fascinating. But Apollo Justice has the most interesting story, in my opinion.

Seeing a young upstart filling Phoenix's defence attorney big boots spoke to me more than being the loveable oaf, Phoenix, himself. Also, the storyline with Klavier Gavin pipped any of the prior ones to the post. I suppose if you want to understand the story properly, you should start right from the beginning and get the first Ace Attorney game. But if you're not the sort of person who minds jumping into a series halfway through, you will certainly enjoy Apollo Justice as your first entry. You don't have to dig around on eBay for a used DS cartridge, either – it's coming to 3DS via the eShop in November.

4. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Level-5, 2007)

I'll admit that this is a series I always borrowed off my sis?ter, rather than buying for myself – and one that even my fairly smart 15-year?-old brain had trouble with.

Any riddle aficionado will enjoy playing as the Professor as he investigates...well, a curious village, accompanied by his impossibly young assistant, Luke (Layton can expect truancy fines and court summons through his letterbox any time now). You hop from villager to villager, solving the puzzles that they are agonising over, some of which still leave me scratching my noggin. Rather than starting with the most recent iOS release, this is one series where I would advise going back to where it all began, simply because the conundrums have always been flawless. And you'll want to try every single one of them, once you've experienced the Curious Village.

5. Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD, 2005)

This title isn't actually the origins of the series. In this case, there had already been an Animal Crossing title released worldwide for the GameCube, simply called Animal Crossing. Confused yet? Still, I feel like the marriage between Animal Crossing and handheld consoles is an indefatigable one, so you owe it to yourself to pick up the first pocket version of the game???.

You probably know the drill with Animal Crossing: get into fights with bees, rid the landscape of all sustenance, put up with your neighbours' incessant nagging and become an indentured servant. No, but seriously, you plod around your little town, interacting with a number of delightful? animals living in nearby shacks, building collections and making your abode beautiful.

If you already have the 3DS release, New Leaf, I would still advise getting Wild World, to see all of its little individual quirks. As with all original DS games, you will have to accept that the online functions are no longer functional. But, regardless, you can have hours of aimless fun in your own little town with Wild World, all while failing to socialise with your real-li???fe neighbours! As it should be.

6. Picross DS (Jupiter Corporation, 2007)

This is a very special entry t??o the list for me, because it's a game I still play on a regular basis. I became interested in on-paper logic puzzles at a very young age, ever since my grandma used to let me try out old puzzle books she hadn't finished. These books always contained a couple of nonograms, and as I got older, I started buying books with just nonograms in. My own rule was always that if I screwed up, that specific puzzle was a wash, because an eraser usually couldn't get rid of the markings 100% and the gr??id would become impossibly muddy if I tried to start afresh.

Imagine my joy when I released, in 2017 (oh dear, Charlotte), that nonograms had actually clawed their way onto a handheld! Suddenly, I could undo my shoddy work and try the same grid over and over again. It was an amazing discovery for me, and I snapped up a Picross DS cartridge for a handful of coins.

Picross DS is made all the more enticing by the fact that there are theme categories, various difficulty options and mini-games, and the more you play, the mo??re puzzles you unlock. I have spent hours in bed watching Netflix and tucking into a nonogram or ten, and I can guarantee that if you love picture-based puzzles, you will love picross, too.

Honourable mentions

I admit that everything I've included so far isn't very obscure. But if you're in the market for some cult classics, the DS also has plenty to offer in this regard. Elite Beat Agents is an unmissable rhythm game, if you haven't got your fill of the genre after the fairly recent Parappa the Rapper Remastered release. The World Ends With You combines RPG elements and ?hip-hop, while remaining effortlessly ??cool.

If you want to do something more gruesome with your DS (not an invitation for photos), Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a commendable port of the game that christened survival horror, with a few of its own neat additions. If you want rock-hard dungeon-crawling, it might be worth keeping an eye out for Etrian Odyssey and its sequel on eBay. For some broodier detective work, check out Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Flower, Sun and Rain. The graphics for the DS port of the latter are eye-bleedingly awful, but most Suda51 games ?are work a peek, at least for curiosity's sake.

Of course, there are a few more obvious entries I would encourage you to consider, even though they didn't make it onto my "staples" list. The Cooking Mama series is a guilty pleasure, as I find being rewarded for repetitive movements quite soothing; admittedly, since I learnt how to cook for myself in real life, it's lost some of its charm. And whether the Dr. K???awashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? games actually make you smarter or not, they do provide a nice level of entertaining chall??enge – plus, you can't go wrong with sudoku.

Which of the original DS games would you recommend to a first-timer? Did you own a DS back in its heyday? If so, what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post A brief buying guide for the original Nintendo DS appeared first on Destructoid.

The closest (hopefully) we'll ever get to being in court

The re-release of Apollo Justice for the Nintendo 3DS gives me a perfect opportu??nity to bring up some of t?he important lessons the series has taught us about the law.

In the strange world of Japanifornia, the courts are a place not only of finding guilt, but of putting on the m?ost incredible, often bizarre displays of justice possible. Your arguments are only as good as the flair with which you give them. Just look at their outfits: who but the most desperate performer would wear these suits?

I have a degree in criminal law, so I thought I knew about the law (it’s true, and also extremely convenient right now). But you never really know justice until you hear it from Apoll?o Justice. Here are some of the things I learned:

• The chain of evidence I always heard so much about is probably a necklace or something. Real lawyers keep their evidence hidden until they can reveal it to the court in a loud, dramatic fashion. This is especially true if you’re the prosecutor and you’re holding the updated medical report you know will destroy the defense’s case.

• Bailiffs aren’t really security guards. Their main duty is to keep out busybodies, Larry Butz, and anyone else who wants to interrupt the trial. It’s unclear what those people say to the bailiffs that lets them inside, so I assume that bailiffs watch the trial closely and then let in anyone who can totally derail the trial at the opportune moment.

• Lawyers will often use magical jewelry as a way of getting information from witnesses. It’s so common, in fact, that defense attorneys prefer using magic jewelry whenever possible. No one ever questions their sudden bursts of insight, so it’s gotta be a common practice.

• I had been told that you had to have a list of witnesses prepared beforehand so that both sides could prepare, but that seems completely unnecessary. It’s much better to save it so you can announce them during the trial with maximum effect. People can also demand they become witnesses if they have something to say or want the attention. Sometimes their revelations are so incredible they can literally blow you away. Sometimes it’s Larry Butz again.

• There are no rules as to who is allowed to be a witness. If a parrot or a ventriloquist dummy may help your case, it’d be foolish not to bring them onto the stand. While the judge/prosecution may mock your choice initially, it’ll make your victory that much sweeter.

• Always interrupt. Shout ‘Hold It’ at every piece of witness testimony, even if you don’t know what you’re going to say next. Hopefully you’ll think of something to say as you’re shouting. Lucky lawyers are childhood friends with the prosecution, so the prosecution will chime in when you need it most.

• That clock will help you solve the case. Don’t ask why. Clocks are extremely dangerous.

These are only some of the things I learned from the games. The series is an indispensable learning tool for anyone looking to become a lawyer themself, and I would highly recommend it for anyone try??ing ??to study for exams. Your grades, of course, are your own fault because I can’t control what you learn. I think it helps if you practice a few times before the big day. I mean, it always seems like all of the ‘Ace Attorneys’ could have used some rehearsing ahead of time.

The post Becoming an Ace Attorney appeared first on Destructoid.

Surely no objection?

Apollo Justice, the fourth title in the Ace Attorney series has received its official launch date for its re-release on the Nintendo 3DS next month.

The revamped edition of the 2007 courtroom adventure will feature upgraded 3D visuals, as well as a few minor new features, such as a text-skip option and the original Japanese version of the game. A new story trailer was released by Capcom and can be seen below.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney will be available on the eShop on November 21 in North America and Nove??mber 23 in Europe, priced at $20/£20.

The post Apollo Justice lays down?? th?e law on Nintendo 3DS next month appeared first on Destructoid.

I've heard of games going gold before...

It was announced this week that Apollo Justice is to be released for the 3DS, bringing the complete run of mainline Ace Attorney titles to the Nintendo handheld. To this?? end, Capcom have announced a box-set of all six games, and e??ven Phoenix Wright himself would have a tough time defending its price.

The Ace Attorney Premium Edition is available to order at a whopping 150,000 yen, roughly $1300. The set, apparently made for Ted DiBiase, features all six titles, a mini-CD of the Apollo Justice soundtrack, a collection of 15 gorgeous art-cards, signed by art director Takuro? Fuse, and a small sketch card by series designer Shu Takumi.

Oh, and a seven-gram, sol??id gold, commemorative tablet.

It's quite the visually-attractive package, I'm certainly not denying what a beautiful collector's piece it is for the ultimate Ace Attorney fan. But wow, that price tag. Regardless, you earned your money, you can spend it on whatever you choose, I'm not your dad. Unfortu?nately.

The Ace Attorney Premium Edition is now available for order over at Capcom's Japanese online store.

The post Your wallet may object to this $1,300 Ace?? Attorney set appeared first on Destructoid.

Any objections?

Capcom has announced the spunky young lawmaker and his wacky cast of associates will be heading to the Nintendo 3DS in an upgraded edition of 2008's Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

You will be able to relie?ve the early days of Apollo, and his oh-so-kooky magician friend Trucy, come November when the remastered edition of the game will be released on the N??intendo eShop.

The visuals have been given an upgrade and some new features have been added, including the ability to skip dialogue and an option to play the Japanese version of the title. Some new mechanics to the series involved dusting scenes for prints and being able to examine any evidence you uncover in 360 degrees?.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for Nintendo 3DS launches in November, priced $20. Check out the gallery below for evidence submitted for yo??ur approval.

The post Apollo Jus??tice bringing upgraded visuals and extra features to 3DS appeared first on Destructoid.

Will the final verdict be on our side?

For a good while, I kept telling myself that I would play all of the main Ace Attorney games. At the moment, I managed to finish the first two Phoenix Wright titles, so I'm not too far beh????ind in this serious trial.

With Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee listing the fourth game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, as a 3DS ti?tle, there's a slight chance that it could end up on the handheld. In the meantime, we'll have?? to wait to see if this news will lead to anything big.

If the game appears on the 3DS, then players will get to own every main Ace Attorney game on one system. Since I fell in love with the cast's exaggerated actions during the courtro?om scenes, I'm hoping that this news will turn into a reality.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney seemingly headed?? to the Nintendo 3DS [Perfectly Nintendo]

The post Apollo Justice rated in South Korea, could be ??coming to 3DS appeared first on Destructoid.

Does anyone care?

For awhile now, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney hasn't been available on iOS or Android. You could have most of the story with the other four games, but one of the mos??t divisive (and important) chapters was absent. That won't be a problem any longer as Capcom has announced that the ugly duckling of the s?eries will be making the jump to mobile.

Coming on December 1 in the US for iOS (and December 8 for Android), the game will feature higher-resolution assets, much like the Ace Attorney Trilogy HD on iOS. I've always been partial to the more pixelated style of the DS original, but having a smoother-looking version isn't so bad. Apollo Justice was always a lot n??icer looking than the ori??ginal games.

I feel most fans don't give enough credit to Apollo. Sure, he isn't as ?interesting of a lead character as Phoenix, but the plotline in this title is insane. The more in-depth look at how the legal system can be controlled creates a story that constantly intrigues. Klavier Gavin is also a kick ass prosecutor.

Apollo Justice marked the last time that series director, Shu Takumi, would direct a main Ace Attorney game. His signature is all over this game and I've found that Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice suffer for not having him on board.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is coming to iOS and Android this winter [Eurogamer]

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