Metareview: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

You want some hard truth? Here it is: We have such a deep and abiding love for the Ace Attorney series that we almost certainly wouldn't be able to critique Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth objectively. Perhaps Capcom didn't send it our way solely because nabbing a good review from us would be almost too easy, a proverbial fish-in-a-barrel situation.

Less enamored critics have been pretty kind to the game, as you can see in some of the review snippets below. Not pictured is GamePro's 3.5 star review, omitted both for being unrepresentative of the game's average score and for being written by someone clearly incapable of experiencing joy.

• Eurogamer (8/10): "Things might be different as Edgeworth takes the helm, but this is unmistakably an Ace Attorney game. It bubbles with joy, a simmering pot of gleeful happiness. The ridiculous world of outlandish characters, crazed enthusiasm and peculiar passion continues, despite this latest game being even more heavily focused on the topic of murder."

• GameSpot (80/100): "While not much has changed from other Ace Attorney games in the way the narrative unfolds--slow paced, linear, and heavily text based--Investigations is not a clone of its predecessors."

• IGN (76/100): "You won't be stuck in the courtroom trying cases, either. You work crime scenes and interrogate suspects in the field. It's like CSI, except it uses real science like an "information reproduction" device that recreates the crime scene so you can investigate what happened when you weren't even around."

• Wired (8/10): "When everything comes together in the game's final case, and Edgeworth finally gets an opportunity to argue a case in court, it becomes evident how meticulously planned, written and executed this game really is. Compared to most other games, the interactions here may seem minimal. But that doesn't mean that Edgeworth and friends won't manage to get their hooks into you."