PhoenixWright
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Gyakuten Saiban 4 in the subway (and in our hearts)
If we had to walk past this every day, we're pretty sure we would just never be able to put the DS down. For once, we're actually a little glad that awesome video game ads aren't everywhere here. Nah, we're not fooling anyone. We would love to see this stuff! And it looks like Capcom loves to show it to us, because they are all about promoting Gyakuten Saiban 4 -- even in the subway. Probably because this franchise is huge.[Via Go Nintendo]
Ace Attorney takes on Ace Ventura
We know some of you may have seen this before, but when it comes to tidbits about Phoenix Wright, we simply can't help ourselves. This particular entry combines everyone's favorite bumbling attorney with everyone's least favorite Jim Carrey dramedy, Liar Liar. The two law-themed productions have been spliced together using the same mashup technology that brought us the rock remix of "All About the Benjamins" and Goober PB & J. The results, while less headbangingly satisfying than peanut butter mixed with jelly or "AAtB (RR)," do manage to make Liar Liar funny, a feat we believe even Diddy would appreciate.[Via DS Fanboy]
Phoenix Wright objects to the lack of Phoenix Wright in Liar Liar
Er, actually, a Phoenix Wright fan objected to lack of Phoenix Wright action in the 1997 film Liar Liar as, through some careful editing, You Tube user foxfighter has implemented some of the graphics and music from the game into a courtroom scene of the movie. Hearing the music as Jim Carrey slowly walks toward the stand got us laughing pretty good. Overall, the video is an excellent homage to the game, but we did notice one mistake: the usual animation (striking away one of Phoenix's chances) when Jim failed his objection with the judge was not implemented. That could've made it much more humorous, we think.Check out the video past the post break.
Rumor: Phoenix Wright 3 dated, titled for US
Well, that was fast -- faster even than the English fan translation of the Phoenix Wright 4 Flash demo. Less than a month after Capcom posted the results of their "plead your case" contest whereby gamers, uh, pled their case for why Capcom should bother bringing Gyakuten Saiban 3 to the western world come rumors of just such a release. One of those 120 entries must have made a difference (we think it was the above) because, according to the highly reliable computer systems of GameCrazy, a DS game titled Phoenix Wright - Trials Tribu has a release date of 9/25/07 (that's September 25, for our international friends, not the 9th of ... whatever). Like Phoenix Wright 4, the currently GBA-only Gyakuten Saiban 3 has no English translation and was the only game with no localization plans announced. [Thanks, Shadow Hog] [Image source: PYC at Flickr]
Rumor: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
What's the opposite of OBJECTION!? Oh, we know! APPROVAL! A Gamecrazy employee posted this screen from his store's computer system over on the awesome Phoenix Wright fansite Court Records. It shows a game called PHOENIX WRIGHT-TRIALS TRIBU, to be released on September 25. We'll go ahead and deduce that the full title would be Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, and that since it names Phoenix in the title and not the new guy, that this is a DS port of Gyakuten Saiban 3. Retail computer systems aren't the most reliable sources of information, but we doubt Gamecrazy would make up a title. Plus, we've had evidence that GS3 was going to be localized for a while. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go to Gamecrazy and reserve our copy of the game. If they aren't open yet, we'll just break in. No problem! [Via NeoGAF]
New Gyakuten Saiban 4 screens
We're having a pretty hard time coping with our Gyakuten Saiban withdrawals. Ever since we learned that we wouldn't be able to play the Japanese release in English, we've had to turn to alternate means to get our daily allowance of fake Japanese law. We refresh the GS4 website obsessively, play the translated demo until it hits question-mark land, and shout "OBJECTION" at every opportunity that is even a little appropriate.We found some screens on Famitsu to torture ourselves with. They show the intro to the second case, a witness in Chapter 1, and Chapter 2's defendant. If you want to make yourself feel bad about the lack of Ace Attorney in your life, then by all means, have a look. If you can't handle the wait, we suggest trying to put the whole thing out of your mind.
Fresh Gyakuten Saiban 4 scans
Some fresh scans on that Gyakuten Saiban 4 tip have hit the internet, ridin' on 22 inch rims like the biggest boss player since Snoop Dogg. And, of course, we wouldn't be able to represent our site unless we posted about every piece of Gyakuten Saiban (he's known as Phoenix Wright outside of Japan, holmes) news we got our greedy little hands on. So, grab your goblet and head on past the post break for them scans, son![Via Go Nintendo]
Is Guitar Hero breakin' the law? Breakin' the law?
If Game Stooge had its way, these guys wouldn't be the only ones with Guitar Hero-related legal woes. It may be a little hard to swallow, but a recent editorial on the site makes the assertion that having to unlock songs in the game before you can play them is an illegal practice -- "quite illegal".The piece insists that the reward for mastering hot licks should not be the rest of the game, but bonuses like the achievements system of Xbox 360. Although Game Stooge doesn't say so, it's an argument that could be extrapolated to most games, which often require completing one stage before playing the next. It's here that the plot sort of gets lost, when Game Stooge suggests that advertising more features than are immediately available is actually illegal. The idea is almost kind of cute, like your mom suing you for not honoring the "Good for 10,000 World-Class Backrubs" coupon you made her when you were seven.But before Game Stooge proves that there's nothing more rock 'n' roll than an understanding of the legal system gleaned from Phoenix Wright, does the editorial have a point? If you buy a game, should you be able to do whatever you want with it from the word "go"? Or should you, like a young Stevie Ray Vaughn, have to play until your calluses fall off and then glue them back on?[Update: The Law of the Game, new kid on the sparsely populated legal video game blog block, tackles the GameStooge editorial, with real-sounding legal terminology. You go, Matlock!]
Laws in translation: Playable, English Wright demo
English-speaking fans of the Phoenix Wright series got a bit of bad news when they heard the Japanese version of the upcoming fourth installment would not feature native English-language support, as previous releases have. Capcom added insult to injury with a tantalizing web demo of the game that is similarly Japanese-only. Oh, how those foreigners love to taunt us and our lack of multilingual skills!Fear not, though -- a band of intrepid Wright fans over at court-records.net have taken the case, translating the demo bit by bit and posting the results for the English-speaking world to play. The translation only goes a few minutes deep so far, but you can follow along with the progress on the project blog. This is probably as close as most of us will get to enjoying more Wright until the likely localization is released months from now, so enjoy it while it lasts.[Via DSFanboy]
Gyakuten Saiban 4 demo translation is a heroic effort
DS Fanboy pal Zachary Hinchliffe is powerfully awesome, and you can quote us on that. He's working with Croik of the Phoenix Wright fansite Court Records to translate the Japanese Gyakuten Saiban 4 Flash demo, which actually consists of part of the first case.It's in a very early stage right now-- essentially, once you get past the intro and into gameplay, the text switches over to question-mark speak that is even less useful than the original Japanese dialogue, but you can at least watch the introduction. And you can set your bookmark now to play more as more gets translated, because we're sure you'll get to play this demo to completion in English before the game gets an English release.
Friday Video: Everyone's favorite attorney
Since we never cover anything Phoenix Wright-related, we thought we might relent for once and put him in this week's video spotlight. Don't start expecting it. You know we can't stand those silly games. Rubbish, all of them!We're practicing for April Fools. Did it work? Hit the jump for a special Gyakuten Saiban 4 trailer while you ponder.
Gyakuten Saiban 4 wallpaper
In addition to Capcom's official Gyakuten Saiban 4 page, retailer Tsutaya has their own, with the same screenshots, character art, and story information as that on the Capcom page. We saw on Dengeki Online that the Tsutaya page had a new GS4 Flash game up, and we got excited. Turns out it's a personality quiz that tells you which character you're most similar to, which is neat, but it's also totally in Japanese and not really something we can recommend.Poking around the site a little more, we found this sharp wallpaper featuring new hero Odoroki Housuke, and figured that you would enjoy it! Put it on your desktop and start memorizing the title kanji. It's a good first step toward learning enough Japanese to play the game! Gyakuten Saiban 4 wallpaper800x600 1280x1024 [Via Dengeki]
Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) 4 won't feature English translation
Impatient fans and savvy importers know that the Phoenix Wright games in Japan (Gyakuten Saiban) are released with both English and Japanese languages on one cart. But according to Play Asia, the fourth game in the series won't follow that trend. Written on the Gyakuten Saiban 4 product page in big bold letters are the foreboding words "Japanese language support ONLY".Don't panic, this doesn't mean the game won't be localized. With importers jumping the gun and grabbing the Japanese copy before everyone else, Capcom is simply trying to ensure their localization efforts aren't going to waste.[Via Siliconera]
DS Daily: The bandwagon effect
When you're on top, everyone wants a piece of you, and right now, Nintendo's the one in the spotlight -- with not one, but two extremely hot systems. That means one thing: ports and remixes. The problem is, we tend to look with disfavor on the practice of wantonly porting games from console to console, all willy-nilly, without considering that some combinations just don't work. Conversely, there seems to be an assumption that anything that works on the DS could well work on the Wii ... and as much as we love stuff like, say, Phoenix Wright, we're not certain everything and its brother should be ported away from the DS, either (after all, we just stole him from the GBA!). Anything upcoming or announced that you think suffers from a bit too much "me-too?"
Capcom blogger interviews Phoenix Wright localization staff
We just found out about the employee blogs that Capcom USA has on their website. One in particular, belonging to "Scarlett," is especially cool because it features an interview with a member of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice For All localization staff, Janet Hsu!The interview provides some fairly interesting information about working at Capcom Japan, and about trying to make something as Japanese as Gyakuten Saiban make sense to American audiences. There's also the incredible statement from Ms. Hsu that she only took Japanese classes for about 2 years before coming to Japan. Certain members of the DS Fanboy Blogging Squad have taken much more Japanese than that and can't translate their way out of a paper bag. It's official: Janet Hsu is our new hero, and so are her colleagues JP Kellams and Brandon Gay.[Via GameSetWatch]
Capcom's 'Plead Your Case' Phoenix Wright contest results posted
Capcom's recent contest asking gamers to beg for an English version of Gyakuten Saiban 3 has come to a close. Using a supplied comic strip and talk bubbles, participants attempted to fill a courtroom scene with witty dialogue in the hopes of scoring free swag. Nearly 120 entries were received, ranging from slightly amusing to almost incoherent. Capcom has posted the results on a Flickr page to be perused at your leisure.Now, give us Gyakuten Saiban 3 ... pretty please.
Cases were plead, results are available
Remember when we told you guys about this? Well, Capcom took the liberty to collect all of the results of said contest on a flickr page, for our viewing pleasure. Some of the comics are just downright hilarious (I BROKE YOUR BUGLE!), so hilarious as to woo the fine folks at Capcom enough so that they bring Gyakuten Saiban 3 to territories outside of Japan, which is looking to be a strong possibility as each new day passes.
DS Daily: New horizons
There have been a lot of familiar franchises on the DS, and we love them! But, and this is where a lot of the system's publicity comes from, there has also been an explosion of new genres and new experiences, as well as revivals of past trends. So, as hardcore gamers (the kind who read game blogs), has your gaming universe been expanded by the DS? Have you taken part in any completely new experiences? Played your first graphical text adventure? Minigame collection? Whatever Brain Age was?Or maybe what you discovered on the DS is something popular that you just missed out on for some reason, like Final Fantasy or Castlevania. We want to hear about your experiences! We want to know how the DS has affected your gaming tastes! We want to know how you classify Brain Age!
Bone: DS adventure renaissance continues [update 1]
[Update 1: The announcement was about Bone for the PC and not for the DS. It mentions that the publisher is "focusing on the PC and Nintendo DS markets", not the game. We apologize for the misunderstanding. Thanks to eric c for the correction!]Before the episodic Sam & Max games, Telltale Games were known among adventure game holdouts for their adaptations of Jeff Smith's Bone comic series. They followed a similar business model: periodic, bite-sized chunks of delicious puzzle solving, set in cult comic book trappings.Now publisher Xider is bringing the Bone games to the DS PC and unidentified games to the DS in Europe in 2007. We hope that they decide to bring them stateside as well, and that they don't decide to shoehorn weird touch screen/microphone puzzles into what is supposed to be a pretty good adventure series. It's still possible, but the identities of the DS games have yet to be announced.We're so proud of our little DS, bringing back two of our favorite long-lost game genres: the graphical text adventure and the 3D adventure game.
Japan gets a Gyakuten Saiban 4 calendar and we don't? OBJECTION!
Capcom put this gorgeous "school calendar" (it starts at April) up for sale in their Japanese store today, and we're dying over here. Look at that cover! That is better than most posters, there. There's Ema Skye, and Phoenix Wright, and the whole group is surrounded by new guy Odoroki Housuke's bracelet thing.And there's six pages of official art inside. This is too much. We don't really have anything clever to say about it. Look at it. It's a thing we want, a lot, and probably won't be able to purchase.Oh, man, we feel so inadequate. How can we be Phoenix Wright fans if we can't look at some Gyakuten Saiban characters when we want to see what day it is? We're going to have to look into placing an order for this thing. 1,260 yen turns out to be ... $10.45.Oh, and while you're at the e-Capcom store, check out these other just-out-of-reach Gyakuten goods!Sample calendar page after the break. You could resize it and make a very blurry, artifacty wallpaper out of it!
