Phoenix Wright On PC! (In Japanese)
Snoopy dance! The worst thing about writing for a PC-only site is not being able to talk about Phoenix Wright every day. But what's this? A reason to write about it every month! Dance on your roof.
Ace Attorney lawyer-em-up, Phoenix Wright, is to be chopped up into little bits and made available as an episodic release for the PC. Silicon Era reports that we'll be seeing the first chapter (for free) next week (18th March).
But temper your mood. This is a Japanese release, and no one knows at this stage whether they'll receive the English language option that the DS releases came with. How's your Japanese? Have a look on the official page for the release and see what you can sniff out.
For those who are unitiated, the Ace Attorney games (called Gyakuten Saiban in Japan) follow the adventures of rookie lawyer, Phoenix Wright, accompanied by his enthusiastic teenage assistant, Maya. Who can channel the spirit of her dead sister. It has as much to do with the legal system as American Gladiators does with the Olympics, and is a constantly hilarious and joyful point-n-clicker. They first appeared on the GBA, and then more recently were very satisfyingly ported to the DS. There's a review of the first DS port here.
The episodes are pretty small. The first chapter will be gratis (come on, give it a sniff - first one's free man), but after that the original Gyakuten Saiban game will be divided into 16 further chunks, each costing 120 yen (a teeny 58p). That's less than a tenner for the whole game, which seems reasonable. It's not known at this stage whether this will include the extra chapter that was added onto the DS release of Gyakuten Saiban 1. Then the two following Phoenix games will receive a similar treatment, again with a free chapter to kick things off.
Capcom have no plans for a US/Europe release of this, but who knows, maybe a strong show in Japan will convince them. Here's hoping they've not removed the English translation that appears in the DS version. You'll be able to buy them from here, after you've registered here.