The first Ace Attorney game does a lot right from the very beginning to get players interested and invested in its world, its characters, and its mode of puzzle-solving. There's a reason people who play this game remember it so fondly and vividly - it is funny and witty, over-the-top but still grounded enough to tell a serious story. It helps that Phoenix is a deceptively well-designed protagonist. He's not a simple self-insert, but rather a character with his own personality, history, and character relationships.

Having played some older murder mystery games, I think Ace Attorney's biggest improvement is giving the player more instances where they get to actually figure things out for themselves and show what they found. The nature of the alternating investigation and courtroom segments means that, rather than just look for clues over and over, you'll frequently be asked to press witnesses and call out problems in testimony. When combined with the campy presentation, it gives the player a very satisfying aha-moment and feeling that they are personally engaged in the process of solving the case. It doesn't always work totally perfectly, but it works very well most of the time.

I would give this game a perfect score, but there are a couple points of pacing problems in cases 3 and 5 that bring it down ever so slightly.

This is one of the most creative and clever point-and-clicks I've ever played. Unfortunately, there's a large portion lampooning pay-to-win idle clicker mobile games, and the game's commitment to the bit turns that segment into a bad time, though the game recovers and ends quite strongly.

As the title states, there is no game here! Nope. Just a locked-down title screen. But while you're there, you might as well mess around to see if you can find something to do.

If you're a fan of classic Lucasarts or Sierra adventure games, and if you enjoyed the meta humor and story of The Stanley Parable, you should definitely go into this game without learning anything else! The story is fantastically clever and engrossing, and the whole thing is only about 4 hours long. I waited for a sale ($9 instead of $13) and I honestly feel stupid for waiting that long to save 4 dollars. This game is absolutely worth it at full price, though you can get it for $5 on mobile. Since the experience is mostly comprised of clicking and/or tapping, it shouldn't be an inferior experience on a phone. Just be ready for a tedious middle segment (in which the tedium is meant as a joke) that overstays its welcome a bit, and trust that the ending will absolutely be worth it.