POSTED 11/4/14


PROFESSOR LAYTON VS PHOENIX WRIGHT: ACE ATTORNEY

Nintendo

Oh I say, jolly old objection, what?!

If that’s the sort of thing that you’re expecting from this meeting of two of handheld’s greatest sleuthing minds then, well, you may be left a tad flabbergasted.

Ever since we experienced the Harlem Globetrotters sharing screen space with the inhabitants of Gilligan’s Island we’ve been steadily inured to – and seduced by - the concept of taking two quite different properties and banging them together. Some such meetings have been spectacular, others have been travesties of justice.

Mercifully Hershel buddying up with Phoenix doesn’t resemble the latter, for that would, indeed, be a travesty of justice.

So, how does it work? Well, things commence fairly traditionally with the good Professor and his ward, Luke, doing their puzzling thing in London. Then our Yankee buddy jets in, assistant Maya in tow, for a spot of exchange student action. Cue culture shock...

But not nearly as much as when our fab four eventually unite after they’ve played about in their traditional manners, slurped into a mystical medieval realm known as Labyrinthia. There’s more than the odd jolt in store as both of our sleuthing stalwarts are left quite adrift from their comfort zones.

PLvPW:AA could have been as dreadful as our imaginings of Sherlock Holmes vs Lionel Hutz, but it isn’t. Having Shu Takumi, the gentleman behind Phoenix Wright’s canon of courtroom coups, at the writing helm means adherence to previously established characterisation, and a chance for old Herschel to experience life a modicum more.

Patient sorts will be rewarded – for patience is needed for the many dialogue screens, as well as the 30 hours or so of gameplay sardined into one teensy 3DS cartridge.

Getting to the point, we’ve no objections to this crossover experience, and we doubt that fans of either main protagonist will either.

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