Retronauts Micro Looks Back on Ace Attorney's Legacy of Law and Order

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It's strange to think of Ace Attorney as an "old" series—mostly because it hasn't changed all that much since its inception. But this Capcom oddity entered the world back in 2001, putting it well within the purview of the Retronauts podcast.

Coming to America during those first shaky years of the Nintendo DS, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney could have been just another gimmicky dual-screen experiment—at least, for as much most of us knew about the series' Game Boy Advance origins. But after picking it up based on the unique concept alone, Ace Attorney surprised me for being a much less limited experience than its title implied. Simply put, it's an honest-to-god adventure game—though it comes from a much different school of thought than the Sierra and LucasArts productions we American kids played throughout the '80s and '90s.

And that's the reason I turned the spotlight on Ace Attorney for this episode of Retronauts Micro. It's not just an extremely fun series; it also essentially introduced Japanese adventure games to Americans in a way the equally great Snatcher never could. Thanks to Ace Attorney, Japanese adventure games and visual novels are now somewhat viable in the West, and some of them aren't even porn! Okay, most of them are porn, but without Phoenix Wright, it's unlikely Danganronpa would make it to the States or even exist—an alternate universe I definitely wouldn't want to live in. So celebrate existing in this better reality by listening to our newest episode of Retronauts Micro!

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