‘Ace Attorney Trilogy’ 2022 Review – Long Overdue, but Should’ve Been a Better Port
Since the Ace Attorney Trilogy HD came out for iOS around the world in 2013, it's been quite a journey to follow the Ace Attorney Trilogy on mobile. If you're not familiar with this release, Capcom's Ace Attorney series has mostly great games, memorable characters, great music, and great courtroom cases spread across multiple games on different platforms. Mobile has been lucky because it has all of the mainline games, while current consoles can only play the first three and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, which is a set of two games that are only available on mobile in Japan. The Ace Attorney Trilogy HD was taken off the market by Capcom last week, and the new and improved Ace Attorney Trilogy ($24.99) is now out as a premium release. In this review of Ace Attorney Trilogy for iOS, I'll try to compare as many versions as I can, as I do with all port reviews. I'll also talk about why, despite the improvements, this might not be for you.
Most of the people who will want to play this new version of the Ace Attorney Trilogy fall into two groups. First, there are people who have never played these games on any platform before. They will wonder if this release is worth getting in general and if it is good on iOS. The second group is people who already have the original Ace Attorney Trilogy HD for iOS and are probably wondering if the higher price is worth it since there is no way to upgrade or transfer save data. The first question is easy to answer, while the second has some big caveats. Let's get into it.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations are all part of the Ace Attorney Trilogy. This is the first trilogy in its entirety, with widescreen support, better sound, and other improvements over the iOS version. Each game is fun to play because of the mysteries, characters, music, and stories. There are court cases, deductions, some easy puzzles, and parts that are like point-and-click adventures. If you like games like that, the quality here is great, but the port has a few problems right now.
If you've never played an Ace Attorney game before and don't own the console or PC versions, this is still worth getting, even after the launch discount ends. Capcom isn't the best at keeping iOS games going for a long time. If you don't care what might happen to the Ace Attorney Trilogy on iOS 17, you can buy it now and enjoy it for many hours without worrying about what might happen.
If you already own the first version on iOS, there is one big step back. You can't actually skip to any of the three games from the beginning like you could in the original iOS HD version. This is the same as the console and PC versions, where you can choose one of the three games, but you can't skip over cases if you want to pick up the iOS or Android version to continue a certain case. The changes are big, though, and it looks and runs very well on modern screens, even though it doesn't support fullscreen properly. You can expect modern devices to have black bars with no banners or art to fill the empty space.
If you already own the Ace Attorney Trilogy on PS4, Xbox One, Steam, or Nintendo Switch, this is the same game without support for controllers. Yes, this port of a game for consoles and PCs only works with touch screens. Given the type of game, this might not matter to most people, but why would Capcom take away a feature they already added? This is why I think the Nintendo Switch version is the best because it works well with both controllers and touchscreens.
Aside from not having support for controllers and not being fullscreen, the one thing that surprised me about this port was that its cloud save backup feature on iOS worked well and moved my game from my iPhone 11 to my iPad Pro and back almost instantly. With a universal iOS release, I definitely don't want to be stuck on a single device for long story-driven games like this one.
In our 2013 review, we liked the source material but thought the port could have been better. This is true even for this new Ace Attorney Trilogy mobile game set in 2022. Even new Square Enix games feel like better mobile versions than this. The Ace Attorney Trilogy is a stripped-down version of the original games, but both the original games and the original console version are great.
Even though the other versions of the Ace Attorney Trilogy will cost a bit more than the iOS version, I think the Nintendo Switch version is the best way to play this series right now. I've played it on the Nintendo 3DS, iOS (the original version), iOS (the new version), PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. The Switch version has the most features because you can control it with both touch and buttons, and the fact that it's a hybrid game gives you even more ways to play. I hope that controller support and some wallpaper options can be added to fill in the black bars, because a high-priced release shouldn't feel like a stripped-down console-to-mobile conversion.
