So I was informed by Seifer yesterday that the high-def redux of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for iPhone/iPad got quietly released into the wild without them actually TELLING anybody, including those of us who were rabidly waiting on it and had been searching the App store every few weeks saying "Is it out yet? Is it out yet???"

This new release, besides having HD graphics, is also tablet-native so you don't have the "scroll-up/scroll-down" thing happening constantly. It also has a little bonus feature called "Everybody object!" which allows you to type in your own objection and (theoretically) post it to Twitter or send someone an e-mail, in case you want to have Edgeworth tell your friends "OBJECTION! Graveyard Greg is a punk!" or something similar. (Heh, heh.) I say "theoretically" because as of last night I couldn't get it to post, but I didn't try real hard, either.

This release also has the first three Ace Attorney titles included, whereas the original port release only had the first one. I'm excited about this, because not having ever had one of the little Nintendo gadgets (or whatever platform PW originally came out on, I freely admit this is an area of vast ignorance for me), I never got to play any of the PW games before the iPad port. And I love, love, loved the first one.

Phoenix Wright reminds me in all the best ways of the old Sierra point-and-click adventure games (particularly Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon-Ra): intelligent, funny, quirkily-yet-beautifully illustrated mystery puzzlers. There are one or two more buttons it could push to make me go "Squee!" but not many.

So! If you have an i* device, go get it! It's awesome. :) And in honor of this major release, have this:



-The Gneech