I'm so glad I decided to play this on a whim. The atmosphere and the sense of discovery are way beyond anything I expected, I absolutely loved finding all the strange places this world has to offer.
The only negative point is that it starts falling off a little towards the end with some sections that maybe are dragged out longer than they need to be, and when the difficulty ramps up more, the janky combat starts to feel more frustrating. It also peaks rather early with the absolute showstopper of a level that is greenslit, and nothing after that ever quite reaches the same level of sprawling and interconnected leveldesign.
Still though, this is an absolute gem and anyone who is looking to feel immersed in a strange and wonderful land should play this.

I have to review these games as one unit because they end up feeling that way, even though the first game was originally made to be standalone.
Ace Attorney is one of those things where I just genuinely can't really comprehend how it was made. How do you write this? The way the cases keep piling on mysteries and then have the truth come cascading down in ways that not only make complete sense, but are also incredibly satisfying to uncover. The simple gameplay also turns out to be surprisingly successful in making sure you can't just passively sit by and let the story happen, but actually have to make many connections yourself. It wasn't enough to just have pristine puzzles, the way things unfold also leads to frequently very touching character moments and there's very poingant themes that emerge through it all. I don't think I've ever done this type of mystery storytelling done better than in shu takumi's work, and that's including any medium. When these games are at their best, there's some real magic that emerges. Everything just falls into place in a perfect way that I've very rarely seen. What's cool is that none of that is due to any one particularly great idea or cool direction that they went. They simply executed this modest GBA lawyer game at a ridiculous level of craftsmanship. It's one of those things where the sheer fact that it exists feels like a little miracle.

This is almost something really great. If you look at it from a mechanical perspective, there's neat stuff there with the scouting and the gunplay can feel pretty good, but it's ultimately too shallow and short to really get into it.
If you see it more as a mood piece then it has amazing moody visuals, but the soundscape falls short of that. There's only a rain sound effect that feels way too quiet to me, and some emotionally empty shopping mall muzak. The fast movement speed also doesn't help with immersing yourself in the world.
There is a lot to love about this but I also feel frustrated that it's not quite what it could have been.

History was not kind to this game. I think if we didn't have nintendo ripping themselves off three times over with all the other new super mario bros. games, this could have been remembered as a classic that stands shoulder to shoulder with the old classic 2D mario games. It really has everything you could want, contstant new ideas in every level and very good execution. The art style is maybe a little nondescript but even here it fares a lot better than the sequels because most of it is still pixel art.