I knew that there had been quite a lot of Phoenix Wright games on the Nintendo DS and for a long time it was something that I meant to try. For whatever reason, I never did – until recently. Having now played the first game in the series, it’s clear that I should have played it much sooner, because it’s a fantastic experience.

The game follows a young attorney named Phoenix Wright who’s only just getting started as a lawyer. He works under a woman named Maya Fey who is a sort of mentor to him and he often finds himself coming up against prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth (perhaps my favourite character). Maya’s sister, Mia (easy to mix up those names) also comes into it as an assistant to Phoenix. You’ll get to know all of these characters very well as you go through the trials of various cases – getting many glimpses into their fascinating (and sometimes intertwining) lives. The cast of highly developed characters is one of my favourite things about the game.

The gameplay is broken up into two sections for each case: investigations and trials. During investigations, you explore the scene of the crime and look for evidence (using the touch screen). You also get to question witnesses and to present different items to them in order to get more information. Then, during the trials, you have to listen to the testimonies of witnesses and ‘object’ when you notice any inconsistencies (these ‘objections’ have probably become the most iconic part of the game).

It’s a really great way of making you feel involved in the story and noticing an extremely minor inconsistency is really satisfying. As you become more and more invested in the characters, you’ll want the trials to go your way so that they’ll all be okay. It’s honestly quite an emotional roller-coaster and I personally felt very invested in what was happening.

Having said that – the story is not perfect. There was one particularly lengthy case in the middle which felt, to me, like it was just filler and I was kind of starting to bore of the game at that point. Thankfully, I did pick up again almost immediately afterwards. The investigations could also be a bit bothersome, in that it could sometimes be really difficult to know where to go/who to talk to. Similarly, some trails were really hard and if you lose a trial, you have to start it again – this then means having to go through loads of dialogue again, which is not fun.

If you’re playing anything other than the original Japanese GBA version (which is pretty likely) there’s a whole other case after the end of the main story. In this part of the game, Phoenix has a new assistant called Ema, who encourages him to defend her sister in a case. At first, this felt like a bit of a pointless bonus – but stick to it! It really pays off and turns out to have deep significance for the overall story.

So, overall, I strong recommend this game. If you favour story and character development in your game, you’ll love it – although if you’re more of a gameplay person, it may not be for you.

Rating: 9.3/10

Buy it here.

I’d played a few early Kirby games and I thought they were alright, but it was when I played Kirby Super Star that I realised it was a franchise with enough quality to stand side by side with the ‘giants’ of Nintendo that everybody loves.

The structure of the game is a little unusual, in that it is broken down into several sub-games with a loose over-arching story. I don’t know anything else which has done this – especially not any 2D platformers. The first of these sub-games (Spring Breeze) is a simplified remake of Kirby’s Dream Land. Unfortunately, one or two levels are missing, but if you’ve never played the original, this is a good substitute.  It’s nicer visually and it has Kirby’s copy ability (which the original does not) so it is a pretty good remake.

The next one is something original: Dyna Blade. It tells the story of a giant bird causing trouble in Dream Land, which causes Kirby to step up and to sort things. It’s a bit basic, to be honest. It’s certainly not badly made: levels are fun enough, controls are fine and the music is quite good, but it does come across as a bit of a generic 2D platformer to me. I suppose that might just be because I’ve played so many of them.

The rest of the game, however, is anything but generic. The next one is The Great Cave Offensive, which is basically Kirby deciding to go treasure hunting. While this may not sound that interesting, it may be my favourite part of the game. You’re put into an open 2D world and can explore it as you please. Not only does this world look really good in all its 16-bit glory, but the soundtrack is fantastic as well. To make things even better, many of the treasures are references to other Nintendo games! You can collect the triforce, ‘Kong’s Barrel‘ and even a Mr. Saturn! If Kirby Super Star was just The Great Cave Offensive, I’d still love it.

Next up you have Revenge of Meta Knight, which sees Kirby coming up against Meta Knight on board his ship, the Halberd. What surprised me about this game was just how intense it was. The music, the visuals and everything else about it made it feel like it was coming from a realistic action game and not a game about a friendly pink blob. Quite a change of pace after The Great Cave Offensive, as there’s not really time to explore now – you really need to hurry through each level if you want to survive. In general, it makes Meta Knight a lot cooler.

The final game is Milky Way Wishes, which acts as a finale to the game. You’re given the freedom to choose which order you do the levels in this time and, once again, things get quite serious… they also get pretty weird. I don’t really want to spoil anything, but it will defy your expectations and you’ll have a lot of fun along the way.

There are also a couple of mini-games included, which never really appealed to me that much. There’s Gourmet Race (footraces between Kirby and King Dedede), Megaton Punch (press buttons at the right time to do hard punches), Samurai Kirby (a quick draw game) and The Arena (a boss rush.) I guess they pad the game out a bit, but I didn’t feel they had much substance to them.

Nonetheless, this is a game that I strongly recommend and one of my favourite SNES games. Plus, one nice bonus is that you can essentially play the whole game in co-op mode with a friend, which is pretty cool. So, whether you want a multiplayer experience or a single player experience, this game has you covered.

Rating: 9.1/10

Buy it here.

Ironically, despite being called Helmet the helmet featured in the game is so inconsequential that it may as well not appear at all. In fact, it would probably make more sense if your character wasn’t wearing a helmet – then it could have acted as a kind of cautionary tale.

Anyway, for those who don’t know, this is one of Nintendo’s Game & Watches. In this one, you leave one building and have to walk a small distance and enter another building. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, it’s not because there are loads of tools raining from the sky. There’s literally an infinite supply of them falling down. Thankfully, they’re all falling quite slowly, meaning that you are able to move strategically and avoid getting hit by them. You are wearing a helmet, but if one lands on you, you lose a life either way.

I think this is one of the better Game & Watches and I can get quite into it. It is quite tricky though and once you’ve been thrown off, you’re likely to get a Game Over before too long. You can be playing perfectly, then you get hit, then you’ll loose your other two lives before too long. I think it’s all about confidence and concentration – once you’ve been thrown off, it’s hard to recover. Or, at very least, that’s the case for me.

Like most of the others, you can choose to play with a harder difficulty too, but I think the normal level of difficulty is already high enough in this case. Plus, of course, it can be used as an alarm – not that I really imagine anybody doing so these days. Fans may also recognise Helmet as it was incorporated into a Super Smash Bros. stage, which is pretty cool. Overall, it’s not a bad game and worth a look, but it’s nothing earth-shaking.

Rating: 6.8/10