The RetroBeat: Capcom’s Phoenix Wright remains the best thing in adventure gaming

I fell in love with Phoenix Wright when the first Ace Attorney came out for the Nintendo DS in 2005. I grew up with the LucasArts point-and-click adventure games of the mid-to-late ’90s, but nothing could fill that puzzle-solving void in my life once LucasArts moved on after Escape from Monkey Island’s 2000 release.

Phoenix Wright is fantastic. Just like with those LucasArts games I adored, character, dialogue, and logic propel everything. The courtroom setting is a great fit for adventure gaming, with presenting evidence and interrogating witnesses working as a microcosm of more expansive, explorable point-and-click worlds like Melee Island in Secret of Monkey Island or Rubacava in Grim Fandango. Phoenix Wright still gives you opportunities to explore, with most cases tasking you to gather evidence yourself at crime scenes.