Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Meet Phoenix Wright, the rookie defense lawyer new to the scene with the wildest cross-examination skills in town! Take on five intriguing cases to reveal dramatic, stunning, and even comical court…

80 15 September 2005

Adventure Point-and-click Puzzle Visual Novel Comedy Drama Fantasy Mystery

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an adventure developed by Capcom, released 15 September 2005 on Nintendo DS.

Verified 21 Aug 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an adventure game developed by Capcom and released in 2005. It is available on Nintendo DS only.

The premise, in the publisher's words

The first case of the game presents defense attorney Phoenix Wright at his first trial under Mia Fey's watchful eye, successfully defending his childhood friend Larry Butz for murder. However, in the game's second case, Mia is murdered for being aware of corporate blackmail, and her younger sister Maya Fey is charged with the crime because her name was found on a piece of evidence. While defending her, Phoenix is reintroduced to another childhood friend, Miles Edgeworth, who is the prosecutor for Maya's case and has established himself as a "genius" for the prosecution system. Maya is found not guilty of the crime, and becomes Phoenix's assistant in further cases, offering her channeling…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a first person perspective. Its themes are comedy, drama, fantasy and mystery. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Where it sits in the Ace Attorney series

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the sixth of 49 entries we hold in the Ace Attorney series. It arrived 8 months after Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The next entry was Gyakuten Saiban in 2005. Its critic score of 80 is almost exactly the series average of 81. The highest-rated entry is Ace Attorney Investigations Collection at 87.

See all 49 Ace Attorney games in release order →

How it was received

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney holds a critic score of 80 out of 100. That places it above 64% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2005 averaged 67, so it scored 13 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 81, across 312 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

A full completion run takes around 26 hrs.

What it launched against

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney launched on 15 September 2005, within three weeks of Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), Indigo Prophecy, Fable: The Lost Chapters and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. All of them reviewed better.

Released around the same time: Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), Indigo Prophecy, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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