Year: 2025

There was a time Phoenix Wright was the game to own for Nintendo’s little dual-screen wonder. It was the kind of game no one was making on a system that was meant to do what no one else was doing. That made it special. Fast forward to 2014, four sequels and two spin-offs later, and now we have the first three games–Ace Attorney, Justice For All, and Trials & Tribulations–cleaned up, brushed off, given a simple 3D spitshine, and trotted out to the Nintendo eShop. The gameplay has remained untouched, for better and worse: You’re still playing the well-coiffed crusader of justice called in to collect clues from crime scenes, scream objections when you’ve caught ne’er-do-wells in a lie, and ask all the right questions to make the most weird and wild collection of bad guys and gals since Adam West’s Batman all lose their cool on the witness stand. The good news is that, at least conceptually, the original Phoenix Wright trilogy has held up very well over time. The problem is that it’s not exactly special anymore.

It’s actually a great problem to have. Point-and-click adventures and visual novels like Phoenix Wright are in vogue, and games are pushing th…

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So much of Theatrhythm comes down to nostalgia: the cutest of chibi-style characters, the squark of a chocobo, the fiery punch of an Ifrit summon. And it would be easy to imagine that there’s no more to it than that–a simple sparking of childhood memories that makes for an easy cash-in. But there is more to it. Like all great rhythm games, Theatrhythm forces dexterity upon you. It doesn’t make sense at first. It’s even a little frustrating. But you learn, and learn quickly. What once was a confusing array of neon circles and blinking arrows becomes a series of addictive taps and swipes that morph themselves effortlessly into the music.