One of our favorite parts of the pre-release period for any Ace Attorney game is when Capcom releases a trailer featuring fully-voiced versions of the cast. We don't want a whole Ace Attorney game with voice acting, because we can read quite a bit faster than Phoenix Wright can speak. But we do enjoy seeing a more dramatic presentation of the game's material for a couple of minutes.

The trailer above for Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth features just such a presentation, and both this trailer and the one following the break feature a decent amount of gameplay footage. While we're geeking out, can we say how happy we are to see Franziska von Karma appear in another game? Maybe that's just because we have yet to be reminded just how much repetition of the word "foolish" there really was in Justice for All.

We all knew this was coming thanks to a trademark, but that doesn't make the official announcement any less exciting: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is "making its way to the west this winter!" Investigate the first English screens for yourself at Capcom Unity.

Ace Attorney Investigations is a spin-off of the Phoenix Wright courtroom adventure series, starring Wright's cravatted rival, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. In this point-and-click adventure, Edgeworth investigates crime scenes in order to find the truth, presenting contradictions to material witnesses as they occur. Edgeworth can use a "logic" mode to determine connections between two pieces of evidence. When sufficient evidence has been gathered, Edgeworth faces down the suspect!

Miles Edgeworth is a unique character. The Ace Attorney prosecutor is confident and strong, but distinctly dainty at the same time. He casts an imposing figure in the courtroom, even in a magenta suit and a frilly cravat.

The latest unattainable Japanese promo item for Gyakuten Kenji, this delicate teacup with Edgeworth's face stamped in his trademark color, is perfect for Edgeworth. In most people's hands, it would be, at best, adorable, but Edgeworth is so raw that he could make Phoenix Wright tremble in terror with the simple intonation of "Wright." between sips.

The teacup is available for preorder from e-Capcom for 1890 yen ($19). Unfortunately, e-Capcom doesn't ship outside of Japan.

[Via Inside-Games]

Just two days until the launch of the North American DSi, and we're already over it. Oh, great, we can get a black one or a blue one. Yay. Thanks a ton, Capcom and Nintendo, for choosing now to reveal the Japan-only Gyakuten Kenji Premium Edition box, containing not only the game, but also this white DSi with a Blue Badger, uh, badge on it. Every time we look at one of the US models, we're going to see a big Blue Badger-shaped void.

The package runs 23,940 yen ($240.20) and will be available in Japan on May 28. Don't expect to see this thing in North America, even if Capcom does localize the game. We never get these limited editions.

[Via Inside-Games]

Spencer from Siliconera found a US trademark from Capcom for something called Ace Attorney Investigations. Just for the simple fact that it means more Ace Attorney anything, that is wonderful news. But Spencer conjectures that the trademarked title is intended for Gyakuten Kenji, the Ace Attorney spinoff starring Miles Edgeworth.

It's a good guess -- the point-and-click style adventure game focuses on investigating crime scenes with Edgeworth and Detective Gumshoe over courtroom action. It's been over a year since we last had Ace Attorney content, so we'll TAKE THAT without OBJECTIONs when it releases, and we hope Capcom doesn't decide to HOLD IT back. But will we be able to pay way too much for it like Japanese fans?

Ace Attorney spin-off Gyakuten Kenji has been dated for Japan. To add onto the spring release window we've heard already, we now have an actual date: May 28th. Just another reason to be jealous of Japan, we suppose.

We don't have to tell you how much we love the Ace Attorney games, so we're incredibly excited for this game. What about you all? Had enough of these games or are you as big a fan as we are?

There are some simply lovely new screens featuring next year's biggest hero, Miles Edgeworth, but they're a bit spoilery, so realize that you're entering the gallery at your own risk. And you know you want to. You want to see. And why? Because otherwise, everyone who doesn't import Gyakuten Kenji will probably still be mooning over screenshots this time next year.

This one's especially for the Phoenix Wright fans. Those lucky enough to survive the enormous crowd surrounding Gyakuten Kenji's (Turnabout Prosecutor) playable Tokyo Game Show demo were invited into a detailed replica of Miles Edgeworth's office, complete with classy furnishings and a faint air of egomania. We imagine playing Capcom's latest point-and-prosecute in this environment must have been quite surreal for attendees.

Though Edgy himself wasn't available to complete the illusion, we did discover his excellent figurine at the Capcom store -- it's included in the gallery as well.

[Special thanks to Ariel A. for the office snaps.]

The Tokyo Game Show has brought us quite a few things, but not many as exciting as the walking and arm-flinging in the latest Gyakuten Kenji trailer. All that effort spent on getting the movement just right seems to have worked out; the arm-flinging may be a little dramatic, but we're talking about the Ace Attorney universe, here -- the drama is what we've been craving.

Gyakuten Kenji is scheduled to come out next spring in Japan, which means it's a damn long time yet before we'll see it.

[Thanks, Justin!]

We can't even begin to imagine how upset we'll be if Capcom doesn't bring Gyakuten Kenji -- that's Turnabout Prosecutor for you and me -- to the West. In fact, we can't imagine how upset we'll be if Capcom doesn't bring Gyakuten Kenji to the West tomorrow. Sure, we can't understand a word in the above trailer, but the very thought of prancing around as puffy-collared Edgeworth (Gumshoe in tow!) and interrogating effeminate weirdos simply shatters our precious psycho-locks.

If you understood that reference, you know exactly how we feel. If not, go play the Phoenix Wright games, you uncultured oaf.

After a long stretch of hearing nothing about Gyakuten Kenji, Capcom has issued a Japanese release window for the Miles Edgeworth-flavored Ace Attorney spin-off: a vague "Spring 2009." Unless an English language option is included in the game (it's happened before in this series), that's fairly useless to those who don't speak Japanese, but there's still time to amend that.

To coincide with this announcement, Capcom passed a bunch of new screens around, mainly depicting scenes from the opening case and new prosecutor Makoto Yuuki (which translates as "truth courage"). Anyone else find Edgeworth's bobble-headed physique a bit weird, by the way? No? Okay, probably just us.


[Via Siliconera]

We first posted the introductory trailer for Capcom's new Ace Attorney spinoff, Gyakuten Kenji, in the form of a video recording made at the Gyakuten Meets Orchestra concert. We figured it would be a lot more exciting if you could actually see and hear it. That's how it worked out for us, anyway. And should you even want to read it, diligent Court Records forum members have translated the text.

You barely get to see the game in action (Edgeworth walks from one spot to another spot!), but what you do get to see is a rush of half-shadowed characters from Ace Attorney history. Franziska von Karma, Ema Skye, the bellboy from the Gatewater Hotel, Wendy Oldbag, the Steel Samurai, Officer Mike Meekins, Maggey Byrde, Lotta Hart, and Cody Hackins all fly into the screen before the mysterious new character makes her appearance. Reminders of the past storylines, or characters slated to reappear? We'll need to gather more evidence before we can make any judgments!

Hit the break for another trailer, this time focused entirely on the ascot-clad lawyer's courtroom prowess.

Court Records forum user 'Tuesday' has generously translated a recent Famitsu interview with a trio of senior figures from the Gyakuten Kenji team, including Director Tsuyoshi Yamazaki, Character Designer Tatsurou Iwamoto, and Producer Motohide Eshiro.

Because Capcom seems to be hellbent on keeping much of Gyakuten Kenji shrouded in mystery for as long as possible, there's a fair few "we can't comment on that"-style remarks in the piece. That said, we do learn more about the timeline -- Eshiro reckons that the game is set "around Gyakuten Saiban 3 [Trials and Tribulations], I suppose," while Yamazaki observes that Edgeworth is "no longer the jerk in Gyakuten Saiban 1, but the one whose mind is changing, thanks to his battles with Wright." Elsewhere, there's a confirmation that "some popular characters" from the Gyakuten Saiban universe will have parts to play (but guess what: they can't say who).

Oh, and a surprisingly large portion of the article is dedicated to discussion about Edgeworth's running. In what is a first for the series, Gyakuten Kenji will have players directly controlling Edgeworth as he moves around various crime scenes, and it sounds as though the team really agonized over getting this new Edgeworth to look right. This even extends to the lawyer's running animations, which Eshiro describes as "graceful, while exerting effort." We're not sure Iwamoto is totally convinced yet, however, as he thinks Edgeworth looks like he's "walking really fast accidentally." Actually, that sums up our comical running styles pretty well.


[Thanks, Chris!]

"Ohhhhhh-a-ohh-a-ohh, mysterious girl, I wanna get close to you."

We don't usually kick off the week with a spot of Peter Andre, but the Australian warbler's hit seemed mildly appropriate today, seeing as Ace Attorney spin-off Gyakuten Kenji (Turnabout Prosecutor) has a mysterious girl of its own. The shadowy figure to the right appeared on the most recent cover of Nintendo Dream alongside Miles Edgeworth and Detective Gumshoe, and has immediately set tongues wagging in the Ace Attorney fan community.

Cruelly, the magazine remains tight-lipped about who or what she is, revealing only her age (seventeen), and that she is a "major character." Could she be an assistant to Edgeworth, as Maya was to Phoenix? That seems most likely to us. We'll tell you who we most of us would like her to be, however: Edgeworth's love interest. The collective howl from the lawyer's legion of female admirers would be deafening (yet amusing).

Turnabout past the break for some snippets of scans.

Read: Nintendo Dream scans (scroll halfway down)
Read: Direct-feed screenshots from scans