Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Official Casebook Vol. 1

OBJECTION! Del Ray has just released a collection of original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney short stories and no one told me. That’s a crime. I have the evidence and the testimony all in place; I'll see you in court.

The thing to remember about this manga is that it isn’t a continuation of the main Phoenix Wright storyline from the first three DS games. It's more a collection of fanzines that seem to have impressed the guys at Capcom to the point of releasing them all in book form.

As is common with such compilations, the quality of both the storytelling and the drawing varies quite radically between each segment. Some are excellent little side-stories; others are a horrible mish-mash of fanservice and drawing just a shade above stickmen, with the remaining half falling somewhere in the middle.

The main issue with the book is that if you haven’t played through all three of the Phoenix Wright saga of Ace Attorney games, then the characters and some of the situations are going to pass you right by. All the stories rely heavily on the reader knowing the who, what, where and why of the series and those who are new to it all are not really going to get many of the in-jokes that appear.

If you are a veteran of the courts then you will more than likely enjoy this extra boost of Ace Attorney. The stories are light reads, making this a perfect book to dip in and out of. Everything is self contained and it’s obvious that the stories are not canon to the original series at all, but still it is nice to read some fan-made creations, even if the art-style on some is less than spectacular.

If you're not a fan of Phoenix Wright then there is a fair amount that is going to be lost on you here. Reading this will only bring up questions about characters and situations that the book will never attempt to answer for you. For legions of DS lawyers, this is just some extra fluff to help soften the blow to the end of the Phoenix Wright arc of the game series. Fun, but don’t expect anything major from this collection.