Via Capcom's Community Manager's Twitter



This makes the game's announcement timing make much more sense to me. TGS is a Japanese event. Westerners are very excited about it, but it's not for us. PAX on the other hand.

Mind, I'm only assuming this is PAX, but it's the only expo going on right now. I wonder why there hasn't been any hands on reports yet.

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I didn't know iOS releases went to PAX but guess I can't see why not.
Would be nice to attend one of these kinda things once in my life but they ain't exactly big in Britain.

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I saw a few at E3, mainly iPad games. They're quite the minority still.

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It's really awesome that I keep waking up to new AA news. [actual "new" release news, no less.] At least they're marketing it. I don't remember seeing anything for AAI anywhere, although I hadn't even remembered about AAI when it was coming out. [Although I guess I maybe didn't remember it because there was no advertising for it at all?]

Most, including me, think of iOS games as casual and not important. Games like PWAATHD might be one of the games that changes people's minds. I thought the AA series did something great on the DS, which was not try to emulate console games. (like most of the early DS games did) They didn't use the 3D graphics for anything more than evidence, and the gameplay came from the story, rather than them being just intertwined. (I'm mainly talking about AJ here, as the other three were GBA ports). They could have done more "3D" effects, but they didn't. This is probably why they're the best looking DS titles around and hold up much better looks wise than, say, Phantom Hourglass. Similarly, most games I see/play on the iPhone that's not considered "casual" tries to emulate console or portable games. But shooters and RPGs don't always work as well when you don't have physical controls. And the "casual" games that interest me (Myst, Riven, etc.) are much poorer than the original PC version, due to both video compression and the fact that a lot of ambiance goes missing on the smaller screen. Ace Attorney, though, fits both bills. It has the controls of a casual game, the plot of a "hardcore" game, it has never been about "ambiance" but rather about character development, and it has a long running length but makes every second worth playing. You won't be spending 20 minutes of your lunch break traveling through a forest to get an item you need to get into a temple. I've been worrying that due to the "high" (for the app store) price and the fact that the games are 5+ years old, but if Capcom can advertise it well and not drop the ball, maybe it will get more attention, and maybe games like these can become the "norm" non-casual game model, rather than a console clone.

Wow, that was long. I'll summarize:
Because of AA's unique style and gameplay, if Capcom markets it well to the right audience the game could be profitable and could potentially help change the opinion/model for iOS games.

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iOS (and cell phone games in general) will ALWAYS be casual and unimportant for the most part so long as they lack proper input controls to play anything other than simple control type games (which Ace Attorney falls into). Mind you those types of games are some of my favorite types, but cell phones just are not proper game platforms.

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I'm sure your grandfather said the same thing about pinball machines and how feeling the whole machine is an essential part of the experience.

For something like Mario or Kingdom Hearts, where split second gameplay action and function are essential to the experience they won't work, at all. Simpler games, oft with a turn based element to them can fit like a second skin. For Ace Attorney, the skin of the system isn't an issue, at least so long as the system in question is as or more powerful then a GBA.

The real issue is that cellphone games don't tend to favor long or deep games or even tolerate cheep by DS standards pricing. The transition may or may not be healthy in that regard.

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Well, yeah. Unlike the shameless TWEWY port, AA on (smart)phone actually makes sense, since :

1) controls are really basic, and doesn't need any buttons
2) it can be played for very short periods of time, and you can stop playing wheneve you want.

Unlike the WiiWare port, which was... why did they do that one again?

And yeah, you tend to see mobile games more and more often at game shows like E3, or PAX.
Actually, TGS has more mobile game announced so far, than any other plateforms. Then again, it's not really fair to compare them, since there's huge difference in quality/depth/dev. time between smartphones and regular games.

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Just for the record, AA also fits well as a Couch game, so you cant reject that and then be open to IOS.

I think the reason people dont like the wii ware ports isnt that it doesnt work as a couch game but because of the sloppy port. It didnt have a higher resolution than the ds versions, and while those graphics look great on a ds screen they looked awful on a big tv. If they had, say, created an hd edition like this for the wii it would have been more popular.

Ace attorney itself I think would work with almost any "gaming" setup.

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