Ever thought to yourself that Ace Attorney, as a series, has far too much courtroom shenanigans and that the investigation segments felt bland and formulaic? Well, if you’re this very specific and hypothetical person, boy do I have the games for you: Ace Attorney Investigations Collection

The latest remastered game bundle, Ace Attorney Investigations Collection’s twinned games star fan favourite and cravat enthusiast Miles Edgeworth after the events of the third game in the main series, and they off with an investigation of several cases around an underground smuggling ring. As this is set in the same continuity of the main series, mainstays such as Dick Gumshoe return to support our prosecutor protagonist, with the addition of new characters such as the plucky “master thief” Kay Faraday.

Instead of trying to win a court case, the focus of the gameplay in each case is to unravel the mystery through a variety of investigative techniques. The simplest of these is exploring the crime scenes to gather evidence and talking to witnesses and your allies to uncover facts or questions about the case at hand. This evidence will then either take the form of tangible evidence or clue-like prompts, but more on those in a moment.

Some interactions with characters result in Rebuttals that see you hear a character’s testimony about the events, which can be a witness statement or a character’s opinion on what happened. You can press individual statements to garner more information, and then expose contradictions between what they say and the evidence by presenting the correct evidence. Do this successfully and you can garner more information and inch ever closer to the truth. Get it wrong and your little life bar in the top right takes a little hit while you regroup to try again.

If this sounds familiar to you that’s because it is essentially a cross examination from the main series right down to the similar aesthetic flair of the cut-ins focusing on the eyes. But, if it ain’t broke, does it really need fixing?

Where the Ace Attorney Investigations games deviate is with the Logic mechanic. As I mentioned, you gather a variety of clue-like prompts related to the case as you investigate, which often relate to elements of the case that stand out oddly or question other aspects of the facts. Using Logic, you can piece together two of these clues to gather new information, which is a clever little wrinkle on Ace Attorney’s gameplay.

Like the Rebuttals, you get a penalty for getting these links wrong, but it’s incredibly satisfying when you nail it. Also, some of them lead to that classic Ace Attorney mainstay of turning your thinking entirely on its head. The only criticism I have from the early cases I’ve been able to play for this preview is that these do tend to be a little easy to work out.

This criticism – in fact – I would extend to the whole experience so far. It might change as I go deeper into each game, but nothing I’ve seen so far hasn’t really been a challenge to get through. Though, I must admit, sometimes an easier game is hugely welcome.

A big thing for this release that I have made a concerted effort to check out is the revised visuals and sound. The collection has had new HD visuals of the characters created, and you can switch between the original sprites and these new models in the Options menu. To be honest, the sprites have held up well and I find the chibi-like style of the HD models a little off putting, but the option to switch between the styles is great.

The revised soundtrack is also pretty good and allows the same option to switch back and forth between it and the classic version for the discerning gentleman prosecutor. Also, this collection has the trimmings that these collections have generally had, such as a Gallery, but I’ve not delved too deeply into the bonus content here to avoid spoilers on how to receive the accolades for achieving specific criteria in the games.

At my current point in the games, this shaping up as another excellent collection from the Ace Attorney series, especially as it brings the first of the two games to the West for the first time. It’s also good to see Edgeworth display the discerning eye and quick wit that was only hinted at with a superb (but unevidenced) ego in the main series. I’m looking forward to getting deeper into the core mysteries of both Ace Attorney Investigations games and – hopefully – I’ll have more of a challenge getting to the truth of them.