 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | High Voltage Software |
| Publisher: | Capcom | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Stick Duo | |
| Buy Now: |   |
While never the top drawing show in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law was in itself sheer genius. Take one leading superhero from a relatively unknown 1960’s cartoon series, and then have him retire to become a present-day lawyer. Throw in other cartoon characters from the era (mostly obscure) that are charged with crimes we kinda suspected them of all along and an excellent voice cast, and the comedy writes itself. The show did well enough to have a very healthy run, lasting from Adult Swim’s debut up until the finale last July.
Despite that success, the show never seemed like a good fit for a video game adaptation…until Phoenix Wright came along of course. Suddenly Capcom had a perfect blueprint for a video game adaptation of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, and indeed it uses much of the same gameplay mechanics, while retaining the same off-the-wall humor found in the show itself.
Much like the show, each of the game’s five cases is presented as stand-alone episodes, even including “credits” and a recap at the end of each case with all of the episode’s primary characters in the same room. Generally each case starts out with an opening cinematic setting up the episode, and then the player gathers evidence (with animated clips driving the plot forward in-between) before going to trial. Gathering evidence is straightforward…in each of the game’s environments (pulled directly from the show) the player simply points and clicks at things they want to investigate. On Wii the cursor snaps to important objects as the player scans the room (not that they aren’t easy to spot anyway), while on PSP and PS2 the player simply pushes left or right on the d-pad to automatically go to each item. As a result the non-Wii versions are actually a little easier to navigate, but the Wii version feels slightly more like an old-school adventure game. Despite the fact that the box for the Wii version indicates Classic Controller support, I couldn't actually get it to work, so buyer beware on that.
New environments are opened up automatically as the game progresses, with the player simply selecting one of several areas from the menu and then being transported there almost instantly. There will also be many opportunities to talk with other characters from the show in each location, including Peanut, Birdgirl, Secret Squirrel, etc. in addition to other stand-in characters as needed. These discussions move the plot forward, are mostly hilarious, and occasionally lead Harvey to discover new evidence needed for trial.
Once at trial, the player watches lengthy animated clips setting up each case, eventually reaching the point where Harvey cross-examines a witness or suspect. After watching this testimony, the player then has the opportunity to go through it sentence by sentence and either press the character to explain further, or present evidence that contradicts or supports that statement. Presenting evidence is tricky at times though, as the right piece of evidence must be presented at exactly the right time. On several occasions I knew exactly the evidence needed, but had to do a bit of trial-and-error before I found the right statement to use it on. When evidence is presented incorrectly, Harvey loses one of the crest emblems in his Gravitas meter, with the game ending if he loses all of his credibility. This isn’t really that painful however, as the player can quickly skip the various animated sequences already watched and get back to the point he or she left off at in minutes.
Presentation-wise, the game uses both graphics and sounds taken directly from the game. All of the voice actors reprise their roles, except Stephen Colbert as boss Phil Ken Sebben. Most likely as a result Phil Ken Sebben’s role is noticeably reduced over the course of the game when compared to the show itself (and the quadruple entendres are missed), but I thought the fill-in voice actor did a decent job anyway. There are also special appearances by Street Fighter 3 characters throughout the game, and finding these unlocks several pieces of bonus content including clips from the original show.
Bottom Line:
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law isn’t much of a game, with its five episodes only lasting a few hours and gameplay that’s extremely basic and really only there to keep the animated clips moving. Despite that, fans of the original series will enjoy every minute of this game, as the animation and sense of humor is on par with the source material. Combine that with a budget price, and that’s enough in my eyes to recommend it to fans of the show and Adult Swim’s offbeat humor in general.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.5 |
Posted: 2008-03-03 20:16:59 PST