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REVIEW: Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law

By Shaun Hatton - February 21st, 2008

Developed by High Voltage Software and published by Capcom for Wii. Also available for PlayStation 2 and PSP.

Capcom’s Ace Attorney series for Nintendo DS has been a cult success. The games are rich with story, character development, tension, and humour. Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, on the other hand, is a cartoon from [adult swim], and is not known for its rich story, character development, or tension. It is, however, funnier than just about anything else you’ve ever laughed at. And if you don’t think so, well, you may not have a soul.

Given my open fandom of the show and how much I enjoyed the Ace Attorney titles, I was really looking forward to the release of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law for the Wii. In fact, I had booked the day off work just so I could buy it upon its release and play it all day. Things didn’t quite work out, as the game was pushed back from its initial November release. When the game finally did come out, I was too busy playing through other titles to remember to pick it up. But I remembered this past weekend.

Now before I get into giving you my take on the game, I’d like to address the online gaming community’s reaction to it thus far. For the most part, reviewers have given it okay scores. But one has to wonder in light of the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men debacle whether these scores were purposely inflated to keep both Capcom and Editors happy. For you see, many of the things said about the game in reviews haven’t made the game sound very appealing. And I think this likely tamed my desire to pick up this game on its release date. Well, the gaming journalism community is unfortunately full of very jaded writers who have played too many games in too short a time and thus really cannot enjoy most of the games they review. One would think the simple fact of having played hundreds of games would give the reviewer a better context to appreciate good games. But it doesn’t.

With that out of the way, let me reiterate that I am a huge fan of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law. I’ve seen all the episodes multiple(-entendre!) times and I think that it’s not only one of the best [adult swim] shows, but one of the best cartoons of all time. The game takes the fun, irreverent, and oft non-sequitur humour and adds you into it. You help Harvey Birdman solve cases by checking out crime scenes, finding evidence, interviewing key witnesses, and, of course, by representing clients in court.

While you control Birdman, he’ll sometimes talk to you (like when you choose to present the wrong evidence in a trial). The game is full of the twisted humour that makes the show so great. While out looking for evidence, you will find the weirdest things that you’ll wonder “how does this even relate to the case?” But guess what, sometimes it WON’T! The entire cast of the show is in the game (yes, even Bear) and, with the exception of Phil Ken Sebben, everyone is voiced by the actors who voice them in the show. Ken Sebben’s new voice actor, Stephen Staunton, does such a great job with the character you may not be able to tell it’s not Colbert doing the voice. In fact, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer might want to employ him to replace Colbert as the voice of Professor Impossible on The Venture Bros. since Colbert decided to leave that show.

Like the Ace Attorney games, Attorney At Law features five cases to solve. And in good fashion, the cases have strange and twisted, er, twists. Factor in that this is Birdman we’re dealing with, and things get a little stranger. I found the jokes to be a lot funnier than the ones in the Ace Attorney series, and many of them are on the perverted side (thus really earning the game its T rating from the ESRB). Not to give any plot details away, but much like the show, bad things happen to Harvey. And it’s always hilarious. The game even has flashbacks to scenes from the show.

Though the game’s taken some flak and many reviews have commented on how quick it is to play through and that it’s very easy, I can assure you that does not take away whatsoever from the enjoyment factor. In fact, though some of the puzzles are easy, there are some that took a while to figure out.

It could be that this game is only for fans of the show. That, I can’t decide for you because I was obviously in love with these characters before playing it. Definitely pick this up if you’ve got the show’s DVD sets. The cases in the game take way more time to play through than an episode does (episodes are around the 12 minute mark, after all), and for $40, you really cannot go wrong.

I was tempted to give this game a score of ten ten seven, and then not explain it. But here’s the real scores, as given by me, Harvey’s number one fan enemy!

For added fun, check out the awesome Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law soundboard.

Posted in Nintendo, PSP, PlayStation 2, Reviews, Wii |