The Brave Squire (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £24.99)
Verdict: A truly captivating novel
This squire is very brave. With his cheerful hat and shining sword, he wanders through the pages of a fairy tale world, slaying monsters and righting wrongs. His friends (he seems to have many, all of them eccentric) call him Jot.
It’s a very appropriate name because Jot is actually an annotation or illustration. When I said “fairy tale land” above, I meant a literal storybook: the adventures of this brave squire take place in the pages of a children’s story.
When he’s not jumping like Mario or swinging his sword like Link, he can move words around to advance the narrative. The page turns. It’s delightfully clever.
And things get even more ingenious. Thanks to the sinister plans of the evil wizard Humgrump, Jot is expelled from his paper world into the real world of a child’s bedroom. A 2D experience becomes a 3D one.
The Plucky Squire is a 2024 action-adventure platform game
It is developed by All Possible Futures and published by Developer Digital
The game follows the magical adventures of fairy tale characters Jot and his friends as they discover a 3D world outside the pages of their book.
Soon enough, thanks to another magical intervention, Jot finds himself navigating between these two realms (the book and the bedroom) and carrying objects and ideas from one to the other, thereby foiling Humgrump’s plan to subvert the ending of this particular story. The transitions are seamless.
It’s such a simple and brilliant idea that you’ll wonder why no one has tried it before. Although, sometimes you might wish for a little more complexity.
The uniqueness of The Plucky Squire’s setting isn’t matched by its moment-to-moment gameplay (the platforming and combat), which can feel a little too direct and derivative.
Anyway, when the overall game is as fun as this one, does that matter a damn bit? Not really.
This brave squire is a new literary hero. I hope he is here to stay.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £34.99)
Verdict: A legal eagle flies
The Ace Attorney series has always had a great reputation among gaming connoisseurs, although sometimes it has only been a reputation.
Because players were stuck on older hardware or limited to their native Japan, these crime-solving games weren’t always easy to play. Unscrupulous fans had to resort to unofficial English translations downloaded from the darkest corners of the internet.
So far, of course.
District Attorney Miles Edgeworth and the cast of family, friends and enemies who test his patience
Japanese publishers Capcom have been on a bit of a roll with Ace Attorney recently, polishing up all of the older games so they can shine on the Nintendo Switch, and now they’ve completed that task with the release of Ace Attorney Investigations Collection.
Here are splendid ports of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, which was first released on the Nintendo DS in 2010, and its sequel, Attorney’s Gambit, which was limited to Japan in 2011.
You can choose between the pixelated graphics of the original versions or the new, beautiful HD anime versions.
It’s no surprise that Capcom was the last to opt for this pair, not because they’re bad, but because they’re slightly atypical.
Here, instead of playing as a defense attorney, like Phoenix Wright, you play as confident prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. It’s a different experience, then.
Chief among these differences is that Edgeworth has more investigative skills: he scours crime scenes for clues and draws deductions based on what he finds.
Once those parts are complete, comes the more traditional Ace Attorney experience of questioning witnesses and looking for loopholes in their statements, in order to issue case-breaking rebuttals.
Japanese publisher Capcom has recently been on a roll with Ace Attorney, polishing up all the older games so they can shine on the Nintendo Switch.
Edgeworth wanders around crime scenes, searching for clues and making deductions based on what he finds.
It’s tremendously enjoyable, although at times the interrogations feel a bit like trial and error.
In the case of these two games, you’ll be treated to gripping crime stories and character studies about Edgeworth, his friends, and adversaries. These are some of the best personalities in all of gaming.
Now all Capcom needs to do is give us more. Not remakes of old games, but a brand new Ace Attorney game to exercise our legal knowledge. Only then will true justice be served.