Have you played… Aviary Attorney?

I’ve already put myself on record as being obsessed with the Ace Attorney series. Comparison can come off as a backhanded compliment, but Aviary Attorney is a game so clearly inspired by Capcom’s courtroom series that comparisons aren't really avoidable. Aviary Attorney carries across so much of Ace Attorney’s template, from gathering and presenting evidence, to the threeday time limit for each case.

While it doesn’t bring the epic scale of an entire trilogy and spin-off series like Ace Attorney, fans of the original lawyer sim will feel immediately at home. But let's be clear: it's not a big rip off. The design of Aviary Attorney is absolutely bloody lovely, using public domain works including caricatures by J. J. Grandville as the character art, and the historical context of the French Revolution of 1848 (but with animals instead).

The music is full of classical bangers too, each perfectly encapsulating the bizarre vibes of each character you meet and scenario you find yourself in. You’ll probably recognise a bunch of them, from Satie to Tchaikovsky, and on more than one occasion I’ve caught myself vibing out to the general atmosphere of Aviary Attorney.

Aviary Attorney is one of those games where you’ll know exactly what you’re getting from the very first scene. If you’re not interested in finding out who murdered the dead frog on the stairs, and why, immediately, then I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe give the game a minute longer and wait for the random French words drip-fed into every conversation instead.

In the first case you get a clue in your evidence folder that’s literally a red herring. As in a literal herring, the fish. You, in a detective game, have a red herring in your evidence folder. Maybe I’m easy to please, but silly little tidbits like this from a game that takes itself exactly as seriously as a Bird Lawyer Game should make Aviary Attorney an absolute delight to play.