Welcome back to yet another round of Box Art Brawl!

Before we hop onto the case of this week’s match-up, let’s first take a look at the results from last time. We pitted three covers for the GameCube shmup Ikaruga against each other and wow, it was a close one. The European cover art just topped the competition with 36% of the vote, followed by North America on 35% and Japan at 28% — a real nail-biter.

Speaking of which, this time we are jumping into the world of legal drama, as we assess the cases of three different covers from the 2005 DS title, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This is the one that started the courtroom visual novel series, introducing us to the ever-objectionable (in a good way, we promise) Phoenix Wright and the sweet joy of piecing together a court case from the comfort of your own sofa.

We have a whopping three covers for you to choose between this time from Europe, North America and Japan. So, let’s get this court in session.

Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let’s check out the box art designs themselves.

North America

The North American cover just oozes courtroom drama, does it not? There’s pointing, there’s a judge sitting on high, there’s Miles’ cravat proudly taking up a good portion of the art. It’s not the most subtle indication of what the game is all about, but for giving an idea of what you’re about to let yourself into, you can’t really go wrong here.

Europe

To be fair, if your game title is 50% name, then why not have that character as the sole focus of the cover? In this heavily stripped-back approach, the European cover art is all about Phoenix himself, hitting a smooth power pose in front of an empty white background, with the game’s logo taking a much more prominent positioning than in the North American variant. It’s not as clear what the game is about, but it’s certainly eye-catching.

Japan

If this style looks familiar, it’s because many of the following entries in the Ace Attorney series would utilise a similar cover approach going forward. This one places the four main characters — Phoenix, Miles, Mia and Maya — in crisp close-up against a black background. Like the EU cover, this doesn’t say all that much about the game itself, but you are going to have no doubt who the main players are.

Bonus – GBA

We have removed this option from the voting because, well, it’s on a whole different system and was released only in Japan, but we thought that it would be nice to throw in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (or Gyakuten Saiban, as it was initially titled) GBA box art for a sneaky peek.

Yes, this lawyer wasn’t always about the dual screens and, in fact, began life on the GBA in Japan. This version never received a global release, but we would like to think that it would have carried over the stripped-back cover design if it had…

Thanks for voting! We’ll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.

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