Ace Attorney 20th Anniversary (Original Soundtrack)

All rise out of respect for a venerated series…

It’s been 20 years since courtroom adventure Ace Attorney began life on the Game Boy Advance with the release of Gyakuten Saiban (‘Turnabout Trial’) in Japan. The series’ lovable characters, witty dialogue, and iconic “Objection!” finger point have found fans all over the world, selling well over 6 million copies. With an anime and a live-action movie, as well as multiple manga series, stage plays, escape room games and orchestra concerts (among other adaptations) to date, Ace Attorney has transcended the world of video games.

To celebrate the occasion, Capcom and Laced Records are deepening their video game soundtrack courtship with the announcement of the Ace Attorney 20th Anniversary deluxe vinyl box set. The release presents a selection of 121 specially remastered tracks from six mainline games in the series: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Justice for All, Trials and Tribulations, Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice.

This Standard Edition features six heavyweight vinyl, black as the judge’s robes. LPs slip into spined, printed inner sleeves all housed in a deluxe rigid board slipcase.

The record sleeve features gorgeous new illustrations by ultimatemaverickx (DeviantArt profile), the Capcom superfan artist behind Laced Records’ celebrated Mega Man vinyl sleeves. The front cover character parade brings together the attorneys and their allies, while the rear panel gathers the dastardly prosecutors. Inner sleeve pieces depict reimagined moments from across the six games, such as Franziska von Karma whipping Detective Gumshoe into line, and the gang hanging out at the Wright Anything Agency offices.

Down the years, the zany exploits of Wright and co have been soundtracked by distinctively hooky, melodic music loops. An Ace Attorney score can cycle through myriad palettes, including upbeat pop and rock, downtempo funk and jazz, melodramatic synth, orchestral grandiosity, spiritual chanting, clownish ditties, and dreamy electro. Reminiscent of TV soaps, game shows and news broadcasts — as well as ‘80s and ‘90s movie scores — there’s a playfulness to the series’ music that’s irresistibly endearing. And, who can forget that quintessential video game music moment when the soundtrack kicks up a gear during cross-examination after presenting the right evidence?

Composition duties for first three games fell to Masakazu Sugimori (Viewtiful Joe), Naoto Tanaka aka Akemi Kimura (Bayonetta), and Noriyuki Iwadare (Lunar: The Silver Star, Grandia); while Toshihiko Horiyama (Mega Man series, Onimusha), Hideki Okugawa, Shu Takami and Masami Onodera contributed to subsequent games.