Ace Attorney/Shout Out
The Ace Attorney games are filled with shout outs. They can be almost from any popular sources, specially on the English translation.
These Shout Outs range from Phoenix telling Franziska "Well, excuuuuse me princess!", to a security system named "S.P.A.R.D.A", to a clown who sings the intro of Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Please, if you are writing an example, try to be as specific as possible to the reference, while also marking out appropriate crucial spoilers. Being vague about it is something we should avoid. Also, please try to keep this page as organized as possible.
General
- The plant named Charley in Phoenix's office is likely a shout out to Chuck the plant, a mascot/RunningGag in LucasArts adventure games.
- The Steel Samurai is about half reference, half parody of tokusatsu shows like Kamen Rider, though once it gets the Iron Baby that it carries around in a cart, it becomes a full on Lone Wolf and Cub reference.
- Checking the security cam with Phoenix from the second game on will make him say "Smile, you're on Candid Camera"
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Ema: "It's just a flesh wound!"
- Mia: (referring to Cody) "That boy is our last hope!"
- In the final case, where a crucial piece of evidence is a handprint on a piece of brown leather: "Hey, I think I've seen that on a shirt, before."
- Phoenix, on why Cody deleted photos of the Steel Samurai defeated: "He couldn't handle the the truth!"
- The Steel Samurai's motto was "For great justice!"
- Case 4 states someone should whip that Butz into shape. Don't worry, It Makes Sense in Context.
- The footage from the "Steel Samurai" show bears more than a passing resemblance to the opening cutscene of the original Ninja Gaiden game.
- Miles Edgeworth's father Gregory is based off Atticus Finch
- Show Maya the photo of the Steel Samurai after the first day of trials and Phoenix quotes Alice in Wonderland.
Phoenix: [Will Powers] doesn't seem the type, does he. (Curiouser and curiouser...)
- The Gatewater Hotel becoming famous for an illegal wiretapping operation. The hotel name and the event are similar to the Watergate Scandal.
Phoenix Wright: Justice For All
- Phoenix once mentions heading straight for the "highway to the danger zone"
- The infamous Fresh Prince reference.
"In West Clownidelphia, born and raised. In the Circus was where I spent most of my days."
- "It's a treasure. My treasure... Preciiiious..."
- In 1972, a crack clown team was sent to prison for a crime they did not commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security clown car... (more Unreadably Fast Text.)
- Well excuuuuuuse me, princess!
- Lawrence "Moe" Curls, professional Stooge.
Judge: "Mr. Curls, are you reciting The C-Team theme just to anger this court?
- During the same case:
- Maya: "Hey Pearls, did I ever tell you about how this one time, at Lawyer Camp, Nick..."
- Phoenix: Zoinks! It's the alien!
- Phoenix is once asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. He responded that he wanted to be like "Judge Wackner and the Public's Court."
- Maya in response to Trilo's (a ventriloquist's dummy) goals:
- It may also be a reference to the film Finding Forrester and/or the website the line inspired.
- Phoenix: "Dangnabit Maya, I'm a lawyer not a botonist."
- Gumshoe: "It's go time, baby! I'm on fire! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
- The fact that he says this at least twice might also be referencing the fact that that's part of the opening theme, played in every episode.
- Edgeworth: "I saw the report with her testimony, but who knew that under that helmet... it was the wicked witch of the witness stand!?"
- Oldbag: You shall not pass!
- Regina Berry's staff/wand looks strikingly similar to a certain cardcaptor's.
- It's elementary, my dear.
- Phoenix: "Adrian Andrews! I choose you!
- Juan Corrida bears a striking resemblance to Hiroshi Fujioka, a.k.a. Takeshi Hongo (the very first Kamen Rider) and Segata Sanshiro.
- This troper found him to be more similar to V3, with the guitar and all.
- "Well, he did say 'I'll be back.' Wait... or was that someone else?"
- Phoenix sounding very much like Jerry Lewis during 2-2:
Phoenix: "Not you too, Mia! With the whip...and the pain...and the oww..."
- Phoenix and Pearl find a toy robot bear in 2-4, and Pearl asks how much horsepower it has.
Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
- Judge: "I-I'm a spoon!? I'm no spoony bard, I'll have you know!"
- Godot: "As they say... 'A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!'"
- Mia: "(Well, we know whose milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...)"
- Judge: "[...] Well, well... That's quite... impressive. most impressive..."
- Phoenix: "Her testimony has more plot holes than that movie The Grid: Revelations!"
- Godot: "Know your role, and shut your mouth."
- Luke Atmey: "Not surprising... some people spend their entire lives idly waiting for his [Godot's] appearance."
- Luke Atmey: "Shall we say the figurative Sir William will be dropping his trousers before lunchtime?"
- Maya brings up the topic of the "Rocko" soundtrack and "Claw of the Tiger".
- Case 3 manages to get in three references all within the same scene, assuming all topics are explored and a wrong item is presented.
- Phoenix: "(She's human?! She looks more like a ghost in a shell!)"
Maya: "This is madness!"
Phoenix: "No, Maya. That is SPARDA."
- Which may double as a shout out to Dante and Vergil's Dad.
- "I guess Mr. Elg is like every other man with his own pile of secrets."
- Viola: He had to pay compensation... He was made an offer... He simply... couldn't... refuse.
- Judge: "Ruh-Roh!"
- Phoenix: "A muddy mudskipper in outer space has a better chance of surviving than I do!"
- Jean Armstrong, to the judge: "Everything I do, I do it for you!"
- Phoenix: "(A spirit medium afraid of ghosts...? Isn't it ironic, don't you think?)"
- Gumshoe's song in the same case sounds like "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley & The Wailers, only with altered lyrics.
- In case 5 when you examine the bell tower at the beginning, an exchange with Maya gives you
Maya: ...I'll take money for the win.
- Godot. His real name is Diego Armando. Take a wild guess as to why.[1]
- Luke Atmey: "It's elementary, my dear"
- Edgeworth: I detest talk of supernatural drivel. I suppose now you'll say she has midi-chlorians?
- Larry: "I swear I saw her flying! *WHOOOSH!* Just like that guy in the red underpants!
- The CD from Furio Tigre's office and the virus it contains is labeled "MC Bomber." When Maya tries to remember the name later she comes up with MC Screwdriver and MC Wrench, but doesn't quite hit it.
- When uselessly presenting evidence to Sister Bikini, the conversation with her goes like this:
Bikini: I don't know anything about it; I don't care about materials things. I'm some sort of immaterial girl.
Gumshoe (while laughing): You could say she lives in an "immaterial world", huh?
- Phoenix: (about Bikini) Wow, she must have just gotten off the trolley from the land of make-believe...
- Gumshoe sings "Every case is gonna be air-tight" in a reggae beat. I wonder who that's meant to sound like...
- If you examine the other side of the Suspension Bridge, Maya will suggest to Phoenix that he should train with her, since it would be great if he could have spiritual powers too, leading to this comment:
Phoenix: (Really? "I see dead people" sounds more like a cause for alarm to me...)
- During the cross-examination of Laurice
Edgeworth: If you truly have nothing to hide... then why are you stammering like you just flew over a cuckoo's nest!?
- Here's where things get meta...
Phoenix: But then a miracle happened. The kind people like Mr. Tigre like to say never happen.[2]
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
- At least two The Princess Bride references:
Zak: In his last years, Magnifi worked us to the bone... No. To the pain.
Klavier: "Logical"? I do not think this word means what you think it means, Herr Forehead!
- Also, Apollo has this little exchange:
Trucy: Maybe they're trying to trick kids into thinking the police are some kind of band.
Apollo: But that's just silly. Who'd name a band the "police"?
- There's a reference to the Police song Roxanne in the same room.
- Namely, when you examine a red siren Apollo tells Trucy not to put on the red light.
- There's a reference to the Police song Roxanne in the same room.
- Gavin's song Atroquinine, My Love might be a reference to the Jethro Tull song Aqualung (which includes the line "Aqualung, my friend" quite a few times).
- Apollo: (I should have learned to play the guitar.)
- Klavier's phrase, "Achtung, baby!" is most likely reference to U2's hit album in the 90's, Achtung Baby.
- Also a mention of the Mason System.
- "How about flowers made of metal?" "What, like a magnolia made of steel?"
- Apollo: "Valant Gramarye! (Using the door like an average muggle, no less.)"
- Judge: "With a great accusation comes great responsibility!"
- Capcom also does a shout-out to its less-known survival horror series, Dino Crisis. The first DC game took place on Ibis Island in "The Republic of Borginia." Two key characters in Apollo Justice are from the Borginian Republic, suggesting a very bizarre intercontinuity canon.
- Case 4:
Judge: I do hope this latest accusation is well-based.
Phoenix: (...Don't worry, I've got all your bases right here.)
- Trucy's dummy is named Mr. Hat.
Trucy: My panties are Bigger on the Inside!
Apollo: (Hm, that reminds me of that TV show I used to watch...)
Edgeworth Saga
- Several Internet memes have appeared in Investigations, including, but not limited to: Over 9000, "relevant to my interests", the Badger Song, etc.
- One NPC in the fifth case of Investigations stands near a television camera and talks about his image being sent out into the wave world.
- "I see that I'm just wasting my time with Cousin Hair (theatre) here".
- Third case: Kay Faraday says "Badger GET!" a few times. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Also by Kay on a ceiling fan (compare to musical mobile): "They're totally alike! They spin those babies right round, like a record!"
- "Elementary." In reference to deduction.
- Miles Edgeworth makes an accusation in the style of Cluedo/Clue:
Edgeworth: Lance Amano! I propose that you killed Mr. Deacon with the revolver in the haunted house!
- Quercus Alba: "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling prosecutors!"
- Even Gumshoe gets in on the action:
Gumshoe: Extraterrestrial rights? Sir, do you really believe that the truth is out there?
- In the first case, Edgeworth exclaims "You fail!" moments prior to exposing Jacques Portsman as the killer.
- And in the same vein, the fifth case contains an extremely similar moment in which Edgeworth says "Is that your final answer?"
- Badd: "The times...they are a'changing..." He's one of the few people in the game old enough to have been alive when that song came out.
- Lang: "Your diplomatic immunity... it's just been revoked."
- "Miles, my boy. This verdict is what all prosecutors strive for"
- Something similar happens in Investigations, when a young Franziska says that she will whip Yew into shape.
- In case 5 of Investigations, Edgeworth says that Larry Butz has been the world's largest source of Trouble with a capital T.
- In case 2 of Investigations, there's a bit of an internal reference, where examing a few books will eventually lead to reading about a "working name" for iFly Airlines. That name being GoYou Airlines. GoYou is the name of the airline in the Japanese version.
- Like in one of the previous games, we have Edgeworth muse about some evidence: "Curiouser and curiouser..."
- Calisto Yew: "Why so serious?"
- While checking a group of suitcases in case 2 with Gumshoe.
Gumshoe: Holy suitcases, Mr. Edgeworth!
- Well, Excuse Me, princess again:
Edgeworth: And where were you when you experienced this... calm?
Lance: Our family garden, of course! Where else could it have been!?
Edgeworth: (Well! Excuse me for asking! This child is more princess than prince...)
- In case 2, examining the Mr.iFly Piggy Bank's writing will prompt Edgeworth into this comment:
Edgeworth: I've seen it a lot lately and it's been bugging me...why does no one know how too properly space and capitalize anymore...?
Unorganized
- At one point, it even gives a weird internal shout-out by Maya suggesting Phoenix spice his name up by calling himself "Naruhodo A. Wrighto". "Ryuuichi Naruhodou" is Phoenix's name in the Japanese versions of the games.
- And in case you're wondering why the o is shorter in the version proposed by Maya, "Naruhodo"(short O) literally means "I understand/ I say" in Japanese and is Nick's nickname in the Japanese version.
- ↑ Maradona.
- ↑ A localization hiccup in the bad ending of the second game included the line "The 'miracle' never happen," which underwent Memetic Mutation.