Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law follows the life of former superhero-turned-attorney Harvey Birdman. Rather than fighting crime with his powers, Harvey now fights for justice using his dubious legal skills as he defends many of Hanna-Barbera's more well-known figures, like the Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Magilla Gorilla, in some truly ludicrous trials. As with the
Phoenix Wright series, or really any point-and-click adventure game, the experience is only as strong as its story. The writing manages to capture the show's general feel and really plays towards the audience that is most likely going to be interested in the first place. There are numerous in-jokes aimed clearly at videogame players and Internet savvy people, many of which are laced with innuendo and double entendre. Jokes stay well within the game's Teen rating, though if you're the type that is really vigilant about what younger ears hear (or don't hear), consider yourself warned.
The game is split up into five trials featuring one of the aforementioned Hannah-Barbera characters who Harvey must defend. Gameplay is split into two parts - Investigation and Trial. During investigations, Harvey must find evidence to help prove his client's innocence. Once the investigation is complete, it is on to the trial, where you listen to testimony and attempt to find problems with their statements. Again, gameplay mimics Phoenix Wright's gameplay idea-for-idea, which isn't necessarily a bad thing unless you're a fan of the DS series; if this is the case, Harvey might be a little too similar in some aspects and a little too shallow in others.
One of the game's more pressing issues is length. Though they run a little longer than the length of each show, episodes rarely last more than 45 minutes, which means that the entire game takes less than 5 hours to play. After that, there really isn't much incentive to go back unless you really like a specific trial.
