Internet Court is now in session on Windows, Mac and Linux

Written by Jack Allin — April 7, 2021 at 12:03

The popular Ace Attorney series has spawned other like-minded courtroom adventures, but none that resemble anything like real life. That changes today, however, with the PC release of Oh, a Rock! Studios' FMV legal comedy, Internet Court.

Not content to be a mere defense attorney, here players will get to be prosecutor, defender, and even judge across four distinct cases all connected with internet (mis)use. In the near-ish future, cyberspace crimes can be litigated through the titular Internet Court, a virtual courtroom where "trials are live-streamed for the whole world to watch." In your various roles, you'll need to contend with "two old friends who unfriended each other, terrible fanfiction, a deceptive online advertisement, and a troll who posts mean reviews." All seemingly disconnected, but perhaps not as entirely unrelated as they first appear. 

Described as "basically a live-action Phoenix Wright" or "like Zoom meets daytime court shows, except with even lower stakes," Internet Court is a comedic FMV game starring "an all-star cast, including...the developers, the developers' moms, Victoria Budkey (an ~actual actress~), and a baby." Characters include the likes of Super Lawyer 64, an "enthusiastic new prosecutor with no idea what he's doing," Don't Stop Defending, a "former prosecutor with a sordid past" who is obsessed with seeing all criminals punished, and Judge Doodles, who "dreams of getting promoted to a real-world courtroom someday—even if it means giving up his comfy bathrobe." 

Gamplay involves watching video clips and then making "dozens" of decisons about them, such as "whether to raise an objection or not, which piece of evidence to submit, etc." There isn't much actual detective work required, though you will need to solve several puzzles scattered throughout, such as "examining two pieces of evidence to look for discrepancies, or reading a series of emojis and trying to interpret what the sender meant by them, or pointing out all the grammar mistakes in a piece of fanfiction." You can even bang the judge's gavel whenever you like, even when you're not presiding over a case. (And really, who hasn't wanted to do that at least once?)

While real court dates can take ages, there no such delay for Internet Court, which is available now on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux.