I remember in the early days of the Nintendo DS, I spent quite a few dollars importing titles from Japan. Ouendan, Band Brothers, and even Electroplankton—the latter leaving me feeling particularly stupid since it actually did cross the Pacific... twice. But importing from Europe? There's something I'd only done once in the past; I half-regretted it.

I recently had the opportunity to do it again, for a good price (typically the exchange rate doesn't make this a grand idea, but right now, it works out pretty well.) The game in question is Pastagames' Maestro! Jump in Music—made by a French team who shares offices with my favorite French developer—and this one, I don't think I'll be regretting at all.

In case you haven't heard, this past Monday marked the availability of the Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth demo on the U.S. Nintendo Channel. I meant to write about it then, but life intervened.

I've become something of an Ace Attorney fan over the years, with particular love for Trials and Tribulations, the third game in the series. Investigations marks a slightly new direction for the series, but though it doesn't have courtroom battles, it's doesn't really feel much like a spinoff game thus far—more a continuation of the series with a different focus.

In the demo (which does appear identical to the Flash demo, minus the reported crashiness), which is a more tightly-edited version of the opening several minutes of the full game, a murder occurs in Miles Edgeworth's office, and you'll be introduced to the new Logic system, piecing together thoughts and considerations that arise in the investigation process to create new information. It's a pretty cool system from what little I've seen of it so far. I'm a touch concerned that the series' trademark "guess what far-out thing we're thinking, or get penalized" M.O. might shine through as it gets more complicated, but in the meantime, it looks like it's going to be fun.

We got the full game from Capcom for review yesterday, so look for that after the game officially releases on February 16.