Failure is the surest predictor for success.
But sometimes, very rarely, a bad case comes along that is SO bad, so amazingly bad, that it goes off the edge of the scale, comes around from the other side and becomes GLORIOUS. Your horror at its terribleness becomes wonder at its utterly bizarre insanity. What should be boring melodrama becomes comedy gold. What should be unreadable, unproofread garbage becomes impossible to look away from. What should be utterly horrendous dialogue becomes your new favorite quotation.
What I'm saying is that the right kind of bad case can be, not just good, but FANTASTIC.
Task
Your task is: Make a case that is so bad it's good.
Don't just make the worst case ever. That's easy - anyone can string together 10 nonsensical and unconnected frames and call it a day. No, your task is to make the BEST worst case ever. Make such an amazingly terrible train wreck of a case that we can't NOT talk about it. Make the AAO equivalent of The Room (disclaimer: video contains a bit of profanity), My Immortal, Friday or Half Life: Full Life Consequences.
But clcman, you may ask, how can we differentiate good-bad from bad-bad? Well, that is a difficult and somewhat subjective question. Generally fun-bad things are either so terrible that they become hilarious or so bizarre that they can't be looked away from. Often both. Occasionally they just make us feel superior because at least we aren't as bad/lazy as those guys, but just as often we feel a sense of empathy with creators either legitimately trying to make something worthwhile, or struggling with low budgets and other external circumstances and just trying to make the best of it. If you want to get into more details about the psychology of such thing, try this video. But who has time for that?
Various things you could do: Fill your case with every single "first case of a series rookie lawyer tutorial case" cliché ever except very poorly executed; fill the case with unnecessary side plots that have nothing to do with anything and are forgotten about, never to be resolved (like Lotta Hart's search for her stolen car, Trucy trying to get into Magician College and Edgeworth's battle with cravat-derived throat cancer in addition to the actual murder mystery plot); have characters act completely unrealistically - remaining stone-faced while their lives are in danger (and immediately forgetting about it afterwards) but overreacting to minor provocations; have utterly nonsensical villain motives; use leaps of logic, weird legal rules and bizarre puzzles that make even less sense than in canon cases; have a good ol' Mary Sue; try to have a soap opera-style plot or after school special "dealing" with a serious issue but badly missing the mark; simply mangle character and characterization into oblivion; make the entire case weird author wish fulfillment and/or terribly written shipping; use the phrase "strangled with a screwdriver" unironically. (I've seen that happen in an actual fancase that shall remain nameless here). Failing all of that, take the following phrase I stole from OrderoftheNick's judging criteria: "A good story needs to be interesting and engaging, with characters who act and interact in entertaining and/or exciting ways. If there is a mystery, it should be intriguing and - if the case is finished - it should have a logical solution" and do THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!
I know it may feel a little risky to make an intentionally bad case ("what if it's not fun-bad, but just bad-bad?") but don't worry. We'll cut you a lot of slack on that. We agreed to this, after all. We have no right to complain about whatever you throw at us. Plus, incompleteness, rushed sections and typos are just a part of the experience, and were totally in your master plan and are not real mistakes. You have no excuse not to give it a shot! What's the worst that could happen? You fail at being terrible?
This should be obvious, but I'll say it just to be safe: This is NOT an excuse to break the site's case rules. A nudity, profanity or adult content-filled case may be bad or shocking, but it's not HILARIOUSLY bad. It's just tasteless and inappropriate. You all can do much better than that. Now, a case filled to the brim with "crud"s and "goshdangits!" on the other hand...
To put it another way, the task is to make a good case that uses elements associated with bad cases in an entertaining way.
Judging
All entries will be judged in four categories. The traditional Story/Presentation/Gameplay/Theme Relevance, isn't exactly going to fly here, though. Given that being theme relevant quite possibly means sabotaging your own story, presentation or gameplay, we will instead use the following categories:
Concept - Many of the best terrible media works start with a legitimately cool or at least unique idea whose poor execution mangles into garbage. Others were never going to end well to start with. This category rates your case's core idea - is it unique, crazy and ridiculous? Would any reasonable person respond to hearing it by saying "I think doing this is a bad idea"?
Imagination - The greatest power of a so-bad-its-good is its eternal ability to surprise you with new and original forms of terribleness and poor decision making. Are the case's flaws predictable? Or is it full of moments that make us go "I didn't even know you COULD mess that up!?"
Presentation - How well/poorly the graphics, music and puzzles fit the case or the theme (which may mean they don't fit well at all). Intentionally bad won't count off, but frustratingly or irritatingly bad will. (Don't worry too much about it - just try to keep the presentation features from keeping us from enjoying the rest of the case's terribleness.)
Theme Relevance - The big one here. Basically answer these two questions: Is this a bad case? And is it bad in an enjoyable way?
Rules
- The entry must have been created between December 2, 2017 and March 4, 2018.
- The entry must not be showcased until after the winner has been announced.
- The entry may be any type, as long as it follows the other rules. Obviously comedy has some benefits here, but a terrible drama taking itself way too seriously is an easy way to meet the thematic criteria.
- The entry must not contain any spoilers for Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2. It may spoil any other AA game, including Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, as well as Ghost Trick. If it contains serious spoilers for other (non-AA) games, this must be made clear when submitted.
- The entry must be submitted to clcman and Mr. Insane by the deadline, along with a walkthrough (if applicable).
- The entry may be incomplete. Arguably this is the best comp to submit an incomplete to, though more case content is always better. Almost always.
Entries must be submitted to clcman AND Mr. Insane via PM before March 4, 2018 23:59 UTC -5, though we won't be incredibly picky about it. That's the end of the day on a Sunday, so everyone gets a weekend to wrap up their entries.
Entrants
Mary Sue is already here, everyone! Isn't she perfect and flawless but still totally relatable and not obnoxious at all?
AceJakkidFan
Sleuth
icannothinkofaname
DarthWiader
Entries Received
Professor Layton and the Heavenly Scheme (Feat. Phoenix Wright) by AceJakkidFan
Turnabout in Payne and Suffering by DarthWiader
Turnabout Turnabout by Spongesonic IN COURT and Trybien
we were laughing at oranges by enigma