Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes Of Time

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Squint a bit and it's tricky to tell the difference between the two versions of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes Of Time (forget to take a breath beforehand and you won't get that ridiculously long name out in one go). It has clearly been designed with the handheld in mind, but since the DS and Wii are able to connect to one another, a version for each console has been produced. Given the high likelihood of at least one of each being present in any given household, it's a nice touch by Square to allow two people to team up and play at the same time on either system.

The chances are that Wii owners probably won't want to use Echoes Of Time to show off a shiny new telly though. It is not a Wii game that has been stripped back to run on the DS, but a DS game that has had its perfectly lovely visuals slapped onto a Wii disc with hardly any alteration. To say it looks a little basic on the Wii is to put it mildly. The Wii version even sports a pair of screens (side by side on your TV).

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Cross Pollux-ation
A clever game engine called Pollux drives both games, and it's the reason the two versions can whisper sweet nothings in each other's ear. While that means a fairly duff looking game on the Wii, it does make for an almost identical multiplayer experience on both machines. This is the main draw, and the best experience is had when you play with up to three other friends online.

It's not the most advanced role-playing game you'll ever come across, especially when held up to Square-Enix's other efforts - the likes of Disgaea and Dragon Quest being some of the best games on either Nintendo machine. But this is because it's designed so that a number of people can enjoy it at once.

As such, the action is fast-paced and understandably more focused on outright action than exploration and story-telling (though there is a little of that), with players working together to thunder through dungeons, fighting numerous skirmishes and shifting the odd obstacle on the way to meeting a boss character.

You can only fight as one of four character classes in the single-player portion, and in multiplayer games each member of the party will be assigned a character class in order to keep things balanced, which is a sensible idea.

The game is certainly enjoyable as a solitary experience but it really comes to life when you've got three friends helping you out. It's faster and much more exciting to play, and the more challenging boss fights are more satisfying when you can work as a team to surround and bamboozle your target.

There's one fairly major flaw in this system. Only the host player can save their progress through the game, even though everyone plays with their own copy of the cart or disc. The only thing in it for you as a non-host is a sense of enjoyment and a warm fuzzy feeling at helping a friend tonk a massive minotaur in the face.

Spellbound
As well as battle strategy, having a mate or two along for the ride actually alters how you cast spells. You now have magic points to acquire rather than the crystals of Ring Of Fates, the previous game. You use the touch screen on the DS to select which spell you want, or the Wii Remote's pointer, then the DS's X button or the Wii's C button is used to cast it. The trick is to cast a spell in tandem with a companion, nailing the timing, thereby boosting the damage dealt.

It's all very light and fluffy. It's a coming of age story: a 16-year-old is tasked with venturing out of his cosy little town in search of a cure for the mysterious crystal sickness spreading through its inhabitants. On the way there's real-time combat that's easy to pick up for newcomers, but perhaps a little too shallow for more experienced hands. In fact, that's the story of the game. The Wii/DS crossover works well, but there's not enough on offer to draw you back time and again, either on your own or with companions. Good, but not a Square-Enix classic.