Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

In FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: ECHOES OF TIME players design and take control of a teenage hero (you can select between male and female leads hailing from four different races). Your primary aim is to save a young girl who has become sick with a mysterious disease. Your protagonist leaves the village in which he or she grew up and wanders about a large world map, entering various towns and dungeons on a quest to hunt down medicinal ingredients. Plenty of side quests are available along the way.

Play is standard stuff for action role-playing games, involving plenty of battles (press A to swing your weapon, X to unleash a magical attack), lots of environmental puzzles (players will push blocks, flip switches, and open gates), and lots of treasure hunting (loot chests and pick up items left behind by defeated monsters). However, an innovative multiplayer element is thrown into the mix via online play that allows, for the first time, DS and Wii players to connect with one another and play cooperatively in groups of two to four.

Echoes of Time is cleverly designed to allow players to experience the game in its entirety by themselves, with friends, or alternating between solo and multiplayer play. The action is easier going and faster when friends are around to help, but monsters can be dealt with individually so long as you don't run around the dungeons haphazardly, which will cause multiple beasts to spawn at the same time. If you find that one area is simply too taxing, simply hop online by approaching a save crystal and recruit some help. Should you not happen to have access to a wireless connection, you can also recruit up to three computer-controlled allies to lend a hand. The range of multiplayer, multi-character options are nothing if not impressive.

However, once you get past the novelty and ingenuity of the multiplayer element, Echoes of Time is a pretty traditional action role-playing game. Level design is kind of neat -- we get to discover and follow narrow paths up to higher levels and swim in deep pools of water -- but battles are limited to hammering an attack button and using specific magic spells on certain enemies. What's more, the flip-switching, block-pushing puzzles are generously described as quaint. And the save-the-girl plot, while modestly entertaining, is interchangeable with those of dozens of other such games. Echoes of Time is an undeniably competent and fairly kid-friendly adventure, and it has some great multiplayer functionality, but it lacks the sort of memorable characters, puzzles, and battles found in the very best action role-playing games.