Gamespot writes:
"When it's done right, few things in games are as potent as the lure to earn that little bit of additional experience needed to hit the next level and make your character better and stronger. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time definitely gets this right, delivering a compulsively playable dungeon crawler that is simple and charming enough to appeal to genre newcomers and addictive enough to keep old hands coming back for more. Unfortunately, the charms of Echoes of Time's fundamentally sound spellcasting, monster-hacking gameplay are obscured by a near-constant stream of dull puzzles that succeed only at pulling you away from the fun."
The Good
Compelling dungeon-crawling action is constantly rewarding Local multiplayer is lots of fun Accessible enough for newcomers, rich enough for veterans.
The Bad
Way too many simple, boring puzzles Online multiplayer can suffer from lag Small number of dungeons AI companions aren't very bright.
Graham Russell: "Generally, when you’re looking to play a game with friends, it’s much easier to do it on a home console. With portables, each player usually needs a system, and most need a copy of the game (and maybe some funky cables, if you go back enough). Generally, people haven’t bothered to take advantage of the technology. Of course, if you’re a crazy person like me, that’s more of an incentive than a barrier."
SPC: "Last week began the five week series of what I perceive to be the 50 best Nintendo DS games of the system's exhaustive library... This week we delve into ten more top titles for the Nintendo DS, one of the best-selling dedicated gaming platforms of all time, currently at around 150 million units worldwide across all revisions. On these ten titles for this week, we have a menagerie of memorable characters and series like Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Remember that these games must have released in North America to be on this list. With that out of the way, are you ready for round two?"
Gaming Gauge writes:"It’s not a secret that I’m a massive fan of Square Enix’s Crystal Chronicles series, and oddly enough it was the second DS entry, Echoes of Time, that really cemented the series as one of my favourites. This was because it took the addictive multiplayer action online and really concentrated on making the experience natural and easy. There unfortunately hasn’t been a new entry in that style since then(fingers crossed there’s a new one at E3) but I was very excited when I heard that Square Enix was working with n-space on a new online dungeon crawling, hacking and slashing adventure for the 3DS; finally something to satisfy my hunger! My thought immediately went to how Square Enix should concentrate on this ease of use again and what lessons they should take away from Echoes of Time."
