Yeah, it couldn't push graphics

like the 360 or the PS3 could, but it had... um... it could point at things. So when Square-Enix

essentially built a DS

emulator for the Wii and considered it a retail release, not that many people were shocked.

Let's be absolutely frank.

This is a DS game that they just jury-rigged to work with the Wii's motion controls - vis

a digital finger capable of

acting upon a virtual DS Touchscreen, which is fighting with the main screen for real

estate on your TV... and if that

sounds ridiculous and almost laughable, you're absolutely right.

If you've seen FFCC Ring of Fates - the previous DS Crystal Chronicles offering - the gameplay's

going to look almost

identical... because it is pretty much identical. However, the story's significantly less saccharine

and there aren't

any egregious verbal tics that make you want to punch a wall, so technically they've managed

to address my primary

issues with that game. Instead, the hero of your choice, shortly after their coming-of-age-ceremony

(which, in true

Final Fantasy fashion, involves a huge honkin' crystal) is tasked with travelling outside

the village to find medicine

for a sick girl. Unfortunately, this finds our hero indebted to a creepy dude with a

bad Germanic accent, which

immediately sends up red flags. It's not gonna win any awards for writing, but it is going

to serve as a decent

backbone to that fantastic DS FF CC gameplay.

Building on the system left by its predecessor, Echoes of Time puts the familiar Final Fantasy

cast of monsters and

such in a ¾ overhead-view action RPG, kinda like Diablo with more interesting hair colors.

Whether you're on the DS or

the Wii, your primary concerns are running around, casting, picking up things, collecting

materials for new items and

such, picking up mobs and beating their heads into walls, the usual spiel. However, this

Wii version suffers from one

particularly egregious problem: if you don't mean to be pointing at something on the touchscreen

area - which you

don't really have occasion to do that often, outside of switching which spell to cast - don't

have the controller

pointing ANYWHERE near the screen. Accidentally drift the cursor up there for whatever reason,

and your A button goes

from "attack" to "poke whatever the finger's pointing at," which really sucks for the kind

of active battles you tend

to get into here.

But aside from the Wii's shortcomings, the game itself functions commendably, even when

you're juggling an entire

party what you've hired to take the heat off your own self. Or, if you actually HAVE friends,

you can bring 'em in via

Multiplayer, even across platforms. That's right, Wii-DS connectivity is a thing that

still exists, as Echoes of Time

joins the ranks of Pokémon Battle Revolution and... um... well, I struggle to think of

a third. Y'know what? Just cast

this Wii version and its weird two-window style off into space and play the DS version,

which gives you all the action

and entertainment, but without the control issues or glaring reassertion that the Wii's

maybe not the greatest

graphical powerhouse on the block.