Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Actually hooking up with someone is stupidly easy. All you need to do is approach a save crystal, select the multiplayer option and a character of your choosing will appear in a friend’s game, or one of theirs will be dropped into yours. Playing side-by-side on both Wii and DS proved exceptionally smooth for the most part, with only the occasional bit of barely noticeable lag. Still, since we were sitting right next to each other, it makes us curious as to how online gameplay will fare.
Aside from all the rampant dungeoneering, you can stop by the town to get side quests, recruit mercenaries (high-level swords-for-hire who only tag along if you fulfil some arbitrary condition first) or to craft/buy weapons and armor for you or your AI followers. Dungeons are fairly lengthy but also quite linear, with a few too many fiddly puzzles and platforming moments to warrant the replayablity that multiplayer games demand. The inflexible isometric viewpoint doesn’t help, often obscuring players behind scenery and making jumping over chasms hard work.
Much has been made of Echoes being a cross-platform release and a lot hangs on how gamers react to this and which version they decide to stump for. Already out in Japan, Echoes has been successful on DS but the Wii release has floundered – and looking at it, it’s not hard to see why. There are two ways to look at the game: it’s either a beautiful DS title or a functional, albeit hideous, Wii one. Given the choice, which of those options sounds the most appealing? Which one are we reviewing? Exactly.
Regardless of platform, Echoes is easily the best Crystal Chronicles yet. As a co-op title it’s superb, encouraging teamwork at every opportunity and rewarding you with its deep, fast-paced battle system. It’s just a shame it’s not much fun to play on your own.
Mar 30, 2009
More info
| Genre | Role Playing |
| Description | A great dungeon runner made to take advatage of your friends on two systems and all over the world. |
| Franchise name | Final Fantasy |
| UK franchise name | Final Fantasy |
| Platform | "Wii","DS" |
| US censor rating | "Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+" |
| UK censor rating | "","" |
| Release date | 1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK) |
This roguelike's basically Vampire Survivors, but you play as off-brand Clippy on your very own desktop
Sonic 3 director explains the thinking behind picking those new post-credits arrivals: "It's always 'which character is going to give us something new?'"
The Inside Out 2 panic attack scene is one of the best depictions of anxiety ever – and something Pixar director Kelsey Mann is incredibly proud of: "I couldn't be happier"
