'Chrono Trigger' is a bit outdated but still fun

Game title: Chrono Trigger

Platform: Nintendo DS

Studio: Square Enix

Rating: E10 for Everyone 10+

THE REVIEW:

Gameplay: "Chrono Trigger" originally hit the 16-bit Super Nintendo in 1995. Made by a dream team of some of the brightest minds in Japanese video games, "Chrono Trigger's" fast-paced role-playing gameplay won over a lot of fans bored with slower games like the "Final Fantasy" series. While retaining the epic linear storytelling of the best RPGs of the day, the game's menu-driven combat system focused on battlefield locations, area-of-effect attacks and special tag-team moves. It was lauded as a breakthrough hit at the time.

Now Square Enix has re-released "Chrono Trigger" for the Nintendo DS, allowing a new generation of gamers to experience its classic gameplay (and letting old-schoolers revisit the nostalgia of youth). The DS version is almost completely identical to the original, with a few tweaks. The controls now support the DS stylus, and the battle menus can now spread across both screens, allowing for more space. The game's script has received an updated translation and localization from its original Japanese. New optional dungeons to explore have been added, as well as the ability to raise monsters and battle friends in a multiplayer arena mode. Anime-style cut scenes, made by "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama, have also been grafted in.

But the point of "Chrono Trigger" isn't what has been added but what still remains from the old days. And what still remains is an excellent 15-20 hours of RPG goodness. Players take the role of Crono, a young swordsman who inadvertently discovers a gateway in time when his friend's invention goes haywire. Eventually, seven characters, each with unique attacks, join the party. Characters can be switched in and out at almost any time, and each three-person combination leads to different tag-team attacks, called Techs. The game's story centers around the discovery of an alien life form called Lavos, which will eventually rise from beneath the earth and destroy all life if it is not killed in the past first. (Visiting the post-apocalyptic future, where Lavos has already wreaked his havoc, is still a cool moment.)