DS - 2007's Most Wanted

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

• Release Date: late 2007
• Gamepage

Japanese developers and consumers alike have traditionally shied away from the Real Time Strategy genre. But with titles such as Nippon Ichi's forthcoming PS2 game GrimGrimoire and this, Square-Enix' Revenant Wings, perhaps change is afoot. Either way, it seems strange that the RPG giant would choose this genre for the first spin-off to its acclaimed PS2 title, Final Fantasy XII.

But spend some time with the straightforward mechanics and it all makes a little more sense. With a story focusing on Vaan and Penelo, the game takes place a year after Final Fantasy XII's conclusion in the sky world of Lemures. Tapping the 2D characters (overlaid onto 3D backgrounds, a la Xenogears) selects them while then tapping an enemy or location will send your character toddling off to wage war.

Thanks to its select box tool, it's easy to order groups of characters into tightly defined groups as the DS reveals the ongoing benefits of its touch screen construction. There are concerns over the game's apparent easy difficulty, although this reflects Square-Enix's openly conscious decision to court mainstream and casual players. Whether the game is able to hold the interest of Final Fantasy's all-important core fanbase remains to be seen.

Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day

• Release Date: Q4 2007
• Gamepage
• Screenshots

Drawing alongside Nintendo's Brain Training and Face Training comes Namco Bandai's own stab at the increasingly populated self-help videogame genre: Vision Training.

The game's been produced under the watchful eye of another named expert, Hisao Ishigaki of the Aichi Institute of Technology - a professor in the field of sports medicine specialising in vision research. Ishigaki-san has helped develop computer-assisted vision training programs for professional athletes in the past, and so players who need to bolster their hand-eye reaction times for Halo 3's multiplayer modes should obviously apply.

The mini-games we've so far seen include live action footage of a baseball game. You play the part of the hitter and must tap the screen at the moment you think the character should swing to strike the ball. In this way the game can alert you to deficiencies or biases in you co-ordination in order to hone your reactions.

Whether the game can move beyond testing reflexes towards actually correcting problems with your vision is unknown, but with Nintendo overseeing the project it's certain to be another worthy addition to the popular genre.