The first thing that strikes you is how beautiful it looks, and how well the game is presented. The menus, characters, backdrops and cutscenes are rendered with wonderful colour, imagination and verve. Even the most hard hearted FPS-playing games machine would have to concede that some of the little fluffy fellas, dwarves and spirity things you encounter are among the cutest ever seen. Trust us; you will be Googling “Mana plush” before you know it. Character design aside, one would be hard pushed to find a more visually impressive title for the DS, and it is clear from playing this and other titles such as Final Fantasy III, that the chaps over at Square Enix and their affiliates really know how to squeeze every drop of graphical juice from the little dual-screened wonder. The music is typical RPG fare too, with plenty of sweeping orchestral movements and dramatic crescendos for the bosses and cutscenes, coupled with quaint, fulsome ditties when you are wandering around villages or talking to NPCs.

As we all know, a game can look and sound amazing but only the foolhardy would judge a title on this alone. And sadly Children of Mana falls down on its gameplay. The story is straight out of Square’s stock RPG handbook - young hero Ferrik with a tragic past, setting out on a fantastical quest, has to destroy the Mana Lord and his minions who are linked to the death of his parents, yadda yadda yadda. Despite the classic set-up that has you anticipating a similar experience you had all those year ago when you paid £200 to import it’s illustrious predecessor, the game has no discernible overworld or sense of scale, and is simply a repetitive hack and slash dungeon crawler that becomes incredibly boring, incredibly quickly.

The first, introductory dungeon sets the games' stall out early doors. Before you set out, you are introduced to the concept of using gemstones to improve your abilities and statistics. The Gem Grid is accessed via the options menu and gems can be placed into the grid in a similar fashion to how Materia are used in Final Fantasy VII. You are also given a bog standard sword, and are allowed to take with you an elemental spirit that, in the tradition of the series, is used to cast magical spells to assist you depending on which one you select.

You battle your way through a series of floors in the Mana Tower, defeating monsters such as series mainstays the rabbit-like Rabites, level up as you go, smash pots and stuff, and progress by finding an item called a Gleamdrop and placing it in the Gleamwell. The Gleamdrops and Gleamwells are often hidden or revealed only when certain conditions are met, such as destroy all enemies, break a specific pot, etc. These fantastical sounding items are, in reality, nondescript shiny crystally things that serve the same purpose as a key and a door. Exciting times.

You then reach a boss, kill the boss, return to the village and repeat this process over and over again. Until you have reached a certain level, the enemies can often take numerous hits to kill. The later addition of secondary weapons that allow combo attacks does little to alleviate the boredom – you spend most of the time just button bashing; there are no decent puzzles, and often it is only the (admittedly quite cool) boss battles that spark any interest. On the plus side, there are four main selectable characters, all with distinct attributes and powers, and that spices things up a bit, but isn’t enough to save the day.

The real clangers come in the fact you are unable to change your equipment whilst inside a dungeon, and that each portion of this dungeon crawling monotony is scored and ranked, making the game feel rushed and the actual accomplishments somehow unimportant. Could you imagine defeating a boss in a Zelda game and then being given a score and a time bonus? Similarly, having to repeat an incredibly slow and sleep inducing section just because you have picked the wrong piece of equipment and are unable to change it is ridiculous. There is also close to naff-all stylus control, a huge oversight – you could imagine the touch screen being put to fine effect – controlling the spirit elementals or solving puzzles, for example – yet the little plastic blighter will stay firmly entrenched in the back of your DS for the duration.

Apart from the main storyline, the game is fleshed-out by a number of side-quests, that can be undertaken firstly by visiting a sinister ursine creature called Dudbear who can set you up with missions, for a small fee, or by speaking to other characters in Mana Village who may have a task they need carrying out. The side-quests often have lavish rewards such as gems, weaponry or money, however they are exclusively limited to further unimaginative dungeon exploration. Ploughing through ten floors of Mana Tower just to earn some god forsaken sword or other begins to feel like slow, painful death after a while.

With fond memories of huddling around a multitap, the news that Children of Mana supports wireless multiplayer was a glimmer of hope in the darkness. But Squenix have had a right old shocker here too. It is restricted to local Wi-Fi, understandably perhaps, yet the only person who can save his or her progress at the end of a session is the host, meaning that the others have to go back to wherever they started with only their stats and items collected intact when they pick the game up again. The game cannot be saved during a co-op outing either, and only the host can obtain the important story-related items, such as the mega weapons that make killing the troublesome monsters so much easier. What it amounts to is a multiplayer that is about as enticing as electro-convulsive therapy, and one which disadvantages and alienates anyone who isn’t the host.

One can only hope that the forthcoming PS2 Seiken Densetsu games are better thought through than this one. Dungeon crawling is undoubtedly popular with some people, perhaps more so in Japan, as we have seen with recent Pokemon games. Children of Mana is ideal as a pick-up-and-play game, if you fancy a quick whizz through a monster-inhabited tower or two, maybe on the bus or train. But playing it at length feels like the most tedious, level grinding and repetitive waste of time, particularly when you consider that the DS has so much more to offer in terms of RPG actioners.