Echoes of Time: A step forward for internet gaming on Nintendo platforms?

One of the main areas the Nintendo platforms are falling behind this generation is in the online department. The online scene has exploded in popularity since Last Gen and became a prominent feature of games and it seems Nintendo wasn't quite prepared for the community aspect that this brought along.

Nintendo has greatly limited themselves with their online features compared to the competitors. Both the 360 and PS3 support voice chat and messaging for one with only a few games having that feature on either Wii or DS. Another is the ability to play with friends, whilst PSN and Xbox Live make it streamlined and simple to add friends Nintendo opted for a theoretically safer, but ultimately more draconian and counterintuitive friend code system.

Now, in comes Echoes of Time, the most recent game in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles subseries for the DS and the Wii. This time, finally, the multiplayer-centric Crystal Chronicles was designed with online, cross-platform play in mind and thus the Pollux Engine came to be.

After playing Echoes of Time for the majority of today(27th March, UK release date) apart from being thoroughly addicted to the excellent multiplayer adventure I have a new understanding of just how limited the Nintendo online model is and how a community is important to a game.

Echoes of Time does some things right, but is still fledgling in the solution, and it's most likely not the first to have done these things. First of all, Friend Codes, they're still there, you can use them to add your real world(or internet) friends and go on an adventure with them, still inconvenient but not as limiting, however there is a useful ingame friend request function for the game. This means you can add strangers you meet in game! a fantastic feature.

Although lacking voice chat, or even a full messaging system there is a robust(which is further expanded for friends) phrase system in the game. This greatly improves on most other online Nintendo games where communication is minimal or nonexistent(such as with Mario Kart DS, one of my favourite games to go online with). The communication also helps build friendships and a community for the game, I was surprised the first time I went online(which was straight away) and a higher level hero dropped some equipment for me and told me take it, this wouldn't have been possible without the communication system and it really adds to the appeal of the game.

Another good thing about the game is the cross-platform play, it's pretty unique in that you can play with people on the other side of the world on a different system, whilst not just a benefit for the Nintendo platforms(it can be seen as a detriment to the Wii version) it says good things about online gaming in the future, it gives great opportunity to expand the amount of players, imagine the whole PC, PS3 and 360 user base duking it out on Modern Warfare 2. Epic right?

Anyway, my main point is that whilst Echoes of Time isn't perfect and neither is it's online system it's a step in the right direction. It proves there's a way of both utilising friend codes and making adding friends quick and easy and that communication is possible, even in a limited form. I hope in the future more games on the Nintendo platforms(specifically the DS) utilise and benefit from these features. Pretty much every online game on the Nintendo platforms could benefit from ingame friend requests.

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a rant but I'm very impressed with the Pollux engine(and the game itself). If you manage to actually read through what I wrote kudos to you.