Shooter Mode.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers starts off with a bang. The main character Layle is just sitting all chilled out on top of an airship, apparently a security guard. Seems the airship was a luxury cruise type, as people in the background were swimming and tanning. Sadly, their vacation ended quickly as the airship was attacked by an evil Yuke by the name of Goldenrod. Intent on stealing the airship's crystal, Goldenrod sends some wicked flying creatures to attack the ship, but Layle is not to be stopped that easily, jumping off a neighboring ship and falling toward the airliner. As he's falling, I was finally able to take control and began shooting at the flying enemies by pointing at the screen with the Wii Remote.

After a sad performance, I finally landed on the deck of the liner and a cutscene of Layle fighting with Goldenrod began. After the battle, which was eerily similar to any fight between The Matrix's Neo and Agent Smith, the airship minus its fuel, begins to fall out of the sky. As it heads into a canyon, I was given control again, this time to steer. Much to the dismay of anyone that ever has to ride with me in the future, I slammed into walls left and right. Thankfully, nothing caused the ship to break apart, despite my delight, as that would have ended the demo too quickly.

Toss People Around.

After that I got some more story and then headed into the city. It was the first time I was actually able to control Layle directly, and I took the opportunity to pick someone up and toss them around. I also started doing dodge rolls around the stage and slammed into a wall, knocking over people and statues, so apparently I'm quite strong. So after picking up people and giant rocks and tossing them around like dolls, I ventured off into another area only to have an item of mine stolen. I had to chase down a little ferret and get the item back. After that I was charged by guards and had to jump out a window, so I decided to pass the game off to someone else.

The controls of Crystal Bearers are hit and miss. There are some situations that are harder to target in than others and the accuracy is not perfect, but the build is still early, so it's not the final product yet. In the end, Crystal Bearers felt more like a Zelda game than any of the three prior Crystal Chronicles titles, but that might not really be a bad thing. This winter we should see if this game with its darker story and cheesy humor will really take off.