It's a pure-bred American, left-to-right idiom, but it works just as well in Japanese: "Don't futz with the Formula." Usually, this means that if you hit a winning combination in your products, you keep cranking out something comparable. Occasionally, it also means re-introducing a classic.

Final Fantasy III for the DS is essentially the same game that saw release in Japan over a decade ago, albeit polished and spiffed up for Nintendo's two-screened wonder. The plot is frankly typical "JPG" fare: Four orphaned young'uns are (seemingly) arbitrarily rounded up to fight against the forces of Darkness and bring order to a troubled high-fantasy world. It must be said up front: By today's narrative standards, Final Fantasy III is a polygonally-upgraded rebroadcast of Fantasy Clichés on Parade (good thing the core audience is sixteen years old). That said, some clichés last precisely because they're inherently good.

FFIII is a largely linear adventure, propped up by the old mechanical stand-bys of character "leveling," job classifications, careening stages of difficulty from one dungeon to another, and that staple/bane of role-playing games, "random combat" (the continual, random throwing into one's path of monsters, regardless of the player's intention or desire to confront adversaries in the field). As characters gain increased experience, their "Job" capabilities also increase; fighters can dole out more whoop-ass, magic-users can wield stronger spells, etc. Additional jobs come available throughout the game (20 in all), resulting in a wider range of team "combinations" for you to choose from.

You're given a fair range of choices for schlepping their adventures around the world, including boats, air ships, and the ever-popular Chocobo beasts of burden. Character outfits change based on their currently-assigned job, and while the characters themselves are in tune with the original designs, they're given new polygonal style and detail, as are all the other visuals -- not to mention the re-orchestration of the original music, and an impressive opening cinematic sequence as well.

There's a tangible split between players who actively care about the DS's stylus (and indeed, the lower touch-sensitive screen), and those who don't, but the scheme works well here for menu navigation -- if you're really old-school, you can button your way through just as effectively; the menu's aren't terribly well-suited for stubby human fingers at any rate. Even if the stylus still irks your "Classic RPG" sensibilities, you'll probably find yourself using it for moving your adventurers about, for lack of a proper "run" control.

New DS technical wingdings aside, Final Fantasy III is still -- and obviously -- an old-school RPG throwback, in both the good and dubious senses, ultimately worth it for the same reasons. There's an innocence and charm to the world and characters that's increasingly harder to come by in many of today's (arguably better-looking) games. The fact is, unless you've had some tight gaming-buds in Japan, or a hopelessly-geeky, Famicom-soaked past, you've likely not ever played the true third segment of the Final Fantasy saga anyway. Final Fantasy III for DS lets players put an engrossing, charming world in their pockets, charming age-spots and all.