Fans of the Mana series have had it rough for the last decade or so. Square never saw fit to bring the Secret of Mana sequel out of Japan, and the other Mana games to come out afterwards met with lukewarm reviews at best. Square Enix hopes to change everyone’s opinion on the series with their new "World of Mana" games. Children of Mana is part of the series’ rebirth, and is headed to the DS. So far it plays better than any Mana game since the first SNES adventure.

The demo didn’t really do anything extraordinary in comparison to previous Mana games, but it seems to have its fundamentals down a lot stronger than the most recent Sword of Mana on the GBA. When the player strikes an enemy, they sometimes fly backwards into other enemies or objects, creating a chain of damage and destruction. This is something new to the series, and it worked really well. Walking felt solid for the most part, but moving diagonally felt slightly sluggish. Hopefully this will be corrected when the game is released.

The biggest complaint with Sword was the menu system and how all of the important things were buried so deep within it. Children of Mana maps the weapon selection to the R-button for easy access. It doesn’t sound like a huge change, but it makes the game play a lot smoother. Not having to dig through menus to change a weapon, which you sometimes absolutely need to do, is a huge plus.

Ferrik, Poppin, and Tambler were all playable in the demo, and each has their own magic to choose from. Otherwise they all play exactly the same. The A-button is used for attacking. You can hold two weapons at once -- tapping A will use one, and holding A then releasing will use the other. Each weapon has a different attack depending on whether it’s assigned to "hold A" or "tap A." Having this offensive versatility is extremely nice in a game where you need to switch weapons so frequently. X and Y are used for items, and B is used to cast spells. A super attack meter can be filled up and is released with the A-button when full. The main weapon types are a sword, flail, and bow and arrow.

The graphics were decent enough, but they didn’t really do anything spectacular. The DS is more capable than this game would have you believe, with no real lighting effects or anything like that. Maybe it’s because the opening video was so classy and well animated, but overall the visuals can be described as underwhelming.

The game won’t have the sprawling overworld of Secret of Mana, rather it will have a Diablo-esque dungeon crawling level set-up. Hopefully the four-player wireless co-op will add enough for Mana fans hungry for more adventure, but sadly the game won’t be playable over Nintendo’s WiFi service.

While the game isn’t doing as much to emulate Secret of Mana as some fans would have hoped, Children of Mana should at least fundamentally play like the best Mana game since the SNES classic when it comes out.